News & Analysis
May 6, 2026
The Trump administration is suing to block Minnesota’s climate deception lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute after a recent court decision moved the case into discovery. The action comes after federal courts rejected two previous attempts from the Trump administration to sue communities over their efforts to hold Big Oil accountable in court.
“This frivolous and meritless lawsuit is just [the defendants’] latest attempt to hide from accountability, and I will move to have it dismissed immediately,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. “The American people deserve a Department of Justice that fights for us, and it’s a tremendous shame that Trump’s DOJ would rather sell us out to Big Oil."
Minnesota sued Exxon, Koch, and API in 2020, charging the companies and trade association with lying to the public about the climate harms of fossil fuels in violation of state law. The fossil fuel defendants have attempted to block and delay Minnesota’s case for years, only for the suit to continue moving forward toward trial. Just last month, the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to hear the oil defendants’ appeal of a lower court ruling in favor of the state, sending Minnesota’s case into discovery.
Now, the Trump administration is suing Minnesota in an attempt to block the case. Minnesota’s case charges the oil industry with running a “campaign of deception” to mislead consumers about the science of climate change. In its filing, the DOJ lawsuit mischaracterizes the state’s lawsuit as an attempt to regulate emissions — a tactic Big Oil defendants have frequently used to attack climate cases from communities across the country. In a press release, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the Justice Department’s lawsuit aims to fight Minnesota’s “woke climate preferences.” Minnesota’s climate deception case seeks an end to the oil industry’s ongoing climate deception, financial restitution for the harms Minnesotans have suffered, and a court order requiring the defendants to fund a corrective public education campaign on the issue of climate change.
This latest intimidation lawsuit is the fifth time the Trump administration has sued communities over attempts to hold the oil industry accountable for its role in fueling the climate crisis. Last year, the DOJ sued Michigan and Hawaiʻi over the states’ planned climate accountability lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry, as well as Vermont and New York for the states’ climate superfund laws. Both Michigan and Hawaiʻi have since filed their lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry, and courts have dismissed the respective DOJ intimidation lawsuits. New York and Vermont are currently fighting the Trump administration’s lawsuits in court.
The Trump administration’s attacks on states’ efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable come in the wake of a meeting last year between Big Oil CEOs and the President, in which the executives asked the President to defend the oil industry against the growing wave of climate accountability lawsuits and laws. In addition to seeking protection from the Trump administration, fossil fuel companies have spent the past year lobbying Congress for legal immunity from laws and lawsuits that aim to hold them accountable for their role in the climate crisis. Just last month, Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Harriet Hageman introduced federal legislation that would put the oil industry above the law, blocking communities from holding the industry accountable for any climate-related wrongdoing, ever. The bills have been condemned by Congressional leaders and advocates alike.
“This is a desperate effort to shield the architects of Big Oil’s decades-long climate deception from facing accountability,” CCI President Richard Wiles said of the DOJ’s lawsuit against Minnesota. “Big Oil and the Trump administration are clearly terrified that Minnesota’s lawsuit will reveal exactly how these defendants defrauded the public about the dangers of fossil fuels. Federal courts dismissed the Trump administration’s last two attempts to stop states from taking Big Oil companies to court. This naked political intimidation tactic should meet the same fate.”
