Overview
- The Justice Department filed a motion for summary judgment in U.S. District Court in Burlington seeking to declare Vermont’s 2024 Climate Superfund Act unconstitutional and to block its enforcement.
- The filing argues the statute usurps federal authority over greenhouse gas regulation, directly regulates conduct outside Vermont, and should be resolved without a trial.
- Government lawyers say the law could expose domestic and foreign energy companies to billions, or even trillions, of dollars in liability for past contributions to climate change.
- Vermont officials defend the measure as a revenue tool for climate adaptation that supports communities hit by repeated flooding, and the state and two nonprofits moved in August to dismiss the federal suit.
- The action follows Trump’s April executive order directing the DOJ to counter state climate liability measures, and parallels a federal challenge to New York’s similar law.