Donald Trump’s justice department has asked a judge to shut down a Vermont law which holds major polluters financially responsible for climate damages.
In a brief filed on Monday in a federal court in Burlington, the administration said the policy was “unlawful on its face” and pushed the court to “end Vermont’s lawless experiment”.
“The Court should deny the motions to dismiss, grant the United States’ motion for summary judgment, declare the Superfund Act unconstitutional and unenforceable, and permanently enjoin Defendants from taking any actions to implement or enforce it,” Riley Walters, counsel to an acting assistant attorney general, wrote in the motion.
Passed in 2024, the Vermont policy – known as the Climate Superfund Act – requires major polluters to pay for their carbon emissions, which have warmed the planet and increased the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as the floods which wreaked $1bn in damage on the state last year. New York passed a similar measure in December.
“This law is about holding big oil accountable for a portion of the damage it has already brought to Vermont’s farms, businesses, homeowners and communities,” said Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, one of the organizations that helped to pass Vermont’s Climate Superfund law. “Vermont is well within its rights to protect its people in this way.”
The filing comes four months after the Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency sued Vermont and New York over the laws. In August, the state and two non-profits who were granted intervenor status, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice-president for law and policy at the Conservation Law Foundation, said her organization would “continue to defend the state’s climate superfund law meant to protect the wallets of Vermont’s families and businesses.
“Let’s be clear: this law is not a sweeping effort to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions, punish fossil fuel companies, or set federal policy on climate change,” she said. “This is Vermont using its legal right to raise revenue and protect the health, safety, and wellbeing of its residents from the ruinous, inescapable consequences of climate change.”
The motion is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to quash climate accountability efforts and environmental regulations. In an April executive order, Trump instructed the justice department to “stop the enforcement” of climate superfund policies.
In July, the administration proposed undoing the 2009 “endangerment finding”, which says planet-warming emissions endanger public health and should therefore be regulated under the Clean Air Act – the most audacious of more than 150 environmental rollbacks launched since Trump retook office in January.
Jamie Henn, director of the anti-fossil fuel non-profit Fossil Free Media, which backs the superfund laws, said Trump’s assault would not deter efforts to bring about financial accountability for global warming. Legislators in at least a dozen states are looking to introduce or reintroduce climate superfund bills in 2026, he said.
“The latest polling shows that 74% of voters, including a majority of Republicans, support making oil and gas companies pay their fair share for climate damages,” he said. “No wonder the Trump administration and their big oil donors see climate superfund laws as such a threat: these are popular, commonsense policies that will help cities, states and families offset the costs of extreme weather and other climate impacts.”
