President Donald Trump continues dismantling climate policy with a move of questionable legality that benefits fossil fuels. States are sure to sue.
President Donald Trump continued dismantling U.S. climate policy this week when he directed the Justice Department to challenge state laws aimed at addressing the crisis — a campaign legal scholars called unconstitutional and climate activists said is sure to fail. The president, who has called climate change a "hoax," issued an executive order restricting state laws that he claimed have burdened fossil fuel companies and "threatened American energy dominance." His directive, signed Tuesday night, is the latest in a series of moves that have included undermining federal climate and environmental justice programs, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, and promising to expand oil and gas leases. It specifically mentions California, Vermont, and New York, three states that have been particularly assertive in pursuing climate action. The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify and report state laws that focus on climate change or promote environmental, social, and governance initiatives, and to halt any that "the attorney general determines to be illegal." That directive almost certainly includes the climate superfund laws that New York and Vermont recently passed. The statutes require fossil fuel companies to pay damages for their emissions, a move the executive order deems "extortion." The president's order also gives Bondi 60 days to prepare a report outlining state programs like carbon taxes and fees, along with those mentioning terms like "environmental justice" and "greenhouse gas emissions." To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How "These state laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my administration's objective to unleash American energy," the executive order reads. "They should not stand." Legal scholars, environmental advocates, and at least one governor have said Trump's effort to roll back state legislation is unconstitutional, and…