California Attorney General Rob Bonta is pursuing multiple lawsuits against President Donald Trump's administration to block its efforts to dismantle climate regulations and expand fossil fuel operations. The Democrat has targeted the cancellation of offshore wind projects, the withholding of clean energy funding, and the elimination of key climate pollution rules.
The most significant battle could reach the Supreme Court, focused on the administration's attempt to undermine federal authority in regulating greenhouse gas emissions. "We are confident because we have the facts and the law on our side," Bonta said.
Bonta is leading a multistate lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency's move to revoke the "endangerment finding"—a 2007 determination that greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health and form the basis for federal climate regulations Trump is working to eliminate. The EPA this month revoked a rule limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
The Supreme Court's composition has shifted since it issued the 2007 *Massachusetts v. EPA* decision mandating the endangerment finding. Chief Justice John Roberts, who dissented in that case, now sits alongside Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas in the court's majority, joined by three Trump appointees.
Bonta has won past Supreme Court victories against the Trump administration, including cases over California's redistricting plan and federal National Guard deployment. He pointed to those wins as evidence the court won't consistently side with the administration.
The Trump administration has also moved to restart oil and gas development off California's coast and has paid offshore wind developers billions of dollars to abandon existing leases. Bonta filed suit Tuesday challenging the administration's handling of offshore wind projects.
Bonta also opposed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Proposed Program and rejected the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's analysis of environmental harms from oil and gas development as inadequate.
Trump has targeted California's power to impose stricter vehicle emission standards than federal limits. The Clean Air Act grants California waivers to set tougher restrictions, a policy crucial for the state's goal of banning new internal combustion engine vehicle sales by 2035.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin reclassified these waivers as a rule and sent them to Congress for nullification under the Congressional Review Act. A federal court has already ruled the reclassification illegal, though the EPA has appealed. Bonta maintains that a waiver is legally an order, not a rule, and therefore not subject to the Congressional Review Act.
Bonta characterized the administration's actions as "an ongoing love letter to the fossil fuel industry." He also sued the federal government over the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's seizure of jurisdiction over Sable Offshore Corp.'s oil pipelines.
