FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 13, 2025) – Attorney General Russell Coleman announced today he’s working with the Trump Administration to protect Kentucky energy producers from ideologically driven assaults from other states.
General Coleman joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general in a letter to United States Attorney General Pam Bondi describing new ways energy-producing states and the Trump Administration can collaborate to promote affordable and reliable energy for consumers.
“Even as President Trump unwinds the damage from the last four years, New York and other states are attempting to continue the nonsensical green agenda,” said Attorney General Russell Coleman. “Republican AGs won’t allow these states to fine energy producers out of business, and we are grateful to have partners in Washington to protect Kentucky’s affordable and reliable energy.”
The coalition suggests multiple additional steps to protect Kentucky energy jobs. The suggestions include: preempting state laws that attempt to punish companies for climate change or out-of-state emissions; withholding funding from states that implement such regulations; creating a pathway to federal courts for cases litigating these laws; shielding energy producers from liability under these laws; urging the Supreme Court to take more energy cases; streamlining energy facility permitting; extending grants to more types of energy producers; and continuing to deregulate domestic energy production.
Kentucky joined Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming on the West Virginia and Nebraska led letter, which can be read here.
Background: Earlier this year, Attorney General Coleman joined a 22-state coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging New York’s Climate Superfund Act. New York’s law could impose $75 billion of liability on energy producers that use fossil fuels by requiring them to pay into that state’s “climate Superfund” based on past greenhouse gas emissions from 2000-2018. The action would be devasting to traditional energy producers, including coal producers in Kentucky, leaving them with no other option than to cease operations, resulting in massive job losses.
And last month, Attorney General Coleman joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general in challenging Vermont’s Climate Superfund Act, which would punish a small group of domestic energy producers for global greenhouse gas emissions from all sources from 1995 to 2024. Vermont’s law has no cap, so the fines levied against decades of past, legal energy production could be in the billions. Read the complaint here.
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