September 16, 2025

(Anchorage, AK) - Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox announced today that Alaska has joined an amicus brief to stop activists and courts engaged in climate lawfare.

The brief, led by West Virginia in the U.S. Supreme Court, joins with the U.S. Department of Justice in pushing back against against lawsuits that seek to punish energy producers for activities dating back to World War II-conduct that was federally directed, lawful, and essential to the war effort at the time. The states urge the Court to reverse a Fifth Circuit decision that wrongly confined the federal-officer removal statute and allowed Louisiana courts to press forward with these retroactive claims.

"These lawsuits are an attack on American energy dominance," said Attorney General Cox. "States like Alaska are on the front lines of producing the energy our nation needs, but climate lawfare threatens to sabotage that progress. By speaking together with the U.S. Department of Justice, we are taking another step to secure America's energy future and land a blow against these abusive suits."

The states' brief emphasizes that the Fifth Circuit misapplied the federal-officer removal statute. Energy companies were carrying out federally directed work-especially during wartime-when exploration, production, and refining were intimately connected to national defense. Those activities belong in federal court, not in state courts seeking to impose massive retroactive liability.

"This case shows the danger of letting state courts override national policy," Cox continued. "If one state can weaponize its courts to punish out-of-state actors for conduct that was lawful and federally endorsed at the time, then no industry is safe. The threat extends far beyond energy. This is about protecting the rule of law and preventing a dangerous precedent of endless retroactive liability."

West Virginia filed the brief together with Alaska, Iowa, Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma-each led by their Attorneys General and united in urging the Supreme Court to halt a destructive pattern of activist lawfare that threatens America's energy security today.

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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at [email protected] or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at [email protected] or (907) 269-6269.