West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey
CHARLESTON – This week, October 5-9, is Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week. It serves as a reminder that the misuse of our courts continues to impact small businesses and consumers throughout the state.
As West Virginia Attorney General, I have seen that some of the most consequential abuses of the legal system occur in America and in other state capitals. For too long, West Virginia has been paying the price.
In 2024, Vermont and New York passed laws that could force energy producers to pay billions of dollars for energy produced years ago. Other cities and states are trying to do the same thing through climate lawsuits.
States that relied on coal, oil and natural gas for decades now are using the courts to go after the people and companies that lawfully produced that energy. They can’t have it both ways. They can’t use our resources to keep its lights on, businesses running, and homes heated and then turn around and make us pay the price.
Here in West Virginia, we know who ultimately feels that burden. It is our coal miners and gas workers, the families who depend on those jobs, and the small businesses that depend on a strong energy industry. These lawsuits may start in other states, but their impact can reach communities right here at home.
I was not willing to allow that happen without a fight.
In February 2025, I led a coalition of 22 states in a federal lawsuit challenging New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act. We were joined by the West Virginia Coal Association, the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, and Alpha Metallurgical Resources. A few months later, I led 24 AGs in challenging Vermont’s version of the same idea, which I called, then and still call now, a shakedown of the companies that built America.
We won. On August 31, a federal judge agreed with us and ruled that New York did not have the authority to impose its superfund law. New York’s $75 billion scheme is now effectively on hold while the legal fight continues. We anticipate a similar outcome in Vermont.
And on Monday, the first day of Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Suncor Energy v. Boulder County. My office co-led a 26-state amicus brief against Colorado because state, county or municipal governments cannot weaponize their radical environmental laws to enrich their treasuries to the detriment of the nation. The court’s decision could have major consequences for local governments’ ability to continue using state courts to pursue these climate lawsuits.
When energy producers are hit with retroactive penalties for lawful conduct, the damage does not stop at the mine portal or the well pad. It ripples out to the trucking companies, machine shops, equipment suppliers and diners that depend on a healthy energy economy. Those are small businesses. They do not have in-house legal teams or deep reserves, and they are exactly the employers who can least afford the uncertainty this kind of litigation creates. It also shows up in what every family pays to heat and power their homes.
West Virginia has worked hard to restore fairness and balance to its own civil justice system. We will not stand by while other states try to export their political agenda through our courts and into our paychecks.
West Virginians deserve a legal system where the rules are fair, the outcomes are predictable, and everyone gets a fair shake. That is what Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week is about, and it is why my office will keep fighting, in every courtroom it takes, to protect the energy producers and working families of this state.
McCuskey is West Virginia’s Attorney General.
