It was only two years ago that California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta stood shoulder to shoulder at New York Climate Week, unveiling California’s sweeping climate lawsuit against oil and gas majors. [emphasis, links added]
At the time, climate lawfare activists hailed the 2023 suit as a seminal attack on the American energy industry, but the case has since meandered along for over two years with little to show for the fanfare.
Fast forward to Climate Week NYC 2025, and the two officials are taking wildly different approaches to climate and energy policy, with the shift in rhetoric at this year’s gathering glaring.
In-State Disconnect: Bonta Pledges More Lawfare at Climate Week
After years of vilifying the energy industry at previous Climate Week gatherings, Newsom had little to say about climate litigation this year.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, Newsom is scrambling to keep refineries open as the state stares down an impending gasoline supply crisis.
With Phillips 66 and Valero announcing plans to shut down over the next year, this month, Newsom signed off on Kern County drilling permits and other concessions to stabilize gasoline supplies.
Attorney General Rob Bonta, meanwhile, is clearly taking a different path:
With @janefonda discussing climate justice, the law, and how everyone has a role to play in this fight.
We’re committed to using every tool in our arsenal to protect our planet and uphold the law. #ClimateWeekNYC pic.twitter.com/xebgMJR9qS
— Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) September 23, 2025
At Climate Week, Bonta continued to promote California’s frivolous climate case with activist Jane Fonda, and told Reuters that his office is “looking at the possibility of another lawsuit” over plastic recycling, on top of the case his office filed last year.
Bonta appears undeterred by climate litigation’s losing campaign. He remains full steam ahead with his own lawsuit, despite a string of dismissals in New Jersey, New York City, Annapolis and Anne Arundel, Maryland, and most recently Charleston.
Bonta also tried to downplay his office’s aggressive use of lawfare against his political targets, telling a group of Columbia University law students he was unsure of what “lawfare” actually is:
“Sometimes people will ask do you feel like you’re successful with these lawsuits, sometimes people will call it ‘lawfare’ – I don’t even know what that is. We bring lawsuits when the law has been broken. It’s simple.”
Bonta’s dismissiveness and refusal to confront reality only underscore the point: far-fetched lawsuits based on speculative legal theories that are doomed in court, like the climate case, are less about the law and more about politics.
If Newsom seriously has any designs on lowering energy costs and making California “open for business,” it doesn’t sound like his AG got the memo.
6 days apart. Gov. Newsom, call your AG Rob Bonta.
WSJ: “California Wants to Halt Oil Industry Exodus After Years of Climate Focus
Policymakers are trying to stave off a potential fuel-supply crunch while refineries look to close”
Reuters: “California AG pledges more… pic.twitter.com/bEF2InhONq
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 25, 2025
Lawfare Activist Hypocrisy
And the hypocrisy isn’t limited to the politicians like Newsom and Bonta.
In California this month, groups like the Rockefeller-funded Union of Concerned Scientists lobbied regulators to force refiners to maintain higher reserves to prevent gasoline price spikes – a policy that would, ironically, increase gas prices for consumers.
However, in New York, those same groups participated in a panel that actively vilified the industry and demanded ever more lawsuits.
It seems that when prices rise and the state faces a gasoline supply crisis, lawfare activists want refineries to stockpile even more of the products they claim are responsible for climate damages.
However, when the cameras are rolling, they continue to call for even more frivolous cases.
It’s a double standard that makes it difficult to conclude the state is making any meaningful changes to policies that have made California “uninvestable” for energy producers.
Bottom Line
Two years after Newsom and Bonta jointly launched their headline-grabbing climate lawsuit, the governor is quietly backtracking while his AG is loudly doubling down.
It’s leaving Californians to foot the bill — higher prices, shrinking supply, and a state that still can’t reconcile its dependence on an industry it insists on attacking in court.
Top image of Attorney General Rob Bonta via Reuters/YouTube screencap
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