California is suing six of the world's largest automakers over global warming.
It is charging that greenhouse gases from the companies' vehicles have caused billions of dollars in damages.
The legal action is the first of its kind to seek to hold manufacturers liable for the damages caused by their vehicles' emissions, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer said.
It comes less than a month after California lawmakers adopted the nation's first global warming law mandating a cut in greenhouse gas emissions.
California has also targeted the car industry with first-in-the-nation rules adopted in 2004 requiring carmakers to force cuts in exhaust emissions from cars and trucks.
But car makers have so far blocked those rules with their own legal action.
According to David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit organisation, California's legal action represents a way for the state to pressure car manufacturers to accept the emissions rules.
"They [the state] want to get the automakers basically to bow down and pay homage to the [emissions] law."
The complaint, which an auto industry trade group called a "nuisance" suit, names General Motors, Ford, Toyota, the US arm of Germany's DaimlerChrysler and the North American units of Japan's Honda and Nissan companies.
Mr Lockyer said he would seek "tens or hundreds of millions of dollars" from the automakers in the lawsuit filed in US District Court in Northern California.
Environmental groups hailed the lawsuit, saying it represented another weapon for the state as it seeks to curb greenhouse gas emissions and pressurise the auto industry to build vehicles that pollute less.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said the lawsuit was similar to one a New York court dismissed that is now on appeal.