Dive Brief:
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Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced a bill this month to prohibit lawsuits against fossil fuel-based energy producers because of their greenhouse gas emissions and preempt any states’ attempts to regulate such emissions.
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Bills similar to the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act that would protect energy producers from lawsuits over their emissions’ role in climate change have passed in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah, and one has been introduced in Louisiana.
- If enacted, the bill would halt at least 20 lawsuits states and municipal governments have filed to hold oil and gas companies responsible for contributing to climate change. It would also void climate “Superfund” laws, like those New York and Vermont have passed, that require companies that have contributed to greenhouse gas buildup to help pay for infrastructure investments to adapt to climate change.
Dive Insight:
Cities, counties and states across the country have brought lawsuits against a handful of energy-producing companies based on nuisance and other consumer-protection and deceptive practices laws, Annie Donaldson Talley, a partner at law firm Luther Strange and Associates, said during a recent Federalist Society webinar.
“The main thrust of all of them is that the fossil fuel-based energy companies have caused global warming that harms communities and have sold lots and lots of oil and fossil fuels over the years,” she said.
The suits have been filed almost exclusively in state courts, and some have been dismissed, Jonathan Adler, a professor at the William & Mary Law School, said during the webinar.
A case brought against Chevron by the City and County of Honolulu and the Honolulu Water Supply Board is currently in the Hawaii Court of Appeals.
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil’s petition seeking review of a Colorado Supreme Court opinion allowing the City and County of Boulder to proceed with a lawsuit claiming the companies are liable for climate change injuries in their jurisdiction. The case, Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, asks the high court to consider “whether federal law precludes state-law claims seeking relief for injuries allegedly caused by the effects of interstate and international greenhouse-gas emissions on the global climate.”
In a legal fight that has been ongoing since 2018, Boulder County has argued that the case belongs in local court.
“Our case is, fundamentally, about fairness,” Boulder Climate Initiatives Director Jonathan Koehn said in a statement. “Boulder is already experiencing the effects of a rapidly warming climate, and the financial burden of adaptation should not fall solely on local taxpayers. We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will not hamstring our right under Colorado law to seek the resources needed to build a safer, more resilient future.”
The Stop Climate Shakedowns Act would prohibit retroactive climate liability lawsuits, dismiss pending lawsuits and proceedings like Honolulu’s and Boulder’s, void state energy penalty laws and affirm that the federal government “maintains the exclusive authority and jurisdiction to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and other interstate environmental standards,” according to a press release from Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., who introduced the bill in the House.
In a joint statement thanking Hageman and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., one of the bill’s sponsors in the Senate, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and American Petroleum Institute said the “growing patchwork of state laws and lawsuits that threaten American energy and risk raising costs for consumers” are retroactively penalizing companies “for lawfully meeting consumer demand.”
“Congress should act decisively to reaffirm federal authority over national energy policy and end this activist-driven state overreach,” they said.
