GOP bill would bar state and local climate lawsuits, reaffirm federal control over emissions
Republican lawmakers moved to curb a growing wave of climate liability cases, introducing the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act this month to bar state and local governments from suing fossil fuel-based energy producers over greenhouse gas emissions and to assert federal authority over regulating those emissions.
The proposal was introduced in the House by Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., and has Senate sponsors including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex.
The bill would prohibit retroactive climate liability lawsuits, dismiss pending cases and proceedings like those in Honolulu and Boulder, 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 Hageman.
Similar measures protecting energy producers from climate-related lawsuits have already passed in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah, and a version has been introduced in Louisiana.
Meanwhile, cities, counties and states across the country have filed suits against a handful of energy-producing companies under nuisance, 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. These cases have been filed almost exclusively in state courts, and some have been dismissed, Jonathan Adler, a professor at the William & Mary Law School, noted during the webinar.
One case brought against Chevron by the City and County of Honolulu and the Honolulu Water Supply Board is currently before the Hawaii Court of Appeals. And 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.” Boulder County, which has argued since 2018 that its case belongs in local court, has framed the matter as a question of fairness.
“Boulder is already experiencing the effects of a rapidly warming climate, and the financial burden of adaptation should not fall solely on local taxpayers,” Boulder Climate Initiatives Director Jonathan Koehn said in a statement, adding that officials are hopeful the Supreme Court will not hamstring their right under Colorado law to seek resources to build “a safer, more resilient future.” In a joint statement thanking Hageman and Cruz, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute said a “growing patchwork of state laws and lawsuits that threaten American energy and risk raising costs for consumers” is retroactively penalizing companies “for lawfully meeting consumer demand.” They urged Congress to “act decisively to reaffirm federal authority over national energy policy and end this activist-driven state overreach.” As the Supreme Court weighs the scope of federal preemption and Republicans press their bill, the future of state and local climate lawsuits remains contested.