Big Oil Lobbying Congress For Immunity From Climate Lawsuits

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It will come as not surprise to any CleanTechnica reader that Big Oil — a catchall phrase that includes methane producers — is lobbying the US Congress to shield it from liability for destroying the environment. In an email to CleanTechnica, Mike Meno of the Center For Climate Integrity wrote, “Barely a week after a coalition of nonprofit groups called on Congressional Democrats to oppose efforts aimed at shielding the fossil fuel industry from legal liability, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today that oil and gas companies are actively lobbying for such protections in Congress. Big Oil CEOs directly raised concerns about the growing number of legal and legislative efforts against their companies with President Trump during a White House meeting on Wednesday, the Journal reports.”

Uh, oh. Hang onto your hats, people. The fossil fuel industry is begging to be let off the hook for their decades of lying and cheating. It worked for the gun industry and now it may work for the fossil fuel industry, too. If you think it is hypocritical to decry Big Government on one hand and then go sucking up to the government for absolution from your sins, congratulations, you are paying attention.

In a March 13 letter to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, 195 groups including Public Citizen, Earthjustice, Sunrise Movement, and the American Association of Justice pointed to past efforts from the fossil fuel industry to secure a liability waiver from Congress, as well as statements from President Trump, as reason to anticipate a new push to immunize polluters. Here is the full text of the letter:

Re: No Immunity for the Fossil Fuel Industry

Dear Leader Schumer and Leader Jeffries,

As we witness the new Trump administration work alongside powerful corporate interests to systemically assault environmental protections, the rule of law, and bedrock democratic principles, we write to urge Democratic members of the House and Senate to proactively and affirmatively reject any proposal that would shield fossil fuel companies from the growing number of legal and legislative efforts to hold them accountable for their role in the climate crisis.

Communities across the United States — from Los Angeles to Asheville, North Carolina — are struggling to protect residents and infrastructure from extreme weather events that are becoming more deadly and destructive as a result of pollution from fossil fuels. The biggest oil and gas companies that produce, market, and sell those fossil fuels have known for decades that their products posed a “potentially catastrophic” risk to the climate, but as a joint House-Senate committee investigation last year concluded, they have engaged in a long running and ongoing campaign to deceive the public, protect their profits, and delay our transition to cleaner and safer energy.

Now 1 in 4 people in the United States live in a state or local government that is taking ExxonMobil and other major fossil fuel companies to court to hold them accountable for this deception and make them pay for the damage their climate lies have caused. Separately, a growing number of state legislatures are considering so-called climate superfund laws, which would force the biggest privately owned climate polluters to help pay for the growing costs to protect public infrastructure from climate-fueled damages.

The fossil fuel industry has fiercely attacked these lawsuits and legislative efforts in court, but to date has not succeeded in its efforts to escape accountability. President Trump has vowed to quash lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry, and at least twice in recent history — once in 2017 and again in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — there have been documented efforts by oil companies and their allies to secure a blanket waiver of liability for their industry. In response to the latter effort, 60 Democratic House members urged leadership to categorically oppose efforts to “immunize polluters. Shielding the carbon polluters from legal accountability does not belong on our agenda,” they wrote then. That principled solidarity is even more important and urgent now.

We have reason to believe that the fossil fuel industry and its allies will use the chaos and overreach of the new Trump administration to attempt yet again to pass some form of liability waiver and shield themselves from facing consequences for their decades of pollution and deception. That effort — no matter what form it takes — must not be allowed to succeed. Our communities across the country are suffering grave threats to our public health, safety, and economic security as a result of Big Oil’s climate deception and pollution. Governments, residents, businesses, and others must have access to legal and legislative remedies in order to hold fossil fuel companies accountable, seek justice, and make polluters pay.

We know there are many important fights for justice and accountability that are taking place now and that will occur in the months and years that follow. But we, the undersigned organizations, respectfully urge you in the strongest possible terms to draw a line in the sand now — before fossil fuel industry allies divulge their specific plans — and unite your caucuses in firm opposition to any Congressional efforts to bail out climate polluters from facing legal and legislative consequences for their central role in the climate crisis.

Thank you for standing on the side of justice and accountability.

Climate activists have been quick to support the letter and its authors. “Democrats need to be on guard so that Big Oil’s congressional allies can’t sneak immunity into a bill without it meeting fierce and vocal resistance,” said Aaron Regunberg, director of Public Citizen’s climate accountability project. “No industry should be above the law — especially one whose criminal actions have fueled the greatest threat to human safety in history.” Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, added, “Big Oil companies know they face massive liability, and we know they’ll do everything they can to avoid facing the evidence of their climate deception in court. Now that the Supreme Court has repeatedly refused to bail out Big Oil, and lawsuits against the companies are getting closer to trial, members of Congress must not give the fossil fuel industry a ‘get out of jail free card’ for its fraudulent and destructive behavior.”

Cassidy DiPaola, the communications director for Make Polluters Pay, focused on the parallels between what Big Oil is trying to do and what the gun lobby did long ago. “The gun industry wrote this playbook years ago, and we’ve witnessed the tragic consequences when corporations secure legal shields from accountability. What’s at stake here isn’t just who pays for climate disasters — it’s whether our democracy allows powerful industries to simply rewrite the rules when justice catches up to them. The fossil fuel industry spent decades burying climate science while their products fueled the crisis. Now that the bill is coming due, they want taxpayers to cover their tab. Lawmakers must decisively reject any attempt by the fossil fuel industry to evade accountability and ensure both justice today and the right of future generations to hold polluters responsible for decades of deception.”

“For decades, the fossil fuel industry has known the health and climate harms of its actions. Instead of addressing them, they have tried everything to insulate themselves from the catastrophes they cause,” said Earthjustice Action Vice President of Policy and Legislation Raúl García. “That’s not how fairness works, and it’s not how the law works. Just like anyone else, they need to be held accountable for the harms they perpetrate on people and communities. The last thing they deserve is a liability shield, and we urge Congress to oppose and block any effort to help these companies evade accountability for their actions.”

This is more “heads we win, tails you lose” drivel from the fossil fuel industry. If you are not sickened and disgusted by this effort to get Congress to give oil and gas companies a Get Out Of Jail Free card, you might want to check to see if you have an actual conscience or sense of morality. We saw this coming from a Republican Party that has cravenly caved to every cockamamie idea put forth by the so-called president and the creators of the Project 2025 playbook. So, what can you do? As individuals, we can call, write, and text our elected officials. It isn’t likely to do much good, but it’s a start.

The real power we have is to wean ourselves off our dependence on fossil fuels. We can replace heat and air conditioning systems and water heaters with heat pumps, we can add solar panels to our homes, drive an electric car, make our homes more energy efficient, and grow our own fruits and vegetables. You might think such efforts are too small to make a difference, but if millions of people do this, the effect will be felt all the way from Assington, DC, to the Permian Basin.