As far back as the 1970s, some of the world’s largest oil corporations were aware that burning their products could have potentially catastrophic consequences. But they withheld the evidence, carried out a decades-long campaign that misled the public about climate science and fought the transition to cleaner and cheaper energy sources.
Eventually scientists and activists took oil and gas companies to court to try to get them to pay for their deceptive campaign and the potentially trillions of dollars in damages from disasters made worse by a climate warmed by their products.
Now the fossil fuel industry has mounted a carefully orchestrated campaign to stop these cases. Backed by the Trump administration, the industry is seeking to block all climate lawsuits that seek compensation from fossil fuel producers for damages. Last month Utah became the first state to enact a law that shields companies from such climate-related claims, and Republican lawmakers have introduced similar bills in Iowa, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee. But the biggest prize the industry is after would come from Congress: total legal immunity from liability in climate cases.
Putting any industry above the law — especially one responsible for creating many of the greenhouse gas emissions that have helped fuel climate-related destruction of homes, businesses and whole communities — would be beyond dangerous. If Big Oil gets its wish, it would be an injustice with lasting and cascading harm.
The question of whether the industry can be held accountable for the damage from climate change is coming to a head in part because at the end of February — following the urging of the Trump administration and over 100 House Republicans — the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments about whether the industry can be sued under state law over its role in global warming. The industry has asked the court to dismiss a Colorado Supreme Court decision that allowed a lawsuit filed by Boulder and Boulder County to proceed. In that case, the city and county want Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy to pay for climate damage like that from the 2021 Marshall Fire, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes.
How the Supreme Court rules could have profound implications for dozens of other states and municipalities seeking similar recourse against oil companies. But the Supreme Court is not where the industry’s efforts to evade any accountability end. Oil and gas companies have also been lobbying Congress for a legal shield that would block communities from trying to hold them responsible for climate-linked damage. A Republican House member from Wyoming recently announced that she is working on legislation to establish such a shield.
More than a year ago, oil company executives reportedly asked President Trump to help them quash the rising number of climate lawsuits and “climate superfund” laws that state and local governments have advanced. The Trump administration responded by suing New York and Vermont to block enforcement of the nation’s first two climate superfund laws, and by suing Michigan and Hawaii to prevent them from bringing their own climate cases against Big Oil. A federal judge already dismissed the administration’s lawsuit against Michigan, and the states have moved forward with their cases undeterred.
States like New York, Rhode Island, Hawaii and California are also considering bills to make oil companies pay for climate change’s contribution to rising insurance costs. California is pressing forward with a lawsuit over its alleged role in plastics pollution. And the daughter of a woman killed in the 2021 heat dome in the Pacific Northwest filed the first-ever wrongful death lawsuit against oil companies linked to climate change.
A Supreme Court ruling in favor of the oil companies in the Boulder case will probably not make all of the legal threats against Big Oil go away. But a sweeping liability waiver from Congress could — and we’d all be worse off for it.
In addition to food, rent and housing, costs from climate disasters are growing at a frightening pace — now nearly $1 trillion a year by some estimates. And right now everyday Americans are the ones picking up the tab.
Governments are struggling with the growing costs of rebuilding communities and infrastructure like roads, water and sewer systems after extreme weather. Their budgets often can’t cover these costs and there is pressure to raise taxes and fees. Disaster costs are also making home insurance increasingly unavailable and unaffordable — a phenomenon I saw firsthand during my time as California’s insurance commissioner. Some politicians may pretend that climate change isn’t real, but insurance rates don’t lie. In some states, home insurance premiums are projected to continue to rise as insurers’ growing financial losses from previously unthinkable climate disasters get passed on to policyholders.
It is rare for Congress to grant liability waivers to entire industries, and it should be. The 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that has shielded gun manufacturers from nearly all legal accountability is now widely regarded as terrible public policy that has fueled gun-related deaths in this country. Yet Republican state attorneys general have proposed using that exact law as a model for protecting fossil fuel companies.
If Big Oil were to secure immunity from liability for climate damage, the public would keep paying for the costs of climate change, while the fossil fuel companies most responsible for them would continue to pay nothing.
As climate disasters mount, and the Trump administration slashes federal disaster response, the most important thing members of Congress can do is protect their constituents’ ability to make polluters pay.
Dave Jones is the director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley.
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