New Law Aims to Protect Energy Industry from Climate Suits

New Legislation Aims to Block Climate Lawsuits Against Energy Companies

Representative Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) has introduced new legislation aimed at stopping a growing number of climate-related lawsuits targeting energy companies. The proposed bill, known as the “Stop Climate Shakedown Act,” is designed to prevent states and local communities from seeking damages related to what she calls “so-called” climate change.

“You’ve got states and local communities who are trying to tax our energy companies out of existence. So I’ve got the Stop Climate Shakedown Act, the very purpose of which is just to block these types of lawsuits from going forward,” Hageman explained during an appearance on the Just the News, No Noise TV show.

The legislation was introduced on April 17 and aims to protect American energy producers from legal actions by state legislators and environmentalists. According to the release, the bill’s goal is to “protect American energy from leftist legal crusades punishing lawful activity.” It would shield energy companies from fines and lawsuits by blocking retroactive legal actions.

Key Provisions of the Bill

The bill includes several key provisions:

• Prohibition of Retroactive Lawsuits: The legislation would stop states and localities from filing lawsuits based on past emissions or climate-related harms.
• Dismissal of Pending Lawsuits: Any ongoing legal cases related to climate change would be dismissed once the bill is enacted.
• Voiding State Energy Penalty Laws: The bill would invalidate state laws that impose penalties on energy companies for past emissions.
• Federal Authority Over Environmental Standards: It would affirm the federal government as the sole authority to regulate interstate environmental standards.

Hageman argued that current climate lawsuits are “ex post facto laws,” meaning they punish actions that were legal at the time they were taken. She claimed that energy, oil, and coal companies have already received all necessary permits to operate, both at the state and federal levels.

Legal Cases and Supreme Court Involvement

One notable case involves Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, where the City and County of Boulder are seeking damages from energy companies for climate-related harms. In February 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to review a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that allowed the climate accountability lawsuit against oil companies ExxonMobil and Suncor to proceed.

The Supreme Court will now consider the oil companies’ petition for immunity, arguing that federal law shields them from state-level accountability. Hageman said her bill would prevent such lawsuits from being filed in the future.

“The bill would make it so that those kinds of lawsuits cannot be filed. We would prevent the states and the communities from being able to do a climate shakedown,” she stated.

Disputing Climate Science and UN Reports

Hageman also criticized the United Nations’ climate reports, claiming that much of their modeling and predictions had been “debunked years ago.” She referenced a 2021 UN report and President Trump’s comments on Truth Social, where he claimed that the UN’s top climate committee admitted its projections were “wrong.”

The Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP8.5) is a hypothetical emissions scenario developed in 2011 for climate modeling experiments. It predicted that large areas of the Middle East, South Asia, and Central Africa would become unlivable without continuous air conditioning due to a global expansion of coal usage. However, the international scientific community now considers RCP8.5 “implausible” based on trends in renewable energy costs.

Despite this, many scientists maintain that climate change remains a significant risk even under less extreme scenarios. Hageman, however, dismissed the link between climate change and extreme weather events, instead attributing them to the “cyclical nature of weather.”

She pointed to heat waves in Europe, which many climate scientists argue would not be possible without climate change. “They have it every year. It’s called summer,” she said. “Some years are hotter than others, and some years are colder than others, but that’s just the cyclical nature of weather.”

Criticism of Environmental Policies

Hageman also accused radical environmental policies of causing Americans to “suffer.” She claimed that the lawsuits being filed are part of an effort to push a “radical environmental agenda.”

“They’re bringing these lawsuits because they want Americans to suffer, if not as much, maybe perhaps even more, so that they can pursue their radical environmental agenda. My bill would stop that,” she said.

Conclusion

The introduction of the “Stop Climate Shakedown Act” highlights the ongoing debate over the role of energy companies in addressing climate change. While Hageman argues that the bill protects energy producers from unfair legal actions, critics see it as an attempt to undermine efforts to hold corporations accountable for their environmental impact. As the Supreme Court continues to review key climate-related cases, the outcome of this legislation could have far-reaching implications for the future of climate litigation in the United States.