Ten Democratic governors, including California's Gavin Newsom and Minnesota's Tim Walz, are urging Congress to reject legislation that would shield oil and gas companies from climate-related lawsuits filed by state and local governments. The Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026 was introduced in April by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.
The governors argue the bill would protect energy companies at taxpayers' expense while communities face mounting costs from climate-related disasters. More than 20 Democratic attorneys general joined the effort, sending a separate letter to Congress opposing the measure.
What the Right Is Saying
Republicans argue the bill protects American energy producers from what they characterize as costly litigation that could bankrupt the industry, lead to job losses and increase electricity and gasoline prices for consumers. Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, said the effort represents 'a coordinated legal campaign to bankrupt lawful American energy producers through junk litigation.'
'These companies legally produced the energy that heats and cools homes, powers hospitals, and fuels the American economy — and now a coalition of activist attorneys general and climate advocacy groups want to make them pay retroactively for doing exactly that,' Isaac told Fox News Digital. More than 70 House Republicans have urged the Supreme Court to reject similar lawsuits, calling them 'a costly war on American energy.'
What the Left Is Saying
In their letter, the 10 Democratic governors wrote that communities across the nation have suffered 'staggering costs from fires, floods, storms, and heat waves' linked to fossil fuel consumption. 'Communities all across our nation, in red states and blue states, have suffered and face staggering costs from fires, floods, storms, and heat waves that, according to scientists, are becoming more destructive as a result of the burning of fossil fuels,' the governors stated.
The attorneys general argued that litigation involving climate science is growing in prevalence. 'Such a guide is sorely needed as litigation involving climate science only grows in prevalence and urgency in our courts. Furthermore, the chapter's removal does not change the scientific reality of climate change,' they wrote. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been particularly vocal, previously writing on X that oil companies 'knew about the catastrophic consequences of fossil fuels. They covered it up. Suppressed scientific data. Spent millions to cast doubts on climate science. Time for them to pay.'
What the Numbers Show
The Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026 would affect more than a dozen pending climate-related lawsuits against oil and gas companies filed by state and local governments. California sued several major oil companies in 2023 seeking damages for alleged climate impacts, with that litigation still ongoing. The Supreme Court is set to hear a case this fall involving ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy brought by officials in Boulder, Colorado, who sued the companies in 2018 alleging they contributed to climate change and misled the public about its risks.
Alliance for Consumers Executive Director O.H. Skinner said the legislation targets what he called 'climate lawfare.' Michael Toth, research director at Civitas Institute, argued that such litigation represents 'a thinly-veiled effort to impose a global carbon tax through the courts' that could 'hijack the federal government's authority over matters that bear directly on our national security.'
The Bottom Line
The legislation faces an uncertain path in Congress. The letters from Democratic governors and attorneys general represent a coordinated pushback against what Republicans describe as efforts to protect American energy producers from costly litigation. A Supreme Court ruling in the Boulder case could set precedent for whether federal law preempts state courts from hearing climate damage claims, potentially affecting the broader landscape of such lawsuits.