"The Trump administration has declared litigation to hold oil companies responsible for climate change a threat to the American economy and has taken aggressive steps to fight it."
"Over the past decade, some three dozen states and local governments have sued the biggest oil companies in the world, arguing that the industry hid what it knew about the dangers of global warming.
The suits are considered a major threat to fossil fuel companies, potentially on the scale of the tobacco industry settlement a quarter-century ago that held cigarette makers financially responsible for the health consequences of smoking for generations of people.
Now the campaign to stop the oil lawsuits is heating up.
In recent weeks, President Trump declared the lawsuits a threat to the American economy, calling them “ideologically motivated” obstacles to his goal of energy dominance. The Justice Department took the aggressive step of pre-emptively suing two states to try to prevent them from even filing lawsuits like these.
Environmentalists are growing concerned that the industry will rehash past efforts to lobby for a federal immunity provision, similar to the 2005 shield law that protects gun makers from liability when their weapons are used in crimes."
Karen Zraick reports for the New York Times May 14, 2025.
SEE ALSO:
"Why The Courts Could Blunt Trump’s Assault On State Climate Action" (E&E News)
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