Environmental groups urge opposition to big oil immunity bills

Environmental groups in Maine are urging the state’s congressional delegation to oppose bills that would shield big oil and gas companies from liability for climate damage.

During a Portland rally Thursday, organizers led a small group of delegates in chants and a march on representatives’ offices to deliver a petition to reject “Stop Climate Shakedowns” acts proposed in the U.S. Congress.

Jackson Chadwick with Maine Youth for Climate Justice said the pair of bills would grant fossil fuel companies from lawsuits seeking damages for climate harms such as more intense storms and flooding. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey filed a lawsuit against Exxon-Mobil and other companies in 2024.

“Many communities and states across the country have sued big oil for climate deception but also for direct harms to individual communities. These bills would seek to prevent communities and states from doing that,” Chadwick said.

The measures would also block state climate superfund laws intended to make major oil and gas companies pay for climate harms and fund ongoing resilience efforts.

Vermont and New York have passed climate superfund measures, while Maryland and Maine have taken the first step by enacting laws that require the calculation of damages from greenhouse gas pollution from burning oil and gas.

Joshua Caldwell with Natural Resources Council of Maine said the liability shield bills are a similar playbook used by tobacco, firearms and pharmaceutical companies to avoid responsibility for their products’ damage.

“They are trying to do so because they’ve put friends in power in the White House and in Congress to move forward initiatives like this,” Caldwell said.

Sens. Ted Crux, R-Texas; Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas; Ted Budd, R-North Carolina; and Mike Lee, R-Utah introduced the Stop Climate Shakedown bill this spring. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, introduced a similar measure in the House.

In a statement at the time, American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers and American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson said efforts to “retroactively penalize companies for lawfully meeting consumer demand are misguided and counter productive. Congress should act decisively to reaffirm federal authority over national energy policy and end this activist-driven state overreach.”