Big Oil Lobbying Congress For Immunity From Climate Lawsuits

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It is going to come as not shock to any CleanTechnica reader that Huge Oil — a catchall phrase that features methane producers — is lobbying the US Congress to protect it from legal responsibility for destroying the atmosphere. In an e mail to CleanTechnicaMike Meno of the Center For Climate Integrity wrote, “Barely a week after a coalition of nonprofit groups called on Congressional Democrats to oppose efforts aimed at shielding the fossil fuel industry from legal liability, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today that oil and gas companies are actively lobbying for such protections in Congress. Big Oil CEOs directly raised concerns about the growing number of legal and legislative efforts against their companies with President Trump during a White House meeting on Wednesday, the Journal reports.”

Uh, oh. Cling onto your hats, individuals. The fossil gasoline business is begging to be let off the hook for his or her many years of mendacity and dishonest. It labored for the gun business and now it could work for the fossil gasoline business, too. Should you suppose it’s hypocritical to decry Huge Authorities on one hand after which go sucking as much as the federal government for absolution out of your sins, congratulations, you are paying consideration.

In a March 13 letter to Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer and Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries, 195 teams together with Public Citizen, Earthjustice, Dawn Motion, and the American Affiliation of Justice pointed to previous efforts from the fossil gasoline business to safe a legal responsibility waiver from Congress, in addition to statements from President Trump, as motive to anticipate a brand new push to immunize polluters. Right here is the complete textual content of the letter:

Re: No Immunity for the Fossil Gas Business

Expensive Chief Schumer and Chief Jeffries,

As we witness the brand new Trump administration work alongside highly effective company pursuits to systemically assault environmental protections, the rule of regulation, and bedrock democratic ideas, we write to induce Democratic members of the Home and Senate to proactively and affirmatively reject any proposal that will protect fossil gasoline corporations from the rising variety of authorized and legislative efforts to carry them accountable for his or her function within the local weather disaster.

Communities throughout the USA — from Los Angeles to Asheville, North Carolina — are struggling to guard residents and infrastructure from excessive climate occasions which can be turning into extra lethal and damaging because of air pollution from fossil fuels. The most important oil and fuel corporations that produce, market, and promote these fossil fuels have recognized for many years that their merchandise posed a “potentially catastrophic” threat to the local weather, however as a joint Home-Senate committee investigation final 12 months concluded, they’ve engaged in a protracted working and ongoing marketing campaign to deceive the general public, defend their earnings, and delay our transition to cleaner and safer vitality.

Now 1 in 4 individuals in the USA dwell in a state or native authorities that’s taking ExxonMobil and different main fossil gasoline corporations to courtroom to carry them accountable for this deception and make them pay for the harm their local weather lies have brought on. Individually, a rising variety of state legislatures are contemplating so-called local weather superfund legal guidelines, which might pressure the largest privately owned local weather polluters to assist pay for the rising prices to guard public infrastructure from climate-fueled damages.

The fossil gasoline business has fiercely attacked these lawsuits and legislative efforts in courtroom, however to this point has not succeeded in its efforts to flee accountability. President Trump has vowed to quash lawsuits towards the fossil gasoline business, and a minimum of twice in latest historical past — as soon as in 2017 and once more in 2020, through the top of the COVID-19 pandemic — there have been documented efforts by oil corporations and their allies to safe a blanket waiver of legal responsibility for his or her business. In response to the latter effort, 60 Democratic Home members urged management to categorically oppose efforts to “immunize polluters. Shielding the carbon polluters from legal accountability does not belong on our agenda,” they wrote then. That principled solidarity is much more vital and pressing now.

Now we have motive to consider that the fossil gasoline business and its allies will use the chaos and overreach of the brand new Trump administration to aim but once more to go some type of legal responsibility waiver and protect themselves from dealing with penalties for his or her many years of air pollution and deception. That effort — it doesn’t matter what kind it takes — should not be allowed to succeed. Our communities throughout the nation are struggling grave threats to our public well being, security, and financial safety because of Huge Oil’s local weather deception and air pollution. Governments, residents, companies, and others will need to have entry to authorized and legislative cures to be able to maintain fossil gasoline corporations accountable, search justice, and make polluters pay.

We all know there are lots of vital fights for justice and accountability which can be happening now and that can happen within the months and years that observe. However we, the undersigned organizations, respectfully urge you within the strongest doable phrases to attract a line within the sand now — earlier than fossil gasoline business allies disclose their particular plans — and unite your caucuses in agency opposition to any Congressional efforts to bail out local weather polluters from dealing with authorized and legislative penalties for his or her central function within the local weather disaster.

Thanks for standing on the facet of justice and accountability.

Local weather activists have been fast to help the letter and its authors. “Democrats need to be on guard so that Big Oil’s congressional allies can’t sneak immunity into a bill without it meeting fierce and vocal resistance,” stated Aaron Regunberg, director of Public Citizen’s local weather accountability challenge. “No industry should be above the law — especially one whose criminal actions have fueled the greatest threat to human safety in history.” Richard Wiles, president of the Heart for Local weather Integrity, added, “Big Oil companies know they face massive liabilityand we know they’ll do everything they can to avoid facing the evidence of their climate deception in court. Now that the Supreme Court has repeatedly refused to bail out Big Oil, and lawsuits against the companies are getting closer to trial, members of Congress must not give the fossil fuel industry a ‘get out of jail free card’ for its fraudulent and destructive behavior.”

Cassidy DiPaola, the communications director for Make Polluters Pay, targeted on the parallels between what Huge Oil is attempting to do and what the gun foyer did way back. “The gun industry wrote this playbook years ago, and we’ve witnessed the tragic consequences when corporations secure legal shields from accountability. What’s at stake here isn’t just who pays for climate disasters — it’s whether our democracy allows powerful industries to simply rewrite the rules when justice catches up to them. The fossil fuel industry spent decades burying climate science while their products fueled the crisis. Now that the bill is coming due, they want taxpayers to cover their tab. Lawmakers must decisively reject any attempt by the fossil fuel industry to evade accountability and ensure both justice today and the right of future generations to hold polluters responsible for decades of deception.”

“For decades, the fossil fuel industry has known the health and climate harms of its actions. Instead of addressing them, they have tried everything to insulate themselves from the catastrophes they cause,” stated Earthjustice Motion Vice President of Coverage and Laws Raúl García. “That’s not how fairness works, and it’s not how the law works. Just like anyone else, they need to be held accountable for the harms they perpetrate on people and communities. The last thing they deserve is a liability shield, and we urge Congress to oppose and block any effort to help these companies evade accountability for their actions.”

That is extra “heads we win, tails you lose” drivel from the fossil gasoline business. If you’re not sickened and disgusted by this effort to get Congress to present oil and fuel corporations a Get Out Of Jail Free card, you would possibly wish to verify to see if in case you have an precise conscience or sense of morality. We noticed this coming from a Republican Occasion that has cravenly caved to each cockamamie thought put forth by the so-called president and the creators of the Challenge 2025 playbook. So, what are you able to do? As people, we are able to name, write, and textual content our elected officers. It isn’t prone to do a lot good, however it’s a begin.

The true energy we now have is to wean ourselves off our dependence on fossil fuels. We are able to change warmth and air con techniques and water heaters with warmth pumps, we are able to add photo voltaic panels to our properties, drive an electrical automobile, make our properties extra vitality environment friendly, and develop our personal fruit and veggies. You would possibly suppose such efforts are too small to make a distinction, but when tens of millions of individuals do that, the impact can be felt all the way in which from Assington, DC, to the Permian Basin.