{"id":441504,"date":"2026-04-26T11:34:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T18:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=441504"},"modified":"2026-04-26T11:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T18:34:31","slug":"climate-shakedown-lawsuits-threaten-u-s-energy-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=441504","title":{"rendered":"Climate shakedown lawsuits threaten U.S. energy dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dollars and law hammer. Break the corruption chain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Propelled by the shale revolution in which human ingenuity (fracking) has made beneficial use of favorable geology, the United States is now the world\u2019s leading producer of crude oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China can produce all the solar panels and raw materials for wind turbines and EV batteries it wishes, but Beijing\u2019s bet that it can hook the world on green energy is no match for America\u2019s fossil-fuel dominance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But instead of celebrating the nation\u2019s good fortune, a ravenous pack of city, county, and state governments wants to shake down America\u2019s oil and gas producers for their alleged role in what are said to be the damages caused by climate change. Vermont and New York have already passed<\/a> \u201cclimate superfund\u201d laws, while legislatures in at least nine other states, including California, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minesota, New Jersey, Orgon, Rhode Island, and Virginia are considering similar proposals. Meanwhile, Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Boulder County, Colorado, and Multnomah County, Oregon have filed lawsuits citing the costs of protecting urban infrastructure from the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sums at stake are astronomical, with Oregon\u2019s Multnomah County (surrounding Portland) demanding a $51.55 billion abatement fund, the largest single damage request to date. \u201cRelying on a novel public nuisance theory, climate change cases seek compensatory damages, a relief fund to pay for future damages, and abatements to stop fossil fuel companies from emitting carbon gases,\u201d an April 2026 report<\/a> by Ohio\u2019s Buckeye Institute notes. \u201cThe requested damages already run into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and such damages will inflict extraordinary financial and social impact if the plaintiffs prevail and other jurisdictions follow their lead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate lawsuits typically begin by redefining traditional public nuisance doctrine, with its narrow focus on \u201cspecial injury\u201d suffered by a private party at the local, even neighborhood, level and applying it to global greenhouse-gas emissions. \u201cClimate change plaintiffs must establish that the harms they have alleged were incurred as a result of climate change and were caused by defendant fossil fuel companies,\u201d the Buckeye Institute report points out. \u201cTo do so, plaintiffs rely on so-called \u2018attributional science,\u2019 which attempts to link particular local harms to global emissions and then assigns some share of those emissions to specific defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce the types and extent of damages are established and a causal link to fossil-fuel emissions is demonstrated,\u201d the report explains, \u201cthe courts must assess the monetary value of those damages and determine the portion attributable to each defendant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This kind of litigation \u2013 with its distortion of traditional public nuisance laws, purely speculative causal links between global emissions and local harms, and determinations of monetary damages based on nothing more than guesswork \u2013 has the potential to bring the American economy to a screeching halt by crippling the nation\u2019s major energy producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnergy security is national security, and we will not self-sabotage our critical industries with a cascade of costly lawsuits and extreme penalties that jeopardize American drilling,\u201d said Rep. Harriet Hagerman (R \u2013 Wyoming) in a statement<\/a>. \u201cAmerica\u2019s energy producers should be protected from the dangerous legal precedent that would be set by the retroactive punishment of lawful activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with Sen. Ted Cruz (R \u2013 Texas), Hagerman has introduced the End Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026. Their bill<\/p>\n\n\n\n