Pirate's Cove

It’s time for other states run by Republicans to do the same

Louisiana just made it illegal to sue oil companies over climate change. So have other states.

Louisiana has joined a handful of Republican states that have recently passed legislation aimed at banning lawsuits against oil and gas companies over the harms of climate change.

The Louisiana Energy Protection Act, written by state Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, is aimed at preventing lawsuits filed by states and local jurisdictions in other parts of the U.S. from playing out in Louisiana. Across the country, about 30 lawsuits seeking to hold industry to account for the impacts of climate change have been weaving their way through the legal system, but none have been brought in Louisiana.

The lawsuits seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for the impacts of sea level rise, extreme weather events, wildfires and flooding, arguing that the companies should pay for measures needed to adapt, such as seawalls and building elevations. Louisiana has now banned those types of claims from being brought in state court against oil and gas producers or any other defendant.

Geymann, who chairs the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee, said he was skeptical that human activity is causing climate change, and didn’t think the lawsuits were “legitimate.” There is overwhelming consensus among scientists that greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels heat the planet.

Mind you, this is not some small climate cult outlet, this is NOLA.com which is stating the opinion is science.

“To say my aunt died from a heat stroke and I’m going to sue every oil company and every pipeline company in Louisiana because of it — that is not a legitimate claim,” Geymann said, referring to a lawsuit filed in Washington state against oil companies after a woman died of heat exposure. “A legitimate claim would be: I live down the road from a refinery and I have damages from the emission of (hydrogen sulfide) at a level that exceeded the EPA or the Clean Air Act.”

Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law on Thursday. It was passed by a vote of 31-3 in the Senate and 92-5 in the House. Oklahoma, Utah, Iowa and Tennessee all passed bills this year that aim to ban lawsuits over the impacts of climate change. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, also introduced the “Stop Climate Shakedowns Act” at the federal level, which would ban climate lawsuits nationwide.

Really, anyone filing these types of lawsuits should be required to prove they had previously given up their own use of fossil fuels, at a minimum.