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.
Louisiana is such a shit hole.
Always a leader in cancer murder, poverty early death. The fossil fuel and petrochemical industries have major political power. That is why that state is #2 in cancer
90% of cancers are caused by environment or lifestyle
Lol
Teach thinks that others should lead lives that align 100% with their political views. That is nonsense. “At a minimum”
Teach should end all electric use since Duke energy uses renewable generation. ????
Well, of course. The state of Louisiana is a wholly owned subsidary of Big Oil, who fund the GOPhers there. Every statewide office is held by a GOPher, and both chambers of the state legislature are majority GOPher.
The people of Louisiana are fucked, but the Oil Companies and politicos are doing fine!
The anti-America, anti-democracy MAGAt movement – funded by fossil fuel and other pro-pollution interests – is working overtime to kill the EPA.
The Donny administration repealed the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which was the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gas emissions, which limited carbon and methane pollution from cars, trucks, and power plants. This will lower your gas prices (LOL!!!). Donny’s EPA proposed repealing federal restrictions on certain “forever chemicals” (PFAS) in drinking water.
They go after the oil companies because that is where the money is. By all the legal traditions in the USA, the lawsuits should be individually going after all of the users of energy. In the USA, that would be 330 million lawsuits, each collecting a few thousand dollars a piece, which wouldn’t even satisfy the lawyers involved. The suits would have to individually prove how much each litigant contributed to climate change impacts. But it is about the money, not about climate change or the environment.
“They go after the oil companies because” they represent the source of their injury.
Both political parties at the state and federal levels support laws that restrict lawsuits by citizens against companies.
Many jurisdictions place legal limits on the maximum amount of money a plaintiff can recover. Corporations embed mandatory arbitration provisions in employment contracts and consumer Terms of Service, forcing plaintiffs to resolve disputes in private arbitration rather than open court. Laws restrict the timeframe in which a lawsuit can be filed. A statute of limitations runs from the date of injury, whereas a statute of repose sets an absolute deadline from the date a product or service was created, regardless of when the injury was discovered.
Specific legislation can grant blanket immunity for certain industries. For example, federal laws like the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act shield companies from liability during declared public health emergencies, barring willful misconduct.
Recall how MAGAts squawked about the immunities granted to vaccine manufacturers!!
Money talks! Citizens walk!