News & Analysis
July 21, 2025
As communities across the U.S. are devastated by increasingly severe climate disasters, the group that represents the nation’s more than 3,000 counties is calling on Congress to oppose any legislation that would restrict their ability to recover associated damages from companies in court. The resolution comes at a time when fossil fuel companies are lobbying Congress to grant them immunity against the growing wave of climate accountability lawsuits filed by communities throughout the U.S.
The National Association of Counties (NACo), representing more than 40,000 county elected officials and 3.6 million county employees, passed the resolution last week at its annual conference, pointing to “an increasing number of ‘billion-dollar’ extreme weather events that strain taxpayer resources and county response and recovery capacity.” Earlier this month, deadly flash floods killed more than 130 people in central Texas and caused an estimated $18 billion in damages and economic loss. Tens of millions of people in the U.S. were under severe heat warnings in June, causing strain on emergency services and electrical grids. This week, tropical storm Chantal caused heavy rains in the Northeast, killing people in New Jersey and North Carolina, flooding subway stations in New York, and triggering flood warnings in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
State and local governments are fighting in court to recover the costs of such climate-fueled disasters from the industry that has knowingly fueled them for decades: Big Oil. Dozens of municipalities, counties, and states have sued oil companies for lying about the climate harm of their products for decades, arguing that they should pay for the damage that deception has caused. As those lawsuits move closer to trial in state courts, Big Oil has been lobbying Congress to give them legal protection from accountability in the courts. Just last month, a group of pro-fossil fuel attorneys general directly asked the Trump administration to help erect a “liability shield” for fossil fuel companies similar to the 2005 law that provided broad immunity to gun manufacturers.
NACo’s resolution opposes “any legislation that would limit or preempt counties’ access to courts or give companies immunity from lawsuits over damages and costs.”
"Access to the courts is a tool in our toolbox, and we're simply saying 'don't take this away from counties'," said County Commissioner Brigid Shea of Travis County, Texas, the resolution’s lead sponsor.
Municipal leaders across the country have been clear about their opposition to attacks on their right to recover costs through litigation. The National League of Cities also passed a similar resolution in 2024, stating the “NLC opposes any federal preemption that would undermine the authority of municipalities to bring suits against other parties.”