ExxonKnews
April 24, 2026
This article is being co-published with The Lever, an investigative newsroom. If you like this story, click here to get The Lever’s free newsletter.
As fossil fuel giants face mounting lawsuits for allegedly deceiving the public about the harm they knew their products would cause to the climate, Republican lawmakers just borrowed a tactic from gun lobbyists’ playbook, proposing sweeping federal immunity for oil and gas companies and limiting compensation for communities struggling with the local costs of climate disasters.
The effort could also block all state-level regulations of greenhouse gases, a sweeping deregulatory effort that some legal experts said was unconstitutional.
The GOP lawmakers behind the plan together received more than $9.5 million from the oil and gas industry over their careers. Their legislation would deliver one of the fossil fuel lobby’s top policy priorities and kill climate lawsuits before they can reach trial.
