News & Analysis
March 26, 2026
It is now nearly impossible to hold climate polluters accountable in Utah after Governor Spencer Cox signed new legislation providing broad legal immunity to corporations that cause climate harms. The state law comes as fossil fuel interests are lobbying Congress to pass national legislation that would give Big Oil companies immunity from any laws or lawsuits that aim to hold them accountable for their decades of climate lies.
Dozens of communities across the country are taking Big Oil companies to court for lying to the public about the climate harms of their products and fueling the climate crisis communities are facing today. As the cases move closer to trial, fossil fuel companies have been pushing lawmakers at every level to shield them from facing accountability for their illegal practices. Utah is the first state to pass a new law blocking communities from holding Big Oil accountable in court.
Utah’s new law all but shuts down climate-related lawsuits in the state by making it almost impossible to hold greenhouse gas emitters legally responsible for their bad actions. Utahns will now have to prove that a polluter made a clear statutory or administrative violation under an unusually high evidentiary standard, effectively removing an avenue for climate accountability in the state. The new law will take effect in May.
Similar bills aiming to shield polluters from being held accountable for their actions are also moving forward in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Louisiana as part of a larger coordinated effort to strip communities of their right to take Big Oil to court.
Big Oil and its allies have spent the past year advancing an agenda to put fossil fuel companies above the law. Following a meeting fossil fuel CEOs had with President Trump last year, the U.S. Justice Department sued multiple states challenging newly enacted laws and prospective lawsuits aiming to hold polluters accountable for their climate lies and damages. Additionally, 16 Republican attorneys general have called for a legal liability shield for Big Oil modeled after the 2005 law that granted legal immunity to gun manufacturers. The biggest oil lobbying group, the American Petroleum Institute, announced that stopping state climate lawsuits is a priority for the oil and gas trade association in 2026.
Most recently, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) said last month that she is working with “both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling” climate accountability lawsuits and climate superfund laws from communities across the country.
A growing number of groups, elected officials, and community members are calling on Congress to oppose any efforts to put Big Oil above the law. Nearly 200 organizations, including CCI, have urged Democratic leaders in Congress to oppose any form of a legal shield for the oil and gas industry, calling on leaders to “ensure both justice today and the right of future generations to hold polluters responsible for decades of deception.”
“I really think it’s an un-American effort to deny Americans the traditional right of access to a jury,” former Washington Governor Jay Inslee told Inside Climate News about Big Oil’s push for immunity. “You’ll see the steam coming out of the jury’s ears when they hear about how they’ve been lied to for decades. [Oil companies] understand why juries will be outraged by it, and they are shaking in their boots. The day of reckoning is coming, and that’s why they’re afraid.”
