Press Releases
May 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Voters across the ideological spectrum overwhelmingly oppose giving oil and gas corporations immunity from laws or lawsuits that aim to hold them accountable for their role in the climate crisis or make them pay for climate damages, according to a new nationwide survey conducted after Republican lawmakers introduced bills in the U.S. House and Senate to shield Big Oil companies from accountability.
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said:
“It’s a commonsense American value that nobody should be above the law, and voters overwhelmingly agree that that includes oil and gas corporations. Members of Congress pushing this brazen and hugely unpopular scheme to shield Big Oil companies from accountability are clearly taking orders from the fossil fuel industry and defying the will of American voters. If Big Oil companies have done nothing wrong, why do they need immunity?”
Background on U.S. Climate Accountability Lawsuits Against Big Oil:
Eleven U.S. states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai`i, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont — and the District of Columbia, along with dozens of city, county, and tribal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Puerto Rico, have active lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change. These cases collectively represent more than 1 in 4 people living in the United States.
The oil and gas industry and its allies have been lobbying Congress and the Trump administration for more than a year to escape accountability. Last year, 16 Republican attorneys general proposed creating a “liability shield” for fossil fuel companies modeled on a 2005 law protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits. In January, the American Petroleum Institute announced that killing state climate lawsuits is a top 2026 priority for the oil lobby. And a growing number of states have passed state-level laws that aim to shield fossil fuel companies from legal accountability. Recent reporting from ProPublica found those bills are "part of a coordinated effort by groups linked to right-wing activist Leonard Leo."
Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider a case from Boulder, Colorado. Boulder is one of a growing number of communities across the U.S. — including Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, the District of Columbia, and the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, Minnesota and Connecticut — whose climate deception lawsuits against Big Oil companies are advancing toward discovery and trial after courts denied the companies’ motions to dismiss.