CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (January 15, 2026)—Republican state legislators in Utah and Oklahoma introduced bills late last week aiming to shield the fossil fuel industry from future litigation that seeks to hold it accountable for its role in the climate crisis. The bills reflect a rapidly escalating national push by the fossil fuel industry and its chief lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute (API), to end climate accountability litigation and undermine emerging “polluter pays” and climate superfund policies. API has publicly called for insulating fossil fuel companies from climate damages lawsuits, even as communities across the country face mounting harm and costs from extreme heat, floods, wildfires and storms. The Trump administration, U.S. Department of Justice and 16 Republican state Attorneys General have also attempted to strong arm states, Congress and the courts into halting accountability measures.
This immunity push comes amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to illegally deliver Venezuela’s resources to Big Oil, underscoring the industry’s deep ties to the administration and its growing reliance on government power to secure profits while evading accountability for harms.
Below is a statement by Kathy Mulvey, climate accountability campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
“In Utah and Oklahoma, lawmakers are advancing immunity bills that would block many climate-related lawsuits against fossil fuel companies and put powerful polluters above the law. Such bills don’t deny climate change—they deny responsibility for it, despite robust science attributing climate change impacts to fossil fuel companies and a wealth of evidence documenting these companies’ decades-long campaign to deceive the public and block climate action. Offering a legal escape hatch for some of the most significant polluters on the planet through liability waivers threatens people’s, states’ and communities’ access to justice through the courts.
“The bills track directly with API’s push to shut down climate liability lawsuits and weaken climate superfund policies, in a concerted attempt to let big polluters shirk the common-sense principle of paying for the damage their products have caused.
“While industry lobbyists work to dismantle accountability in the United States, President Trump is illegally wielding government power to advance fossil fuel interests in Venezuela. If his actions in Venezuela show us anything, it’s that the Trump administration consistently prioritizes fossil fuel interests above all else, making it even more important to protect people’s access to justice and ability to seek remedies for corporate and government misconduct.
“Liability shield proposals and international oil grabs both point to fewer legal checks or consequences for powerful polluters. Right now, it’s imperative for state legislators and Congress to oppose immunity bills like those proposed in Utah and Oklahoma, demand transparency about Big Oil’s interactions with the Trump administration over the U.S. military incursion in Venezuela, and closely monitor all efforts to shut down climate accountability. The future of climate justice depends on people being able to hold polluters accountable through the courts and other legal means.”
Additional UCS Resources:
- Op-ed on multipronged effort by fossil fuel industry allies to secure a liability waiver
- Blog post on why Congress must block a lability waiver for the fossil fuel industry
- Blog post on President Trump’s illegal grab for Venezuelan oil
- "Decades of Deceit” report on fossil fuel companies’ coordinated climate disinformation campaigns dating back to the 1950s
- Blog post forecasting 2026 climate litigation trends
- Blog post highlighting climate accountability legal victories in 2025
- Explainer on attribution science connecting climate change to major carbon polluters