Legislation that would make Louisiana the fifth state this year to buffer oil and gas companies from climate lawsuits is awaiting the governor’s signature.
The bill has cleared both of the state’s legislative chambers and would prohibit litigation seeking compensation for the effects from greenhouse gas emissions in the state.
Existing lawsuits would not be affected, including a host of legal disputes that asks courts to hold companies financially accountable for Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline. A state Senate committee revised the legislation last month to exclude those lawsuits, angering critics of the challenges filed by coastal parish governments.
But bill sponsor state Rep. Brett Geymann, a Republican who represents the western Louisiana parishes of Beauregard and Calcasieu, did not oppose the amendment. Geymann said the amendment is redundant to his original language but noted there was “a desire for additional specificity since there are active coastal cases.”
He said a Senate floor amendment clarified that coastal erosion lawsuits would be excluded as long as they are “never used for a climate change claim.”
Critics of the exclusion have blamed the amendment on Louisiana trial lawyers who represent Plaquemines, Cameron and other coastal parishes that have sued oil majors for drilling activity that they say has degraded the state’s fragile coast.
Those lawsuits allege companies failed to obtain proper permits, and the cases seek multimillion-dollar payouts. Last year, for example, one Louisiana court ordered Chevron to pay $744 million in damages.
The Supreme Court in April ruled oil majors could transfer a number of the still-pending lawsuits from state to federal court, where the companies believe they will have more success. The parishes have claimed the companies failed to obtain appropriate permits under Louisiana law.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, recently announced tentative agreements to settle the litigation with some of the oil companies involved in the cases.
Geymann said his bill instead aims to prevent climate lawsuits like those filed by more than two dozen local governments across the country seeking compensation for global warming. He said the legislation is not intended to be retroactive.
State Sen. Bob Hensgens, a Republican who chairs the Senate Natural Resources Committee and represents the coastal parish of Vermilion, along with portions of Acadia and Lafayette, said he proposed the amendment “just to make sure that we’re not affecting the coastal lawsuits that have already been filed.”
Hensgens noted on the Senate floor that the bill would not prevent lawsuits against polluters who exceed permit limits.
“This bill simply keeps our courts focused on real, provable violations, instead of worldwide policy debates,” he said.
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry said the change “did not garner universal appeal” but preserved the bill’s broader framework.
Will Green, president and CEO of the association, called the legislation an “important step toward strengthening legal certainty and reinforcing Louisiana’s competitiveness for investment, economic growth and job creation.”
He said the bill would provide “greater clarity and predictability in Louisiana’s legal climate while preserving longstanding environmental protections and regulatory remedies.”
Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association President Tommy Fauci has told lawmakers the bill would protect businesses in the state — but would not block “legitimate claims” if there were harms.
“This is strictly limited to greenhouse gas emissions [contributions] to climate change,” he said of the legislation.
Victor Marcello of the law firm Talbot Carmouche & Marcello, which has represented parishes in legal claims against the oil industry, testified against the bill at the Senate Natural Resources Committee, calling it a “solution in search of a problem.”
Marcello noted the lawsuits the bill targets seek compensation for climate change on the grounds that oil and gas companies deceived the public about the danger of burning fossil fuels.
“No one in this state has made such a claim, and I doubt if anyone in this state, city, or parish will ever make such a claim,” he said.
Marcello said oil companies could use the legislation to slip out of routine lawsuits targeting pollution, simply by saying the legal challenge was related to climate change.
“If you guys want to go ahead and say you can’t file these climate change suits in Louisiana, fine, do it, but this bill does a lot more than that, and I can guarantee you that there’s going to be lawyers that interpret it like that,” Marcello said.
The Sierra Club also testified against the bill, saying it could make it more difficult to challenge future petrochemical projects, including carbon capture and sequestration.
Geymann said the bill would not weaken or affect any laws governing conventional pollution, such as the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.
Louisiana’s legislation is similar to bills that passed in Utah, Tennessee, Iowa and Oklahoma. The conservative group Consumers Defense — which was created in 2023 to help Republicans attack Wall Street’s embrace of sustainable investment policies — has offered model legislation targeting the climate lawsuits.
The group has said its “Energy Freedom Act” “protects state sovereignty and the right to engage in lawful fossil fuel related activities within the state.” Consumers Defense is an arm of Consumers’ Research, which has close ties to conservative legal activist Leonard Leo.
Federal legislators in April also introduced a bill to shield oil and gas companies for liability from the burning of their products.
The American Petroleum Institute listed the climate liability policy a top priority for this year.
Supporters of the litigation have panned efforts to block the lawsuits, saying cities and towns affected by climate change deserve to be heard.
“If you have not violated the law,” said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, “there is no reason to seek immunity.”
