A measure that would have upended the District of Columbia’s climate lawsuit against oil and gas companies has been dropped from a congressional spending package.
House Republicans last year had inserted language in a bill to prevent the District from spending money in 2026 to enforce its consumer protection law “against oil and gas companies for environmental claims.”
But the language does not appear in a final version of the bill released over the weekend that is up for passage this week in the Senate.
The district is suing the fossil fuel industry under its Consumer Protection Procedures Act, claiming that oil companies misled consumers about the dangers of burning fossil fuels. A D.C. Superior Court judge last April rejected efforts by the oil and gas industry to dismiss the case, bringing it closer to trial.
