Louisiana Cannot Bend the Knee to Climate Lawfare
Louisiana lawmakers are moving to protect their state’s energy industry from climate lawfare, but a last-minute amendment threatens to preserve a major loophole for trial lawyers and activists seeking to punish oil and gas companies through the courts.
According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, the Louisiana State Senate passed an amendment to the proposed Louisiana Energy Protection Act that would maintain a carveout for existing coastal litigation. The bill was designed to preempt lawsuits based on alleged climate-change-related damages and give businesses legal certainty in one of America’s most important energy states.
Louisiana is a critical hub for natural gas, refining, exports, petrochemicals, and the blue-collar jobs that come with them. When Louisiana energy is under attack, American energy security is under attack.
That is why legislators should be very careful here.
Climate activists and the trial lawyers who profit from suing oil and gas companies have spent years trying to achieve through litigation what they cannot pass through legislatures. These lawsuits are not really about protecting families or lowering costs. They are about using sympathetic courts, massive legal pressure, and political intimidation to force energy policy from the bench.
Leaders must not bend the knee to climate activists and the trial lawyers enriched by this campaign.
The danger is bigger than oil and gas. As Louisiana Motor Truck Association Executive Director Renee Amar warned, the same legal theories used against energy companies today can be turned against trucking, transportation, logistics, construction, agriculture, and other essential industries tomorrow.
Climate lawfare is never limited to one sector – once the precedent is established, every productive industry becomes a target.
Louisiana has an opportunity to draw a clear line: energy policy should be made by elected lawmakers, not activists and plaintiffs’ attorneys chasing jackpot settlements. A strong legal climate requires fairness, consistency, and protection from abusive lawsuits designed to regulate by litigation.
The same principle applies nationally.
Congress should act to stop this coordinated campaign before it spreads further. The Cruz/Hageman Stop Climate Shakedown Act would help by preventing states and localities from using lawsuits and climate “superfund” schemes to punish energy producers for lawful activity. It is exactly the kind of reform needed to protect American energy, defend workers, and keep climate activists from hijacking national energy policy through the courts.
May 28, 2026