We the people urge Congress to never release the fossil fuel industry from its legal liability for causing the climate crisis.
This crisis was created by decades of denial, deception, and disinformation by the fossil fuel industry. By the 1980s the oil and gas industry was predicting globally catastrophic effects from climate change, but spent the ensuing years deliberately misleading the public in order to protect their profits.
As a result, even with future aggressive cuts to carbon emissions, the U.S will still be burdened with trillions of dollars in costs for climate adaptation and recovery. Local communities and states shouldn’t have to bear these costs. The fossil fuel industry should.
Municipalities across the country are taking the fossil fuel industry to court to recover the damages climate change has caused. In response, the industry has pushed for complete and total immunity from all climate lawsuits. Congress must never grant this immunity. Like the tobacco industry before it, the fossil fuel industry must take financial responsibility for the harm it has caused.