For Decades Oil Majors Preempted Local Climate Lawsuits W. Clean Air Act; Now w. End Of Endangerment Finding, They Can't
Last edited Thu Feb 26, 2026, 10:21 AM - Edit history (1)
The Trump administration’s repeal of a foundational climate determination could clear a path for new litigation and policies targeting big oil, legal experts say. Earlier this month, Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule revoking the “endangerment finding”, a 2009 determination that established that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. The move eliminated federal limits on climate-warming emissions from motor vehicles, and is expected to extend to all other pollution sources.
Critics say the change was designed to reward oil companies, which poured record sums into Trump’s campaign. Ironically, it could also weaken a shield the fossil fuel industry has used against attempts to make it pay climate damages around the US. The future of that legal shield will soon face a major test as the supreme court considers a fossil fuel industry petition to quash a climate lawsuit filed by a Colorado city.
In recent years, dozens of US states and local governments have brought climate-focused lawsuits against big oil. Since 2024, Vermont and New York have also passed “climate superfund” policies that compel oil majors to help cover the costs of climate disasters. Fossil fuel companies and their allies have claimed that these laws and lawsuits should be thrown out because they are pre-empted by the federal Clean Air Act. The endangerment finding rollback could topple that reasoning, said Pat Parenteau, environmental law expert at Vermont Law School. “I don’t see how oil companies can, with a straight face, any longer make that argument,” he said.
In 2011, the supreme court dismissed a climate lawsuit by Connecticut against a power company, saying emissions should be regulated by the EPA under the Clean Air Act, not the courts. Since then, nearly a dozen climate lawsuits against big oil have been dismissed on similar grounds. Many of those dismissals have been appealed. Now, if the federal government no longer regulates greenhouse gases, no federal law should be read to preclude other efforts to control them, said Parenteau. Public nuisance claims – alleging companies harmed communities’ health and safety and should fund abatement – may be especially benefited by the endangerment finding’s rescission, said Michael Gerrard, the founder of Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/24/trump-climate-endangerment-repeal-oil-lawsuits
= new reply since forum marked as read
terrible thing when it comes for you. 