Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming is taking aim at one of the left’s favorite political rackets, climate lawsuits dressed up as public interest litigation.
Her new bill, the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act, is designed to block activist driven legal campaigns that try to punish energy companies for alleged climate harms.
The legislation targets lawsuits from states, cities, and climate pressure groups that claim oil, gas, and energy producers should pay enormous sums for weather events, rising costs, and the usual grab bag of green talking points.
In plain English, Hageman says this is taxation by lawsuit, because the left knows many of these schemes would never survive a real vote in Congress.
“It is the Stop the Climate Shakedowns Act, and what this has to do with is there are many communities and states around the country that have … filed lawsuits against our energy companies claiming that they are responsible for climate change and the impacts of climate change, and this is an effort to try, really, it’s another way of taxation, is really what these communities are doing,” Hageman said.
That is the heart of the fight.
Instead of winning elections, persuading voters, and passing laws through constitutional channels, climate activists are using friendly courts to chase payouts and impose their agenda through litigation.
Hageman also pointed to the use of so called superfund style laws that attempt to pin the entire bill for climate policy fantasies on energy producers.
“So they’ve either adopted superfund laws claiming that producing energy has caused climate change and so those energy producers should be responsible for paying billions upon billions upon billions of dollars in fines,” she continued.
Those billions would not magically appear from some corporate vault hidden under a mountain.
Costs get passed along, and working Americans end up paying more for gasoline, electricity, food, transportation, and nearly everything else.
“The city of Boulder, Colorado, has a lawsuit pending in front of the United States Supreme Court right now against Suncorp. So the purpose of my legislation, and I filed this in conjunction with Senator Ted Cruz, is to stop these lawsuits in their tracks,” Hageman said.
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The involvement of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas gives the effort additional weight on Capitol Hill.
Cruz has long been one of the sharper critics of green mandates, federal overreach, and climate policies that punish energy states while rewarding activist lawyers.
The bill lands at a time when the American energy sector is already being battered by regulators, bureaucrats, and climate lobbyists who seem far more interested in control than reliability.
From natural gas restrictions to anti drilling crusades, the left’s energy agenda keeps finding new ways to make life more expensive for ordinary families.
Hageman’s argument is straightforward. If politicians want a carbon tax, they should introduce one, defend it in public, and let voters respond accordingly.
What they should not do is hide behind lawsuits and let courts impose what elected lawmakers could not pass.
That is exactly why this legislation matters. It is not merely about protecting corporations from nuisance suits, as the left will surely claim.
It is about protecting consumers, constitutional government, and the basic principle that major policy decisions belong in the legislative branch.
The climate lawsuit machine has become a convenient tool for activists who want power without accountability.
They can file lawsuits, demand settlements, generate headlines, and pressure companies, all while pretending this is somehow about saving the planet rather than extracting money and political leverage.
For conservatives, Hageman’s move is another reminder of why she has become a respected voice on the right.
She did not arrive in Washington to play along with the permanent political class.
She arrived after knocking Liz Cheney out of Congress, which still earns her a well deserved place in grassroots conservative history.
The Stop Climate Shakedowns Act is the kind of direct response many Republican voters want to see.
It names the problem, confronts the scheme, and refuses to let radical climate activists use the courts as their private tax office.
If Democrats and green groups believe their agenda is so popular, they can campaign on higher energy costs, new taxes, and more lawsuits.
Until then, Hageman is doing exactly what voters sent Republicans to Washington to do, fight back.
