Senate amendment to bill would allow active climate change lawsuits

• Louisiana lawmakers are advancing legislation to protect companies from climate change lawsuits.
• A last-minute amendment exempts all lawsuits filed before the bill becomes law.
• The bill’s original author aims to prevent lawsuits against fossil fuel companies and others for damages related to climate change.
• Opponents argue the bill is unnecessary and could unintentionally shield companies from liability in local pollution cases.

(The Center Square) — Legislation designed to shield Louisiana companies from climate change litigation is moving toward final passage in the State Legislature, but an amendment added just before a Senate committee vote fundamentally altered the bill’s scope.

The “Louisiana Energy Protection Act,” or House Bill 804, authored by Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, was aimed in its original form at granting Louisiana companies sweeping, retroactive immunity against lawsuits seeking damages from climate change.

The last-minute amendment adopted by the Senate Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday added a grandfathering clause to the legislation that exempts all lawsuits filed before the bill becomes law.

Victor Marcello, a partner at Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello, which represents clients in several coastal erosion lawsuits, reviewed the newly filed amendment on his cell phone just before testifying.

Even with the amendment, Marcello maintained that the Louisiana Energy Protection Act remains “a solution in search of a problem.” He said that most climate-related lawsuits filed nationwide are actually cases accusing oil companies of misleading the public about environmental impacts.

“No one in this state has made such a claim, and I doubt anyone in this state, city, or parish will ever make such a claim,” Marcello said at the hearing. He contended the legal definitions in the bill are overly broad, and he said this could accidentally allow corporate legal defense teams in Louisiana to dodge liability for routine, localized land contamination and pollution lawsuits.

Geymann, chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment, said in previous testimony that Louisiana is not acting alone, noting Oklahoma and Utah already have adopted legislation or are currently considering similar legal prohibitions.

“The purpose is to prevent lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, against people, against businesses, against government agencies, against nonprofits, for a claim for damages related to climate change,” Geymann said at a committee meeting last week.

Geymann said the bill is focused on the nature of the claim rather than the defendant, which could prevent ordinary Louisianans from being targeted.

“If you were a landowner and you had a lease with an oil company for a pipeline or a well, and that company was sued… you too could be swept up in that,” Geymann said.