A federal judge struck down New York's $75 billion climate shakedown law as unconstitutional.
Now Jim Jordan's Judiciary Committee is voting on legislation to put the entire racket out of business.
Ten Democrat governors just sent Congress a desperate letter asking them to stop it – and they're going to wish they hadn't.
New York Climate Superfund Law Struck Down as States Run a Coordinated Extortion Campaign
This is what a climate shakedown looks like.
Democrat governors and state attorneys general discovered they could drag energy companies into court – not for breaking any law, but for producing the fuel that runs the country.
The legal theory: oil and gas producers owe billions for wildfires, floods, and weather events that leftist politicians blame on fossil fuels – no broken laws required, no permit violations, just retroactive punishment for doing exactly what the federal government approved.
Ten Democrat governors – including Gavin Newsom, Tim Walz, and JB Pritzker – signed a letter lobbying Congress to kill the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026.
Three governors who presided over the highest gas prices, most business departures, and largest pension deficits in America are begging Washington to protect a lawsuit racket.
The legislation – introduced by Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) in the House and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the Senate – prohibits climate liability lawsuits against energy producers in any federal or state court, voids existing climate superfund laws, and dismisses every pending suit.
New York demanded $75 billion from oil and gas producers – a retroactive penalty for legal activity conducted decades ago under government-issued permits with full federal regulatory approval.
A federal judge shut them down two weeks ago.
The court ruled New York's Climate Change Superfund Act is preempted by the federal Clean Air Act and by federal foreign affairs power. A coalition of 22 Republican attorneys general, the DOJ, and major energy industry groups backed the challenge. The court agreed with all of them.
New York attempted to regulate global energy policy from Albany.
The court said no.
Nine States Are Planning Climate Superfund Laws That Could Spike Gas Prices
Vermont's superfund law is still alive and being litigated. Hawaii filed a climate liability lawsuit against fossil fuel companies – and went ahead with it even after the Trump DOJ filed a preemptive suit to stop it.
At least nine additional states are drafting their own versions.
The coordinated campaign isn't slowing. It's multiplying.
"Through a coordinated campaign by radical environmental groups, our judicial system has been weaponized against American energy producers, including many in Texas," Cruz told the Washington Free Beacon.
The pattern is deliberate. Blue states failed to pass carbon taxes at the federal level. Cap-and-trade collapsed. So they moved to state courts and manufactured retroactive liability against companies that operated legally, with permits, for decades.
That strategy – using state law to accomplish what federal law won't allow – is exactly what Congress and the courts are now dismantling.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) made the contradiction explicit in the Daily Caller: these governors want to bleed energy companies into bankruptcy while depending on those same companies to heat homes, fuel farms, and run hospitals.
The logic collapses on contact. New York wanted $75 billion from an industry the American economy cannot function without. Destroying it doesn't fund a climate agenda. It shuts the lights off.
These climate superfunds were never about the environment. They were a bailout for broke blue states – dressed up as saving the planet.
Stop Climate Shakedowns Act Heads to House Judiciary Committee Vote
The House Judiciary Committee – chaired by Jim Jordan – is moving H.R. 8330.
Americans for Tax Reform urged every committee member to support it, calling the legislation critical for consumers and the broader economy.
The bill is direct: state efforts to impose retroactive climate liability "invade the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government."
That is precisely the legal ground the federal judge used to strike down New York's law two weeks ago.
Hageman made the stakes clear: "Energy security is national security, and we will not self-sabotage our critical industries with a cascade of costly lawsuits and extreme penalties that jeopardize American drilling."
The Supreme Court is also preparing to hear a Boulder, Colorado climate lawsuit making the same argument New York just lost in court. If Congress acts first, the entire blue state legal strategy collapses before the justices hear a word.
That is why Newsom, Walz, and Pritzker all signed the letter.
One federal judge already ruled these governors wrong.
Jim Jordan's committee wants to make the answer permanent.
Sources:
- Harriet Hageman, "Rep. Hageman Introduces Bill To Shield American Energy Producers From Leftist Climate Litigation," Hageman.house.gov, April 17, 2026.
- Staff, "GOP Moves To 'Stop Climate Shakedowns,' Block Democrat-Led States and Cities From Going After Oil Companies," Washington Free Beacon, via Hageman.house.gov, May 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, "New York Judge Blocks State of New York's Unconstitutional Climate Superfund Act," Justice.gov, September 2026.
- Staff, "ATR Backs the Stop the Climate Shakedowns Act," Americans for Tax Reform, September 16, 2026.
- Staff, "Newsom, Walz urge Congress to block anti-climate bill in their 'woke' crusade," Fox News, July 4, 2026.
- Brandon Gill, "Pass The Stop Climate Shakedown Act To Protect America," Daily Caller, September 17, 2026.
