New York just ordered oil companies to pay $75 billion.
Ted Cruz just found the one bill that could kill the whole scheme.
And the scheme they built to do it is more coordinated than anything Democrats have tried before.
The Dark Money Network Funding Climate Lawsuits Against Oil Companies
When Democrats couldn't pass a carbon tax through Congress, they didn't quit.
They outsourced the whole operation to a single San Francisco law firm called Sher Edling – and paid for it with dark money funneled through left-wing nonprofits so anonymous that even Congress couldn't trace the original donors.
Since its founding in 2016, Sher Edling has taken up climate lawsuits on behalf of more than two dozen Democrat-run states and cities – representing roughly a quarter of the American population.
California. Chicago. Honolulu. New York. Baltimore. Washington, D.C. All using the same firm.
The New Venture Fund – a left-wing dark money group – funneled more than $16 million to Sher Edling since 2016.
Some of that money traces back to foundations backed by George Soros. The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. The Tides Foundation. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
That's the money behind the lawsuits claiming oil companies owe your city hundreds of millions of dollars for hurricanes and heat waves.
And Sher Edling's cut if they win? One-third of everything they extract.
This isn't environmental justice. It's a shakedown.
How Democrats Turned Failed Carbon Tax Bills Into a $75 Billion Shakedown
Rep. Harriet Hageman put it plainly.
Democrats tried to pass cap-and-trade. Failed. Tried to pass a carbon tax. Failed.
So they handed the litigation to activist lawyers and told them to finish the job through the courts instead.
"You have a very small number of people who are in leadership roles making the decisions to do this that have the ability to destroy the energy climate for everybody and make all of us poor," Hageman said.
Vermont passed a law forcing oil companies to pay state coffers. New York passed one requiring $75 billion from the industry over 25 years.
Every dollar of that gets passed straight to you – in your gas bill, your heating costs, your grocery prices.
That's not a fine against a corporation. That's a tax on every working American, passed without a single vote in Congress.
How the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act Would Kill Every One of These Lawsuits
Last month, Ted Cruz introduced the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act alongside Sens. Tom Cotton, Ted Budd, and Mike Lee – with companion legislation from Hageman in the House.
It kills every one of these lawsuits – in state court and federal court – and wipes out every state climate superfund law along with them.
"Radical environmental groups have waged a coordinated campaign to weaponize our judicial system against American energy producers," Cruz said. "They're using meritless lawsuits to bankrupt our energy industry, kill good-paying jobs, and drive up the cost of electricity and gasoline for hardworking families."
Constitutional law scholar John Shu – who served in both Bush administrations – confirmed the legal foundation.
The Commerce Clause gives Congress, not individual states, the authority to regulate interstate and international emissions.
"It wouldn't be right for one state to determine or regulate the policy of another state," Shu said.
The courts are already agreeing. Maryland's Supreme Court threw out climate lawsuits from Baltimore, Anne Arundel County, and Annapolis this year – ruling that using state courts to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions is "so far afield from any area of traditional state or local responsibility that it cannot be seriously contemplated."
The U.S. Supreme Court takes up the Boulder, Colorado case next.
Democrats spent a decade building this machine – celebrity money, dark money nonprofits, a single law firm, two dozen Democrat mayors and governors, all working together to bleed the companies that keep your lights on and your gas tank full.
You paid for every dollar of it and nobody asked your permission.
Now Cruz is taking it apart.
Sources:
- Thomas Catenacci, "GOP Moves To 'Stop Climate Shakedowns,'" Washington Free Beacon, May 19, 2026.
- "Sens. Cruz, Cotton, Budd, Lee Introduce Bill to Combat Climate Lawfare," Ted Cruz Senate Press Release, April 2026.
- "Rep. Hageman Introduces Bill To Shield American Energy Producers," Hageman.house.gov, May 2026.
- "Anti-Energy Lawfare: Dark Money Fueling Climate Lawsuits," Washington Free Beacon, October 2024.
- "Supreme Court Takes Up Climate Case Testing Local Lawsuits Against Oil Companies," Stateline, February 2026.
