A Republican congresswoman is taking a stand against climate litigation going through the courts.
Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman and legal experts promoted her Stop Climate Shakedowns Act during a noon briefing hosted by the America Leads Alliance on Wednesday. At the briefing, Hageman declared that “⚡Energy security is national security.”
Sponsored by Hageman and Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, H.R. 8330 — the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026 — seeks to fight against “climate superfund” laws and climate liability lawsuits. The bill would invalidate state laws that impose ⚡Energy-related penalties and reaffirm the federal government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and other interstate environmental standards.
“They can’t get a cap-and-trade through the legislative process. Even in blue states, they can’t get a carbon tax,” Hageman said at the briefing. “So they decided to turn to the courts.”
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Rep. Harriet Hageman Touts Bill That Seeks To Derail Blue State Climate Crackdown — IJR
can attempt to get billions of dollars for alleged damages suffered. The briefing’s panelists attributed this strategy to a 2012 conference, where activists and trial attorneys allegedly hatched a plan to bypass federal gridlock through the courts.
Cruz and Hageman’s press offices each did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Donald Kochan, a law professor and executive director of Law and Economics Center, elaborated that these lawsuits start with a “knock on the door” from plaintiff’s attorneys promising municipalities windfall in exchange of a contingency fee.
Liam Donovan, Executive Director of the America Leads Alliance, warned that these lawsuits create a “domino effect” on the entire value chain.
“⚡Energy is an input to literally everything we do,” Donovan said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s transportation, logistics, or the widget you order from Amazon … everything becomes more expensive.”
Michael Williams, Solicitor General of West Virginia, added that companies are already beginning to “price that uncertainty” into future ⚡Energy costs, effectively creating a hidden tax on consumers long before a verdict is reached.
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