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Senate Set to Debate Ban on Predatory Climate Lawsuits
As LABI continues working to strengthen Louisiana’s position as a global energy leader, the Senate will soon take up another major energy-related priority bill aimed at preserving certainty and stability for employers and investors alike.
HB 804 by Rep. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles)—dubbed the Louisiana Energy Protection Act—previously passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support in an 83-17 vote and cleared the Senate Natural Resources Committee last week. The legislation seeks to protect Louisiana employers and industries from the growing national wave of speculative climate liability lawsuits.
The measure arrives just days after LABI and a broad coalition of business advocates successfully pushed back against several proposals at the Capitol that would have injected uncertainty and unpredictability into Louisiana’s energy sector. While those debates centered primarily on carbon capture and energy development, HB 804 addresses a different but closely related threat: the growing effort to use litigation, rather than lawmakers and regulators, to shape energy policy.
Across the country, more than 30 climate-related lawsuits have been filed against energy companies, with plaintiffs seeking billions of dollars in damages tied to storms, flooding, coastal erosion and other alleged climate impacts. These lawsuits represent an unprecedented expansion of liability and create significant uncertainty not only for the energy industry, but for the broader economy that depends on affordable, reliable energy and industrial investment.
HB 804 establishes legal guardrails designed to prevent Louisiana from becoming the next battleground for this type of speculative litigation. As LABI and industry partners have emphasized throughout session, the impact of these lawsuits would extend far beyond oil and gas companies alone. Manufacturers, farmers, truckers, chemical facilities and countless Louisiana job creators could ultimately face rising costs, stalled investment and economic instability if this litigation trend gains traction here.
Should the upper chamber pass this legislation, it will have to go back to the House for concurrence.
During earlier committee testimony, LABI’s Will Green warned that allowing courts to effectively dictate energy policy through sprawling liability lawsuits could undermine Louisiana’s competitiveness and long-term economic outlook at a time when the state is actively working to attract new energy and industrial investment.
With major climate liability cases continuing to advance through courts across the country, passage of HB 804 would reinforce Louisiana’s commitment to maintaining a stable, predictable legal and regulatory environment for employers, energy producers and investors.