Last month, we told you how API— the American Petroleum Institute — made lobbying to stop state climate lawsuits and climate superfund laws one of their top legislative priorities in 2026. Then, this week, the Supreme Court announced it will take up another lawsuit about whether fossil fuels can be held accountable for climate chaos and their role in causing it. This despite the fact that many Supreme Court justices are financially invested in fossil fueled fascism, including Justice Alito who owns more that $150,000 in fossil fuel stocks—including Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips, two of the oil companies named in the climate lawsuit SCOTUS will hear soon.
Look, none of this is good news for the climate, climate lawsuits, climate superfunds, or any of us who fight fossil fuels. But, it does make it clear (if it wasn’t already) that there is a massive campaign underway – funded by fossil fuels and the people who profit from them – to protect the powerful from climate liability at any cost. Fortunately, thanks to great reporting this week and on the spot activism by our Make Polluters Pay coalition, it’s not too late to stop them.
Sign the petition demanding congress stop the polluters get out of jail free card!
As we’ve been telling you: More than thirty states and municipalities are already suing polluters for climate damages. Roughly a dozen states are considering climate superfund laws, and two states — New York and Vermont — have already passed them. That’s why polluters are asking fossil fueled fascists to give them a “liability waiver” — basically a get out of jail free card — that would give polluters blanket immunity from any efforts to hold them accountable for their climate crimes.
And what fossil fuels want, Trump’s fascist regime and his enablers are only too happy to give them. Members of Congress have leapt at the chance to introduce legislation to protect them from climate lawsuits. And the indispensable ExxonKnews has been documenting the fossil fueled attorneys general trying to quash climate lawsuits.
But today it’s Emily Atkin’s Heated with the big scoop that Justice Alito has a frankly astonishing conflict of interest with the case the Supreme Court agreed to hear this week.
Justice Alito’s most recent financial disclosure reports ownership of 28 individual stocks—the most, by far, of any Supreme Court justice. Altogether, Alito’s individual stock investments are valued at approximately $645,000. … Of that $645,000 portfolio, roughly $197,500 is invested in eight companies whose core business is fossil fuel extraction, refining, coal production, or fossil-fuel-powered utilities. That means about 30 percent of Alito’s individual stock portfolio is directly tied to the fossil fuel industry.
https://heated.world/
And Alito isn’t alone. Trump demanded (and mostly received) a $1 billion bribe from the fossil fuel industry on the campaign trail. And has promised to “stop the wave of frivolous litigation from environmental extremists.” And this same type of immunity legislation was passed 2005 to protect gun manufacturers from being held responsible when their products kill people.
This is all a part of the fossil fueled fascist plan. And they’re getting closer to their goal of making big oil immune from any climate lawsuits or accountability. But the case hasn’t been heard yet, the legislation hasn’t been passed yet, and it’s not too late to take action YET. Don’t wait until it’s too late – click here and sign our petition with partners demanding Big Oil be held accountable for their crimes against our climate and communities.