Oil companies use free speech claims to challenge climate lawsuits
Oil companies are invoking the First Amendment and anti-SLAPP laws to argue that lawsuits accusing them of misleading the public about climate change violate their free speech rights.
Karen Zraick and Sachi Kitajima Mulkey report for The New York Times.
In short:
- Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other fossil fuel companies have filed anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) motions in about a third of nearly 40 climate lawsuits brought by states and municipalities, arguing the cases seek to suppress constitutionally protected political speech.
- California's attorney general and several local governments argue that the companies engaged in deceptive commercial speech to delay climate action, which they say is not protected under anti-SLAPP statutes.
- Courts have so far largely rejected the oil companies’ arguments, but ongoing appeals and an upcoming August hearing in California may test the limits of using anti-SLAPP laws in climate litigation.
Key quote:
“The logic of what the energy companies are doing is the logic of a SLAPP, not the logic of an anti-SLAPP.”
— Penelope Canan, sociology professor and co-author of SLAPPs: Getting Sued for Speaking Out
Why this matters:
Climate litigation is fast becoming one of the most contested fronts in the battle over environmental accountability. If oil companies succeed in redefining public lawsuits as threats to their free speech rights, future efforts to hold industries responsible for environmental harm could be sharply limited. Anti-SLAPP laws were designed to shield individuals from being silenced by powerful interests — not to protect corporate misinformation. These legal maneuvers raise fundamental questions about whether fossil fuel firms can use the First Amendment to shield decades of misleading claims that have delayed climate action, contributed to extreme weather damage, and endangered public health. The outcomes could ripple through courts and state legislatures nationwide.
Related: States press Big Oil to pay for climate damage as legal battles mount
