FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 27, 2026
CONTACT: Gabe Cole, Communications Manager | gabe@maineconservation.org, (610) 574-5141
Mainers call on congressional representatives to reject immunity for Big Oil
PORTLAND & LEWISTON, ME – Today, Mainers from all walks of life and from across the state came together outside of congressional offices in both Portland and Lewiston to call on Maine’s federal delegation to reject blanket immunity for Big Oil.
With signs that read “No Immunity for Big Oil” and “Make Polluters Pay,” more than 50 people stood together in protest of proposed legislation before Congress that would shield the world’s largest oil and gas companies from accountability for knowingly accelerating the climate crisis and misleading the public about their responsibility.
Local conservation and climate action groups delivered a letter and petition, signed by over 1,000 Maine residents, to Maine’s congressional representatives, imploring them to stand with the thousands of families, businesses, and communities already impacted by climate change and not corporate polluters.
Known as the Fossil Fuel Immunity Bill, S. 4340 and H.R. 8330 would grant sweeping immunity to the world’s largest oil and gas companies to shield them from lawsuits and state laws that would assess monetary damages and penalties for their role in worsening extreme weather and environmental conditions linked to climate change, like destructive storms, flooding, severe drought, sea level rise, and more.
This legislation would derail efforts in Maine, Maryland, New York, Vermont, and in many other states across the country to reduce the burden on local taxpayers by holding the oil and gas industry accountable for the potentially trillions of dollars of damage done by climate change.
“Polluter accountability is not a new idea. We have long held corporate polluters accountable for the impacts of their products on people, communities, and the environment,” said Nick Janzen, Director of Policy and Partnerships for Maine Conservation Voters. “The fossil fuel industry should be no exception. They polluted and destabilized our climate, lied to our faces, and made billions of dollars in profits in the process. Now, they’re lobbying for a get-out-of-jail free card. It’s time they were held to account.”
Advocates addressed the crowd of rally-goers, highlighting the various and ongoing climate impacts to Maine and underscoring the unfairness of the Trump administration and Congress working in backrooms with oil and gas lobbyists to make hardworking Maine taxpayers foot the bill for a problem fossil fuel companies created.
“The world’s largest fossil fuel companies have made record profits this year while Mainers face rising prices at the gas pump and on our heating and electricity bills,” said Josh Caldwell, Outreach and Campaigns Senior Manager with the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “Maine has long lived by a simple principle – if you make a mess you clean it up. The fact that Big Oil is doubling down on their greed by working with Congress and the White House to pass sweeping immunity, so they can’t be held accountable for the impacts of the pollution they created is abhorrent. Mainers won’t stand for it.”
Earlier this year, Maine passed into law LD 1870: Resolve, to Assess the Total Cost to the State of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, which directs the Department of Environmental Protection to calculate the financial toll of climate change to Maine, with the goal to pass future legislation to hold the world’s largest oil and gas companies financially responsible for these damages in proportion to their historical emissions. Compensation would then be invested in climate resilience and adaptation projects across Maine, which could help reduce the burden on local taxpayers by providing hundreds of millions to billions of dollars to help Maine towns build back after increasingly extreme weather events.
“The best available science makes clear that major fossil fuel producers have contributed an outsized amount of carbon pollution to the atmosphere,” said Carly Phillips, Senior Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Make Polluter Pay bills are using that science to ensure polluters, not communities, shoulder the costs of this pollution and resulting damages.”
The mounting costs of extreme weather events and climate impacts are straining municipal and state budgets – the winter storms of 2023 and 2024 wrought over $90 million in damages to public infrastructure alone – and such legislation would transfer costs to the parties responsible and alleviate financial pressure on Maine communities.
“Maine taxpayers and municipalities are bearing the expenses of storm recovery and adaptation,” said Jackson Chadwick, Advocacy Director at Maine Youth for Climate Justice. “Federal agencies like FEMA that have provided assistance before are now being weakened. Maine must step up to protect our residents and shield taxpayers from these costs. S. 4340 and H.R. 8330 infringe on our state’s right to do so, and we must defeat them in Congress.”
State Climate Superfund laws are modeled after the national Superfund program for toxic waste. The “make polluters pay” principle behind them also underpins existing Maine state law, such as product stewardship for harmful waste like mercury batteries and paint, as well as successful lawsuits against tobacco and opioid companies for similarly misleading and harming the public.
Opponents of climate liability lawsuits and laws claim that accountability will raise gas and oil prices, but many experts agree that market competition would disincentivize price hikes and only make them possible through illegal collusion and price-rigging.
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