{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://jayapal.house.gov/2026/08/03/jayapal-and-whitehouse-lead-90-colleagues-in-brief-supporting-the-ability-of-states-and-localities-to-hold-big-oil-and-gas-companies-accountable-for-climate-related-harms/", "Jayapal and Whitehouse Lead 90 Colleagues in Brief Supporting the Ability of States and Localities to Hold Big Oil and Gas Companies Accountable for Climate-Related Harms", "2026-08-03", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "House", "WA", "Pramila Jayapal", "J000298", "jayapal.house.gov", "jayapal", "https://jayapal.house.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-07) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), today led 90 members of Congress in submitting an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the case of Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. The brief explains that the Clean Air Act, the Constitution, and federal foreign policy do not prevent states and localities from holding oil and gas companies accountable for climate-related harms stemming from deceptive marketing and sales of their knowingly harmful products.\n\nAs climate change intensifies natural disasters, states and local governments face billions of dollars in climate change-driven damages. The County and the City of Boulder (respondents) sued fossil fuel companies (petitioners) under state tort law in Colorado court to \u201cprotect Boulder\u2019s property and to care for residents\u2019 safety,\u201d alleging that the fossil fuel companies knew their products were harmful but deliberately concealed that information from consumers. Before the Supreme Court, the fossil fuel companies incorrectly argue that the Clean Air Act, the Constitution, and federal foreign policy preempt Boulder\u2019s claims. The lawmakers filed a brief to ensure that federal statutes and federal authority are not improperly used as cudgels to preempt states\u2019 powers to protect their citizens.\n\nThe lawmakers\u2019 brief explains that the Clean Air Act does not preempt state tort suits seeking to address harms caused by the deceptive marketing and sales of fossil fuels. While Congress knows how to preempt state laws when it chooses, \u201cthe Clean Air Act\u2019s text, structure, and purpose show that Congress has not preempted respondents\u2019 state tort claims. The Act is intended to improve air quality primarily through emission reductions and thus does not reach respondents\u2019 claims that petitioners engaged in the tortious conduct of deceptive marketing and sales of their knowingly harmful products. . . . Petitioners\u2019 argument ignores the mismatch between the conduct at issue in respondents\u2019 claims and the conduct that Congress sought to regulate in the Act. This fatal flaw should end the Court\u2019s inquiry.\u201d\n\nFurther, \u201ceven if petitioners were correct that respondents\u2019 claims could incidentally reduce or even directly regulate emissions (which they do not), the Clean Air Act\u2019s text, structure, and purpose permit that.\u201d In the Act, \u201cCongress expressly empowered state regulations beyond the federal standards and preserved state authority to seek \u2018any\u2019 relief under \u2018any statute or common law.\u2019\u201d Congress thus \u201censure[d] that the Act sets a federal floor to prevent a \u2018race to the bottom\u2019 but otherwise largely leaves state power intact, recognizing the enduring role of States in pollution regulation.\u201d The oil companies\u2019 novel presumption in favor of preemption would invert traditional principles of federalism and undermine Congress\u2019s authority to choose when and how federal law displaces state law.\n\n\u201cPetitioners hardly disguise their intent to upend decades of this Court\u2019s jurisprudence respecting Congress\u2019s legislative choices and state sovereignty in our federal system,\u201d the lawmakers write. The petitioners\u2019 argument \u201cwould turn any regulatory regime for a national industry into a default liability shield for deceptive practices or other misconduct.\u201d The members added, \u201cThis is not how Congress legislates: Congress does not implicitly create liability shields for tortious conduct whenever it regulates within a field\u2026 Instead, even where Congress does preempt traditional state authority, it often carves out consumer protection claims, recognizing the importance of States\u2019 ability to protect citizens from fraud-based harm.\u201d\n\nThe lawmakers also refute the petitioners\u2019 assertion that Congressionally approved foreign policy preempts respondents\u2019 claims. Petitioners \u201cfail to identify any foreign policy in tension with respondents\u2019 claims, much less the clear and substantial conflict with federal foreign policy typically required to preempt state laws operating in a traditional area of state authority\u2026 Petitioners\u2019 attempt to gin up a conflict between federal foreign policy and respondents\u2019 tort claims falls short.\u201d\n\nJoining Whitehouse and Jayapal in signing the amicus brief were Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chirs Van Hollen (D-MD), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), along with 77 members of the House.\n\nFull text of the brief is available here.", 1, "2026-08-04T07:35:49Z", "2026-08-04T07:37:27Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://jayapal.house.gov/2026/08/03/jayapal-and-whitehouse-lead-90-colleagues-in-brief-supporting-the-ability-of-states-and-localities-to-hold-big-oil-and-gas-companies-accountable-for-climate-related-harms/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7949150167405605, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}