As communities across the country get closer to putting Big Oil companies on trial for their climate deception, Republican lawmakers have introduced bills that aim to shield fossil fuel companies from any laws or lawsuits that could hold them accountable. Former three-term Washington Governor and climate champion Jay Inslee recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to warn members of Congress about Big Oil’s lobbying campaign to escape accountability and urge them to oppose it.

“Americans deserve not to be lied to by big corporations — they should be subject to the same laws everybody is subject to,” Inslee said. “We should have no kings in the White House and no kings saying they’re above the law.”

The bills, introduced by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Representative Harriet Hageman (R-WY) in the Senate and House respectively, seek to eliminate all existing and future climate accountability efforts against fossil fuel companies, including climate deception lawsuits and climate superfund laws.

Following Inslee’s visit, nearly a dozen members of Congress have already spoken in opposition to the bills, raising concerns of the oil and gas industry being placed above the law, similar to the 2005 law giving gun manufacturers a legal liability shield.

“This bill would slam the door on holding fossil fuel polluters accountable and shift the burden onto New Yorkers,” said Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “Polluters should pay for the climate damage they caused, not taxpayers.”

“I want to make sure our caucus is prepared for the fight that lies ahead because it is critical that the actors responsible for causing and worsening the climate crisis can be held accountable in the judiciary system,” Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said in a briefing to the House of Representatives’ Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition

Thousands of people have signed a petition urging Congress to protect communities’ ability to hold powerful corporations accountable and reject efforts to give Big Oil companies legal immunity.

Originally published by the Center for Climate Integrity on May 21, 2026

The current political landscape represents a magical moment for anyone envisioning a clean energy future, Inslee said, pointing to three factors making the case for a clean energy transition.

“Number one, we know that Americans are increasingly frustrated about their high electricity costs,” Inslee said. “Number two, we know that the market is demanding sources of clean energy because it is cheaper and because it is faster, both. And number three, we know that the federal government has withdrawn from any responsibility for dealing with this problem.”

While others view the Trump administration’s opposition to clean energy with doom and gloom, Inslee argued the contrary.

Invoking Winston Churchill, he stressed that days like these are days of consequence.

“Right now, I believe these are great days for Michigan and Washington where we can move the ball forward, because we have demonstrated in Washington, and you have in Michigan as well, that this is really true,” Inslee said. “Nobody in the White House can stop Michigan or Washington from moving forward on clean energy.”

From helping to install heat pumps to expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the vast majority of decarbonization efforts cannot be touched by the federal government, Inslee said.

“Technology is with us. People are with us. The science is behind us, and we have vast majorities of people who want to see this happen,” Inslee said. “So I bid you well in your journey, I want to let you know we’re always there to help in Washington State.”

Also speaking at the conference was Phil Roos, the director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, who said Michigan has undergone a profound shift in under 10 years.

He pointed to the state’s commitment to reaching 100% carbon neutrality by 2050; the release of the MI Healthy Climate Plan in 2022, which set the roadmap for that goal, and the decision to place the Healthy Climate Plan goals into state law with Michigan’s 2023 clean energy laws.

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Originally published in Michigan Advance on April 22 2026

Former Washington Governor Jay Inslee is sounding the alarm about Big Oil’s lobbying campaign for legal immunity, warning of the harm to communities, affordability, and democracy if the fossil fuel industry is placed above the law.

Last week, Inslee and Center for Climate Integrity staff briefed members of Congress about the oil industry’s push to secure a legal shield that would block communities across the country from holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for its climate deception and the damages it has fueled.

“I am playing the role of Paul Revere here,” Inslee told members of the House of Representatives’ Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. “The British aren’t coming but the oil and gas industry is.”

Big Oil and its allies have spent the past year waging a coordinated campaign to secure legal immunity from Congress that would stop any laws or lawsuits that could hold the industry accountable for its role in the climate crisis.

Oil lobbyists have stated that killing climate liability efforts is one of their top priorities this year, and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) said in February that she is working with members in “both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling” the growing number of climate accountability lawsuits and climate superfund laws Big Oil is facing. Last year, 16 Republican attorneys general called for a “liability shield” for Big Oil modeled after the 2005 law protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits, and lawmakers in several states have introduced state-level legal shields for fossil fuel companies modeled off of draft legislation from a pro-fossil fuel group.

Inslee, a former three-term governor, House member, and trial lawyer, also appeared on multiple national news networks to denounce Big Oil’s pursuit of a get-out-of-jail-free card.

“Oil and gas executives are terrified of having to face their own record,” Inslee told CNN. “They are terrified of being cross-examined and read the things they wrote back in the ‘70s and ‘80s that predicted this catastrophe that we are now experiencing.

“This is all a part of a corrupt scheme,” Inslee said. “[Big Oil is] gouging Americans for electricity prices and gas prices, and then turn[ing] around and say[ing] ‘we’re exempt from all the laws, we’re above the laws, and we don’t have to be accountable for our deception.’ Americans should revile that action and we should not allow it.”

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said in a social media post after Inslee’s visit that pushing to immunize Big Oil in Congress would be a dealbreaker for ongoing permitting reform talks.

“If they want to blow up permitting reform, making this nonsense national would be the way to do it,” Whitehouse posted on social media in response to news that Utah had passed the nation’s first state-level legal shield for fossil fuel companies. “Rule of Law must fall before Fossil Fuel?”

A growing number of groups, elected officials, and community members are calling on Congress to oppose any efforts to put Big Oil above the law. Nearly 200 organizations, including CCI, have urged Democratic leaders in Congress to oppose any form of a legal shield for the oil and gas industry, calling on leaders to “ensure both justice today and the right of future generations to hold polluters responsible for decades of deception.”

Originally published by the Center for Climate Integrity on April 1, 2026

Donald Trump took office with a promise to cut energy prices in half. Instead, utility bills are up 10% this year while his administration is busy waging war against America’s cheapest sources of new electricity, wind and solar.

Even in this age of post-truth politics, you’d be hard-pressed to find a clearer example of a president promising one thing and delivering the exact opposite. Our electricity grid faces real challenges that are driving up costs for consumers. Those include rising demand from data centers powering artificial intelligence, as well as aging infrastructure, volatile fossil fuel prices, supply chain shortages, increasingly extreme weather events, a lack of transmission, and outdated grid interconnection systems. Building out a larger grid with more clean energy can be a solution to all these problems, yet Trump’s entire energy agenda is aimed at blocking it.

Americans deserve better from their federal government. Fortunately, state and local leaders can step into the breach by speeding up the deployment of cheap renewable power themselves.

Let’s start with the facts: Even without federal subsidies, solar and wind are the least expensive energy resources available today as well as the fastest ways to add power to the grid. Last year across the country, solar, wind, and energy storage made up over 90% of the new capacity. States that added the most clean energy in recent years have also avoided the largest energy cost increases.

Even without federal subsidies, solar and wind are the least expensive energy resources available today as well as the fastest ways to add power to the grid.

Contrast this with the performance of fossil fuel resources: Natural gas prices have increased 40% in one year and the cost of building a new plant has tripled according to industry executives, in part because there is a five-plus year backlog to acquire new gas turbines. In oil-and-gas-rich Texas, planned gas plants are being canceled due to high costs, even though the state is attempting to subsidize them. Meanwhile, renewable energy is booming. Grid operators there credit wind, solar, and storage for keeping the lights on during a heat wave this summer.

Rather than support the growth of affordable solar and wind — which are also driving a U.S. manufacturing renaissance — Trump and his cabinet have launched an all-out assault on them. Doug Burgum, his interior secretary, ordered nearly complete offshore wind projects to be cancelled without due cause. His Transportation Department proposed an unscientific setback rule to restrict onshore wind energy. The Treasury Department gutted long-standing tax credit rules and is now driving major business uncertainty. And the Department of Agriculture pulled its support for solar energy projects that are helping farmers make ends meet.

Most importantly, the massive tax and budget bill Republicans passed this summer rolled back federal tax credits for wind and solar. As a result, analysts project that the United States could install as much as 62% less clean energy over the next decade, and energy bills will increase by $170 per year. In some states annual bill increases could top $600.

A majority of Americans say they’re worried about rising energy costs, and already feel greater financial stress because of them. But Trump seems to be focused on repaying his political benefactors. Last year, he and Secretary Burgum hosted oil and gas executives at Trump’s hotel in Mar-a-Lago, where Trump promised them a gold rush if they would provide cash for his campaign. They delivered just under $100 million, and now he is delivering for their profit margins — trying to crush their clean energy competition so they can gouge customers at will. Everyday Americans are left to foot the bill, and even Chris Wright, Trump’s secretary of energy, has acknowledged that their administration will be blamed for it.

America’s future does not need to look this way. As former governor of Washington state and one of his former advisors, we have seen what a clean energy agenda can deliver. Our state has long been a national leader in renewable energy, and has long enjoyed some of the lowest retail electricity prices in the country. Indeed, in both blue and red states where leaders have promoted the deployment of clean energy, their residents are reaping the benefits of lower costs. Ironically, this once even included Secretary Burgum, who proudly embraced renewable energy as part of an “all of the above” energy strategy when he was governor of North Dakota. That state now gets 40% of its power from renewables, especially wind, and it has some of the lowest electricity prices in the nation.

The good news is that state and local governments still have levers they can pull to better protect their ratepayers.

Deploy more clean energy, and fast

First, they need to deploy more clean energy, and fast. A number of states are already rushing to help more solar and wind projects break ground before federal tax incentives expire next year thanks to Trump’s megabill, which will in effect raise the costs of these projects by 30-plus percentage points. Going forward, state and local policymakers should streamline siting and permitting processes so that projects get done more quickly. They can also enact their own state-level incentives, and provide low-cost financing through state green banks and energy funds. Red and blue states ranging from Alabama and Virginia to Minnesota and Washington have established and capitalized state energy-financing institutions, and more than 50 state and local green banks now exist throughout the United States.

Across the country, an enormous number of clean energy developments are currently stuck in what’s known as the “interconnection queue” — a giant traffic jam of projects that are essentially waiting for permission to plug into the grid. When a regional grid operator is taking too long getting new plants online, states should band together to demand reforms, as Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states are doing as part of the PJM Interconnection. In the meantime, they can also help projects get around that backlog by letting them connect through infrastructure that has already been approved for existing power plants but is currently going unused.

We need all the clean electrons we can get, so along with major utility-scale projects, states should also promote rooftop solar as well as other small- and mid-sized installations. And we can get more out of the projects we’ve already paid for; using innovative software models, small projects can be connected together into virtual power plants to cost-effectively meet electricity demand and reduce the need for new large power plants.

States should also make sure families and businesses don’t end up footing the bill for power-hungry data centers by working with tech companies to carefully manage their electricity demand, or make them invest in their own clean energy and storage capacity.

We need to expand the grid

Second, we need to expand the grid: Lack of transmission infrastructure — the high-voltage power lines that move electricity over long distances — is a major challenge to our ability to maintain a low-cost and reliable grid. A 2023 study from the U.S. Department of Energy made this plainly clear, and found that expanding transmission could save Americans hundreds of billions of dollars — with every dollar invested returning $1.60 to $1.80 in savings.

Policy wonks tend to talk about transmission building as an Uncle Sam problem, partly because federal law governs projects that stretch across state lines. And federal policy solutions — especially reforms to permitting and cost allocation — are certainly needed. But states and local officials can help get more power lines built, too, by taking a stronger role in planning and financing, especially if they work together, the way Midwestern states have through the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s Transmission Expansion Plan.

States can also act immediately to squeeze more juice out of our current grid by promoting grid-enhancing technologies. For instance, Montana and others are allowing utilities to recoup the cost of covering power lines with advanced conductors, which could double transmission capacity along existing corridors for less than the cost of building new lines.

Hold utilities accountable

Third, hold utilities accountable: State governments have primary authority in the regulation of retail electric utilities that sell power to homes and businesses. And states, through their public utilities commissions, must use every bit of this authority to better protect ratepayers — exercising close scrutiny of their plans to meet load growth and requests for customer rate increases.

If you were one of the many activists who took part in last weekend’s Sun Day, this is one place where you can make a difference. The utility regulatory complex is an opaque beast, but Americans can participate in utility commission proceedings, and voters can hold their commissioners accountable — via direct elections, in ten states, or through the governors and the legislators who install them, in others.

To be sure, not all states are total masters of their own destinies when it comes to electricity costs. Those that participate in wholesale electricity markets, in particular, rely upon regional grid operators to oversee the interconnection of new energy generation, transmission planning, and markets for daily energy demand and future reliability. These regional markets are supposed to deliver the lowest-cost energy for consumers, via competition. But some, like PJM — which includes 13 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest — have been falling down on the job by failing to approve new wind and solar projects, plan adequate transmission infrastructure, or maintain affordable capacity auctions. This has caused massive cost increases for homes and businesses in the region.

But states can take steps to make these markets work. As we mentioned earlier, members of PJM are now demanding reforms. Meanwhile, in other places, states are working together to expand wholesale electricity markets in ways that could help deploy more low-cost energy; recent legislation passed in California is poised to facilitate the creation of an independently governed western energy market, which could deliver billions in savings for ratepayers in the region.

Renewables are the cheapest power available, the fastest to build, and the surest way to strengthen our grid while bringing down costs for consumers.

Furthermore, there are of course other steps that states can take to address energy costs, including by offering direct financial relief to consumers, supporting energy efficiency programs, and deploying battery storage and other zero-emission technologies that continue to enjoy federal tax incentives. Electricity bills are on the rise, and Americans are demanding solutions.

The big picture point, however, is that the politics and economics of energy have changed. Renewables are the cheapest power available, the fastest to build, and the surest way to strengthen our grid while bringing down costs for consumers. Wind and solar create good-paying jobs in our communities, keep money in families’ pockets, and give America a competitive edge in the fast-growing global industries of the 21st century. Donald Trump is leading a costly conspiracy against clean energy. But state and local leaders can champion this low-cost energy that’s needed to power America’s future.

Originally published in The Argument on September 24, 2025

Jay Inslee believes in the power of local action—even in overcoming national pushback.

“Right now, we know these are hard days. We’ve got a person in the White House who must have been scared by wind turbines as a young man,” the three-term Democratic governor of Washington State said at the 2025 TIME Earth Awards on April 23. “But despite the bad news coming out of Washington, D.C., we have a magic vehicle for progress that is the states.”

Despite the President withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and dismantling climate initiatives across the country, “Donald Trump cannot stop a state from defeating climate change,” Inslee said.

In 2021, Inslee signed into law Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, which requires the state’s largest polluters to cap emissions and purchase allowances for the amount they pollute, which the state reinvests into clean energy. He has passed laws requiring a 100% clean—meaning generated from renewable or zero-carbon resources—electrical grid by 2045, invested billions of dollars into solar power and electric vehicles, and launched state programs to help businesses and residents transition to clean energy.

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President and CEO of American Forests, the oldest forest conservation non-governmental organization in the U.S., Jad Daley, who presented the award to Inslee, said Inslee’s leadership is “needed now more than ever.”

“The Governor’s leadership in Washington State alone would merit this award,” Daley said. But Inslee “went a pivotal step further” in 2017—when Trump first tried to withdraw from the Paris Agreement—by co-founding the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of 24 states that pledged to maintain pace with the goals set forth in the accord. Member states include Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law an extensive climate package in 2023 that would push the state towards 100% clean energy by 2040, and Maine, where Gov. Janet Mills has signed multiple clean energy and solar power bills.

“The cheapest electricity today is clean energy,” Inslee said. “We are the answer to inflation, to give people cheap, inexpensive, clean energy.”

Inslee ended on a call to action.

“This is the United States, and every one of those states has the capability of advancing clean energy and fighting climate change,” Inslee said. “I’m tired of playing defense. We need to play offense right now.”

Originally published in Time Magazine on April 23, 2025

There are two immutable forces that we ought to know President Donald Trump cannot stop. The first is the incoming tide of the ocean. The second is the growth of the clean-energy economy. He cannot hold back the rising tide because no steady stream of bluster, prevarication, or snake-oil salesmanship can have any effect on gravitational forces that rule the tides. Likewise, he cannot stop our creation of a clean-energy economy, because he cannot thwart the tremendously successful local efforts by leaders in states and towns who, by pushing for concrete, bold action on climate, are now growing green jobs like gangbusters. He may be able to slow climate progress down, but he cannot stop it entirely.

Local leaders have the freedom to decide what their state prioritizes. We have the ability to pass our own laws, our own investments, our own air-quality standards. And we know we can achieve big things locally because we already met this challenge eight years ago. In the years since Trump pulled our nation out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, we in Washington State were advancing major climate policy—unrestrained by the federal government. This includes passing the country’s most aggressive cap-and-invest law, limiting carbon emissions by setting a clean-fuel standard and requiring a 100% clean electrical grid by 2045, and investing billions to help Washingtonians acquire everything from electric school buses to solar power. None of these achievements can be taken away by the stroke of a President’s pen.

Emboldened by the power of local action, during Trump’s first term I co-founded the U.S. Climate Alliance—a group of 24 states, representing nearly 60% of the U.S. economy, that recognize their obligation to carry the ball with a climate denier in the White House, and the inarguable ability of states to act of their own accord. This approach maximizes the ideals of federalism: states acting in concert using their own mechanisms toward a common goal. And it has led to record clean-energy jobs, entrepreneurship, and robust economic growth. In Michigan, for example, Governor Gretchen Whitmer passed a 100% clean-electricity law in 2023 that will lower energy prices. In Maine, Governor Janet Mills’ incredible work over the past year financing heat pumps has resulted in the electrification of homes across her state. Thanks to the America Is All In coalition, cities and counties across the U.S. are undertaking similar efforts in their communities.

This is not to say that Trump is not a threat to climate progress. His current attempt to cut funding for clean-energy deployment—from EV-charger installations to solar—is depriving us of our clean-energy future. But rather than waiting for the judicial system to right these wrongs, or cursing our TV screens, we must act ourselves.

At this dark moment, we see peril in coping with the effects of climate change, but we also face much promise of building a new, better, higher-paying green economy. This promise, however, won’t happen without millions of Americans standing up for action. You have the power to help shape the destiny of every place you touch. You have the power to demand action from your representatives, to be on the streets, to make contributions to groups in the political trenches. The only thing that would be wrong is to do nothing.

We control our own destiny. Each of our states is free to build our own policies, our own industries, our own visions for our own communities. And Trump cannot stop us.

Trump cannot stop the overwhelming pace of technological and industrial progress that has made renewable energy the least expensive form of energy and the electric vehicle the most fun and least expensive to drive. Progress on this front is inexorable. We have the tools, we have the vision, and we have one another. It is now our job to push our states to accelerate the pace of this massive decarbonization. We control our own destiny. Each of our states is free to build our own policies, our own industries, our own visions for our own communities. And Trump cannot stop us.

Originally published in Time Magazine on March 27, 2025