Radical New York “Climate Disaster” Bill Would Allow Lawsuits Over Bad Weather

A radical bill in New York would allow for lawsuits against oil and gas companies for virtually any extreme weather event, from a windy day that causes roof damage to a heavy storm that floods a basement. This “climate disaster” legislation would be a bonanza for left-wing activists but a disaster for the companies that keep the lights on – and ultimately for everyday Americans who would end up eating the cost.

Democrat state senator Brian Kavanagh’s bill, officially titled the “Climate Accountability and Loss Recovery Act,” would allow the attorney general to bring lawsuits against oil and gas companies for a broad range of events deemed a “climate disaster.” The bill says these companies should be held responsible for extreme weather events due to “climate change.”

Mercifully for New Yorkers already weary of one Democrat overreach after another making their lives more expensive, the bill appears sidelined – for now. The legislative session adjourned earlier this month until January 2027 without any further action on the bill.

But Kavanagh and his allies have made clear that they have no intention of giving up – after all, there’s precedent here. Similar legislation has also been introduced in Hawaii and California. Hawaii legislators already passed a law in 2025 that allows individuals to sue oil and gas companies for increases in their home insurance due to climate change damage. New York’s latest attempt to unleash the left-wing legal mob on American energy companies is a sign that the idea is gaining momentum in liberal circles nationwide.

The list of climate disasters in Kavanagh’s bill includes not just “fire, flood, hurricane, [and] tornado” but also “landslide, mudslide, wind-driven water, wave action, and air contamination.” Companies would also be on the hook for “nuclear, chemical, biological, or bacteriological release” as well as “bridge failure or bridge collapse.”

A catch-all provision extends to “any event designated in a state declaration of disaster emergency” as long as it can be connected to climate change.

Proponents of the bill say they are standing up for homeowners and renters by ensuring insurance rates stay affordable. “The average New York homeowner is paying $1,000 more annually for insurance since Hurricane Ida,” the China-linked Center for Climate Integrity wrote in a supportive essay. “Renters are also feeling the pinch, as landlords increasingly pass rising insurance costs onto tenants through higher rents.”

But the problem is that this law would lead to even higher costs for consumers. In order to protect themselves against expensive lawsuits, oil and gas companies would have to increase costs to cover their own increased insurance premiums. Those costs would be passed on to consumers at the pump and on utility bills. They might also stop investing in New York and eventually pull back operations, as the law only applies to companies in the state.

All that would be needed for a lawsuit under the bill is for the weather event to be attributable to climate change, purportedly linked to oil and gas companies.

The problem is that so-called “attribution science” is based entirely on politics, not sound research and data. Using it as a basis for litigation is the definition of weaponizing the legal system for political purposes.

The group World Weather Attribution (WWA) is one of the leading “scientific” groups constantly cited by the corporate media as providing definitive evidence that climate change causes extreme weather events. But as the Washington Free Beacon reported in 2024, the group, which has received millions of dollars from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, relies on hastily compiled and shoddy research that draws sweeping conclusions based on the thinnest of evidence.

As Ryan Maue, the former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, put it, WWA’s motivations are “entirely political.” While their findings are “flashy,” Maue says, they are “not necessarily accurate.”

“What they are able to put out is the headline that climate change made Hurricane Helene worse and then count on the scientific illiteracy of the corporate media in order to produce headlines that become… more and more outlandish,” Maue told the Free Beacon. But these claims “are not supported by the science.”

New York’s climate disaster bill is simply another part of the left’s climate change grift machine. The next time a hurricane or major storm strikes the city, groups like WWA will quickly release flimsy “studies” claiming that the weather event was made worse by climate change. Then, if the New York bill becomes law, an army of left-wing environmental lawyers will target ExxonMobil, BP, and other oil and gas companies.

“The ultimate goal of this woke lawfare is to work with woke trial lawyers and activists to bankrupt energy companies and enact a left-wing national energy policy by judicial fiat, all while everyday consumers pay the price,” O.H. Skinner, executive director of Alliance for Consumers, told AMAC Newsline.

“That’s bad on every level and should be stopped whenever and wherever possible,” he warned.

New York Democrats claim that their all-out assault on the American energy industry is about standing up for everyday people and making life more affordable. But if recent history is a guide, the climate disaster law is really just another attempted wealth transfer from working families and companies that actually provide value to the economy to the left-wing environmental lobby.

Matt Lamb is an AMAC Newsline contributor and associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.