UCS Climate & Accountability Campaigns

These US states want polluters to pay for the rising insurance costs of climate disasters Proposals by California, Hawaii and New York lawmakers aim to hold fossil fuel industry accountable for soaring rates

People can’t afford home insurance, and Big Oil is to blame.

"States need every tool available to protect their residents, including the ability to make the big oil corporations most responsible for this mess pay their fair share of the rising costs," said CCI's @iylas.bsky.social.

Minnesota moves closer to putting Exxon, Koch, and American Petroleum Institute on trial | Center for Climate Integrity A three judge panel rejected Big Oil’s latest arguments for escaping the state’s climate and consumer fraud lawsuit.

Minnesota is one step closer to putting ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute on trial for climate and consumer fraud. 🙌

"These defendants prioritized their profits over the people of Minnesota, and deception was their business model,” said @ag.state.mn.us last year.

Bad Bunny performs onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium on February 08, 2026 in Santa Clara, California.

Curious about the meaning behind the utility poles in Bad Bunny’s Superbowl half-time show? There’s a long and troubled history of grid unreliability in Puerto Rico, and we’ve got the receipts.🧵👇

Climate Change Is Erased From a Manual for Federal Judges

Dr. Delta Merner is quoted, noting that the end of the Chevron deference means that judges “must more carefully assess scientific evidence when interpreting the law. That elevates the importance of clear, well-supported science in the courtroom and robust standards for evaluating expert testimony.”

UCS Action Hour: Fight Back against Deregulation The Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a virtual action hour where we will practice tactics for resisting federal deregulation of public health and environmental safeguards through strong pu...

Rolling back science-based regulations will worsen the #ClimateCrisis and expose frontline communities to greater cumulative risks. Join us for an Action Hour to learn how to fight back: Action Hour: Fight Back against Deregulation on Tuesday, February 17, 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET.

Big Oil Has Been Lying to Us for Decades: Don’t Let It off the Hook As people and communities seek accountability, the industry is pleading for an escape hatch.

Consensus about the causes & threats of climate change is nearly universal in the scientific community after decades of research. Judges should have access to this information. We can't keep letting the deep-pocketed, destructive, deceptive fossil fuel industry override the public interest.

Who Wrote the Trump Administration’s Flawed Climate Report? Meet the Architects of Disinformation Industry-backed actors create the illusion of legitimate debate, exploit uncertainty, and delay action.

Meanwhile, it’s telling that the critics of the climate science chapter referenced a recent Dept of Energy report that was conducted in secret by five known climate contrarians with ties to the fossil fuel industry. This report has been thoroughly debunked by dozens of scientists.

"Withholding climate science from judicial education does not protect neutrality; it weakens the court’s ability to fairly evaluate facts in cases that increasingly reflect the real-world impacts of climate change on people and the economy, while potentially favoring polluters.”

What to Watch in Climate Litigation in 2026 The year ahead will be a test of climate accountability.

"Courts around the world are already grappling with nearly 3,000 climate-related cases, many of which hinge on robust scientific evidence about causation, risk, and harm. Judges need access to the best available science to understand the evidence before them and make informed decisions.”

Quote from our @ucs.org colleague Dr. Delta Merner: “The decision to remove climate science from a judicial reference manual is deeply concerning and fundamentally misguided.”

Climate science removed from judicial manual after GOP complaints Republican attorneys general argued the new chapter would put judges “firmly on one side” of climate lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry.

More disturbing news today about the removal of scientific evidence from decision-making processes in our federal government. Censoring educational materials about the climate crisis will not make it go away - it will just make our public institutions less equipped to deal with it.

Huge. Laws like this were designed to punish investors for taking basic steps to address climate risk.

@sierraclub.org statement: www.sierraclub.org/press-releas...

(Also worth noting: the firms targeted were never actually “boycotting” fossil fuels—that was political misinformation all along.)

Authors Sam Gomberg and Rachel Licker were guests on the #CleanPowerHourPodcast to talk about how we're planning for yesterday's climate while tomorrow's storms are already here. The result? Billions in damage, lives lost, and communities left powerless when they need electricity most.

Listen: ⬇️

Power After the Storm As climate change can exacerbate extreme events the need for science-based, proactive grid modernization is more pressing than ever.

‼️This analysis also highlights #equity considerations of power disruptions disproportionately harm low-income, elderly, and medically vulnerable populations.

#grid #GridResilience #ClimateChange #EnvironmentalJustice #EnergyJustice

Power After the Storm As climate change can exacerbate extreme events the need for science-based, proactive grid modernization is more pressing than ever.

🌎 #ClimateChange is expected to worsen the frequency and intensity of these extreme events, making traditional #grid planning insufficient for the risk communities now face.

Power After the Storm As climate change can exacerbate extreme events the need for science-based, proactive grid modernization is more pressing than ever.

📣NEW @ucs.org analysis documents how extreme weather events were behind all the largest power outages in the Central U.S. over the past decade, affecting hundreds of thousands of customers and demonstrating the urgent need to build a more resilient electric #grid.

How Do Climate Scientists Use Artificial Intelligence? The AI used in climate research right now is much less energy intensive than the large language models like ChatGPT.

Artificial intelligence has been used in climate science for nearly 25 years. Read here to find out how and why.

“Someone has to pay — and it will be us, if Big Oil gets immunity,” said Shemona Moreno of @350seattle.bsky.social.

Big Oil knowingly fueling the climate crisis, and communities are paying the price.

Congress must protect our right to hold polluting corporations accountable.

A crowd stands in front of a building with a yellow and purple banner reading "Make Polluters Pay."

People pose for a photo holding handmade signs reading "Make Polluters Pay," "Make Big Oil Pay," "Pollution Hurts Real People," and "Big Oil Profits, Our Communities Suffer."

Three people hold a yellow banner with black text, with a painted on image of oil dripping from the top. It reads "Polluters Profit, Illinois Pays."

People hold a banner reading "Make Polluters Pay" over the edge of a bridge, with the water visible below. Street signs on the bridge read "Opera Bridge, Madison Street."

Congrats to the Illinois Make Polluters Pay coalition on last week's kickoff rally in support of the state's newly introduced climate superfund bill. Despite the freezing temperatures, Chicago showed out in force to say #MakePollutersPay!

📸Photo credit: Vanessa Bly for NRDC @nrdc.org

Mainers Demand World’s Largest Polluters Pay for Climate Damage State and municipal leaders joined Mainers from across the state at the State House on January 27, 2026 for a Make Polluters Pay Action Day, calling on state lawmakers to...

Third Act Maine came out in force for the Make Polluters Pay Day of Action, even though many of us had to get up early to dig cars out after a heavy snow storm & drive an hour or more, Maine elders showed up for the future of the planet!
@polluterspay.bsky.social

thirdact.org/maine/2026/0...

Court Rules Trump Administration’s Secret “Climate Working Group” Violated Federal Law Court declared today that the Trump administration violated federal law when it secretly formed the “Climate Working Group” and tasked it with writing a dangerously slanted report used as the basis fo...

A big win today: a federal court found that the Trump administration’s sham report attacking climate science was created in secret by a hand-picked set of climate policy opponents, violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Read our statement here:

My letter on the @financialtimes.com story on BP/Shell’s climate rollbacks is now published.

The key takeaway: most investors should recognize that the interests of major polluters are often at odds with their own long-term portfolio interests—and should act accordingly.

www.ft.com/content/e100...

The Fossil Fuels Behind Forest Fires Some of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers are now directly connected to wildfires across western North America.

Learn more about the fossil fuels behind forest fires:

Red background showing someone walking near flames. White and yellow text reads "19.8 million acres of burned forest land in the western U.S. and Canada between 1986-2021 can be attributed to heat-trapping emissions from 88 companies. Climate change is no accident. Make polluters pay."

Californians are no strangers to floods, fires, and extreme heat. We're paying the price with our health and from our pockets. 💸 ❤️‍🩹

Join us during #MakePollutersPay Week of Action to shift climate costs off people and onto Big Polluters. Write to state legislators: secure.ucs.org/a/2025-ca-ho...

Secretary Noem's Reckless Undermining of FEMA As Well As Her Destructive DHS Agenda Means She Must Go Congress must stop the Trump administration’s destructive actions.

Removing Noem from the helm of DHS would be an important first step to preserve FEMA, but much more is needed from Congress to stop the Trump administration’s destructive actions to undermine the disaster agency and endanger people across the country.

Blue background showing flood waters. White and yellow text reads "Fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell are recklessly fueling climate disasters and environmental destruction around the globe. Climate change is no accident. Make polluters pay." Below is the Union of Concerned Scientists logo.

Climate change is no accident. Fossil fuel companies have known for decades that their products are causing harmful climate emissions and related impacts. It’s time to #MakePollutersPay!

Learn more: www.ucs.org/resources/de...

Join the Week of Action: actionnetwork.org/event_campai...

"The best available science makes clear that major fossil fuel producers have contributed an outsized amount of carbon pollution to the atmosphere, and Climate Superfund bills are using that science to ensure polluters, not communities, shoulder the costs of this pollution and resulting damages."

How Climate Superfund Bills Use Science to Make Polluters Pay This week, communities across the country are asking their state legislators for a common-sense solution—using a practice that's been around for decades—to make polluters pay. In 1980, following de...

Learn more about the science underlying climate superfund bills in this new blog from our colleague Dr. Carly Phillips. #MakePollutersPay

Maine needs a climate superfund rooted in justice | Opinion The culprits of climate change-related damage in Maine should cover repair of that damage. A bill before the Legislature proposes just this.

Powerful article from UNE emeritus professor Richard Peterson:

"A principle we’ve all known since kindergarten: If you break it, you fix it. The climate has been broken, and large fossil fuel companies have been breaking it knowingly for many decades."

#MakePollutersPay

Make Polluters Pay: Support Maine Climate Superfund Bill Write today and urge Governor Janet Mills and Maine state legislator to support a climate superfund bill and hold Big Polluters accountable.

There's still time to tell Maine state legislators that you support the climate superfund. This bill would assess a one-time fee on the biggest fossil fuel polluters to help pay for climate change adaptation. Write to your legislators today and tell them it's time to #MakePollutersPay!