State Tort Capture of Energy Firms

Local political coalitions (plaintiff lawyers, elected officials, and sympathetic state judges) can weaponize state tort law to extract retroactive, large sums from strategic industries by framing long‑past activities as local harms. The Supreme Court’s Chevron U.S.A. v. Plaquemines Parish case will test whether federal officer removal shields companies from such politically charged state litigation and whether a single state’s tactics can spark dozens of copycat suits. — If courts allow this pattern, it will create massive legal and regulatory uncertainty for national infrastructure firms, shift investment risk, and empower localized political rent‑seeking with national economic consequences.