Supreme Court Weighs Boulder's Climate Suit Against Oil Firm
Should state courts make fuel companies pay for climate damage or is that a national question reserved for Congress?
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Above: A gas station in Boulder, Colorado, on March 17, 2021. Image credit: Chet Strange/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Facts
- The Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday in Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, the opening case of its new term, over whether local governments can sue oil firms for climate damages under state law.
- Boulder sued ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy in 2018, alleging the companies concealed and misrepresented what they knew about the harms of burning fossil fuels and should help cover costs tied to wildfires, floods and drought.
- Attorney Kannon Shanmugam told the justices that if Boulder's claims proceed, "some 90,000 municipalities" could set national and international energy policy by asking juries to impose damages on fossil fuel producers.
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The Spin
Left narrative
Communities buried under the bills for fires, drought and vanishing snowpack deserve a day in court, and the companies that profited while downplaying the risk should pick up a fair share of the tab. State courts exist precisely to provide remedies when Congress refuses to act.
Right narrative
No single city council or jury pool has authority to set energy policy federally, and stretching state tort law for this effect shreds the limits that keep one state from governing the others. The impact of emissions and pollutants are not restricted to state border, making them a national question answerable to voters and Congress, not to hand-picked hometown courtrooms.
