Oil Companies Get Supreme Court Hearing on Climate Suits (1)

The US Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. in an industry bid to stop dozens of city and state lawsuits that blame oil companies for climate change.

The justices will review a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that said the city and county of Boulder could use state law to press a suit against the two companies.

Similar suits around the country ultimately could cost the industry billions of dollars if the Supreme Court lets them go forward. The decision to hear the Colorado case came after the Trump administration, business groups and conservative organizations filed a flurry of briefs urging the court to take up the appeal.

“The stakes in this case could not be higher,” Exxon and Suncor argued. The suits seek to “impose untold damages on energy companies for the physical and economic effects of climate change.”

Boulder says the oil companies misled the public about the risks of climate change and knowingly contributed to the phenomenon by producing and promoting fossil fuels. Boulder says the companies should cover some of the costs state and local governments are incurring to cope with the problem.

The oil companies argue in their appeal that the Constitution doesn’t permit state-law suits aimed at addressing a global issue like climate change. “Boulder, Colorado, cannot make energy policy for the entire country,” the companies contended.

Boulder urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal, blasting the companies’ argument as “a constitutional theory they have yet to convince any appellate court to adopt.”

The court will hear arguments and rule in the nine-month term that starts in October.

The court had been deliberating since December over the companies’ appeal. In agreeing to hear the case, the justices said they also would consider Boulder’s argument that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to hear the appeal at this stage in the litigation, in part because the state court hasn’t issued a final judgment.

The Supreme Court previously rejected oil company appeals in a similar case pressed by Honolulu, as well as an unusual bid by 19 Republican-run states to sue five Democratic-run states directly at the high court in an attempt to derail the lawsuits.

The Supreme Court in 2023 turned away company appeals that sought to shift the lawsuits into federal court, where corporate defendants often fare better. That let the cases go forward in state court but didn’t resolve whether the suing jurisdictions would be able to invoke state law to win their cases.

The case is Suncor v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, 25-170.

(Adds jurisdictional argument court will hear in ninth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth

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