Supreme Court to hear oil and gas challenge to climate-change lawsuits

The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear an appeal from oil and gas companies trying to block lawsuits that seek billions of dollars in damages tied to climate change, including a case from Boulder, Colorado, the court said.

Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil appealed after the Colorado Supreme Court allowed the Boulder case to proceed. Governments around the country have filed suits seeking damages they say are necessary to help pay for rebuilding after wildfires, rising seas and severe storms, and similar actions are underway in states including California, Hawaii and New Jersey and in other countries, legal filings show.

The companies argue emissions are a national issue that should be heard in federal court, where similar suits have been dismissed. “The use of state law to address global climate change represents a serious threat to one of our Nation’s most critical sectors,” the companies’ attorneys wrote in court papers.

The Trump administration filed a brief supporting the companies, saying the Colorado ruling could allow “every locality in the country [to] sue essentially anyone in the world for contributing to global climate change.” The administration also criticized the suits in an executive order, and the Justice Department has sought to head some of them off in court, filings show.

Attorneys for Boulder argued the litigation is in its early stages and should remain in state court. “There is no constitutional bar to states addressing in-state harms caused by out-of-state conduct, be it the negligent design of an automobile or sale of asbestos,” Boulder lawyers wrote. Jonathan Koehn, Boulder’s climate initiatives director, said the case is about fairness and said “the financial burden of adaptation should not fall solely on local taxpayers.”

The Supreme Court asked both sides to address whether the case is ready for review. The justices are expected to hear arguments in the fall, the court said.

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