Supreme Court To Take Up Climate Lawfare In Fall

Well, we already know which way the three liberals will vote. Will any of the Conservatives go Squish?

Climate change lawsuit to kick off Supreme Court’s next term

This week, the Supreme Court announced its argument schedule for October 2026, with a dispute over who can sue over the effects of climate change as the first case of its new term.

In Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, the justices are presented with several questions involving the federal government’s power to preempt environmental lawsuits from local governments filed in state court. In Article VI, Clause 2, the Supremacy Clause states that “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States … shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

In this case, Boulder County and the city of Boulder in Colorado sued Suncor Energy, Suncor Energy Sales, and Exxon Mobile in 2018. Boulder claimed a state court could compel energy companies to share “a portion of the financial burden their communities must bear in coping with an altered climate brought about in part by petitioners’ tortious conduct.” Critics of Boulder’s strategy labeled the cost-sharing burden as an indirect carbon tax.

The Colorado supreme court upheld a lower state court that sure, it’s cool fining the energy companies

Suncor appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which accepted one question presented by Suncor: “Whether federal law precludes state-law claims seeking relief for injuries allegedly caused by the effects of interstate and international greenhouse-gas emissions on the global climate.”

In addition, the justices added a second question for oral argument: “whether this Court has statutory and Article III jurisdiction to hear this case.”

A win for Suncor could do serious damage to the climalawfare business, and take a lot of states out of play as they try and sue.