Supreme Court to decide on throwing out climate change lawsuits
WASHINGTON— The Supreme Court agreed Monday to shield energy producers from dozens of lawsuits seeking to hold them accountable for the costs of global climate change.
Over the past decade, dozens of cities, counties and states, including California, have joined state-based lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages and won preliminary victories in state courts.
But the Trump administration and energy producers have called on the Supreme Court to strike down all of these lawsuits on the grounds that they violate federal law.
“Boulder Colorado cannot create energy policy for the entire country,” attorneys for Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil said in their objection. They called on the court to rule that “state law cannot impose the costs of global climate change on a subset of the world’s energy producers selected by a single municipality.”
Judges will hear the hearing Suncor Energy v. Boulder County lawsuithowever, discussions will not take place until October.
The Biden administration has said judges should step aside while cases continue in state courts, but the Trump administration filed a brief in September urging the court to intervene immediately.
They said the case was of “great nationwide importance” and should not be left to be decided on a state-by-state basis.
Boulder’s attorneys had urged the court not to take up the matter early in the case. “This is neither the right time nor the right situation” to decide whether municipalities can sue for damages suffered.
However, after discussing the issue for weeks, the court announced that the oil and gas industries’ requests would be heard.
