The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Boulder, Colorado, and Boulder County’s case against Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil, a dispute over whether oil and gas companies can be held liable for allegedly misleading people about climate change and the costs of disasters linked to it. The ruling could shape similar lawsuits nationwide, as local communities’ claims against corporate power reach a court that has limited federal climate regulation.
Tawnya Somauroo got her first warning that the 2021 Marshall Fire was headed for her suburban street less than an hour before her home burned. “We lost our homes and they left us to figure out for ourselves how to make our neighborhoods safe again,” she said. “At the end of the day, it comes out of our pockets, you know? And it does feel like maybe the oil and gas industry should have a part in this.”
Somauroo has worked to rebuild her home and prepare her neighborhood to withstand another blaze. She worries that careful landscaping, metal fencing and flame-resistant siding may not be enough. The fire caused an estimated $2 billion in damage, making it the costliest wildfire in Colorado history.
Who Pays for the Damage
Boulder and Boulder County sued the companies in 2018, seeking unspecified damages under state law to help cover the costs of worsening disasters. Their case belongs to a wave of climate litigation in the United States and around the world, with billions of dollars at stake. Boulder says it wants compensation for local costs, not the power to regulate emissions beyond its borders.
Boulder County is one of dozens of U.S. jurisdictions suing oil and gas companies over damage from disasters linked to climate change. The legal path is a court case. For Somauroo, the immediate challenge is rebuilding and trying to make her neighborhood safer, while the costs come out of residents’ pockets.
“The problem is that climate change is caused by pretty much everybody living on earth,” said Phil Goldberg, special counsel for the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project, an industry group. “We need to figure out how to address that. We need to address it in a very meaningful way. This litigation doesn’t do that.” The companies say state-court lawsuits aren’t the right way to address a global problem.
The Federal Power Fight
The Trump administration backs the companies. Federal government attorneys call the lawsuits a backdoor attempt to regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions and an unconstitutional power grab. “No one state can superimpose its own regulatory preferences on the rest — least of all to address a global problem that exists almost entirely outside its borders and affects the world at large,” they wrote.
The administration says the Clean Air Act gives the federal government, rather than states, authority to regulate emissions. The Republican administration has largely used that authority to roll back environmental regulations. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency repealed rules limiting emissions from coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants, giving up some of its climate authority. That move could complicate the federal government’s argument in the case.
“Boulder County and city aren’t trying to change what’s happening in Texas or New York, they’re trying to get compensation for things happening now in Colorado,” said Sam Sankar, senior vice president at Earthjustice, which filed an amicus brief.
A Courtroom With an Off-Ramp
The justices are set to hear the case Monday, the first day of the court’s new term. The conservative-majority court hasn’t always backed environmental regulations; in a 2022 decision, it limited the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Eight of the nine justices are expected to sit. Justice Samuel Alito recused himself a week before arguments after people called for him to step aside because he owns stock in oil companies, leaving open the possibility of a tie vote. The court is also weighing whether it has jurisdiction to hear the case at this stage, a question experts describe as a potential “off-ramp.”
Chris Winter, executive director of the Getches-Wilkinson Center, an environmental research group in Colorado, said: “Local county municipal governments play a very important role in helping front line communities adapt to climate change. This case could very well set a precedent.” The justices will decide whether Boulder’s claim for local costs can proceed through the courts. Somauroo and her neighbors continue rebuilding and preparing with the money and tools available to them.