The Justice Department and conservative groups have asked the Supreme Court to quash lawsuits seeking money and policy changes from oil companies over alleged climate harms, as the high court weighs a Colorado county’s lawsuit in the coming months.The Supreme Court will hear arguments in Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County in its next term, which begins in October, and decide whether a lawsuit brought by the county seeking to hold oil companies accountable for their alleged role in global climate change may move forward. The case will have sweeping ramifications for similar lawsuits that climate activists and Democratic-led jurisdictions have attempted to bring against oil companies, either allowing them to proceed or shutting them down as barred by federal law. In a brief to the Supreme Court, the DOJ urged the justices to dismiss the lawsuit, warning that it seeks to regulate matters beyond the county’s borders that only the federal government has the power to deal with.
“This case presents a basic question: Can one city wield one State’s law to dictate how the rest of the world must address a global problem with global effects? The Constitution supplies the answer: Absolutely not,” Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote for the DOJ’s brief.
