Energy companies want to block lawsuits from people and special interest groups who claim Big Oil deceived the public about how fossil fuels contribute to climate change. Multiple lawsuits regarding this issue have sprung up across the country, including California, Hawaii, and New Jersey.
Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after Colorado's highest court allowed a case in Boulder to proceed. According to Associated Press, the Supreme Court agreed on Monday to take the case, and arguments from both sides are expected in the fall.
Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann voiced in a press release that oil companies have tried everything “to delay our climate accountability case or move it to an out-of-state court system."
"As everyone continues to face rising costs that put budgets under pressure, we must hold oil companies accountable for the significant harm they've caused our communities,” wrote Stolzmann. “We move forward with renewed energy and purpose for the next step toward justice."
Boulder Mayor Anne Brockett added that "local communities are living with the mounting costs of climate change." As a result, she thinks the Supreme Court should affirm Colorado's right to hold these companies accountable for the "harm" they have caused in Colorado.
Energy companies argue that emissions are a national issue that should be heard in federal court, where similar suits have been tossed.
"The use of state law to address global climate change represents a serious threat to one of our nation's most critical sectors," the attorneys wrote in the AP story.
Craig Rucker, co-founder of the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), spoke with AFN. He thinks it's good news that the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments.
"These are nuisance lawsuits," states Rucker. "Many of these lawsuits are groundless, baseless, and ought to be tossed in court."
Rucker adds that "the greens have demonstrably failed to show really any evidence of ecological collapse or destruction" caused by climate change.
"You have prediction after prediction that has failed to come through, and yet they want to collect extreme damages by fossil fuel companies to theoretical computer modeled climate catastrophe that has yet never transpired," says Rucker. "It's ridiculous."
