Supreme Court wrestles with who should pay for climate change

Filed 1h ago · Via Grist · The Buffoon Desk

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Waltz of the Carnies

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: European Parliament · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Boulder, Colorado's lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor, a case that could determine whether dozens of similar suits against fossil fuel companies nationwide can proceed. Boulder isn't asking the companies to stop selling oil or gas; it wants compensation for allegedly deceiving the public about the harms those products caused, a legal theory Justice Kagan compared to 1990s tobacco litigation.

Justice Kavanaugh pushed back hard, warning the ruling could effectively let states regulate emissions worldwide and potentially bankrupt companies, while the oil companies' attorney floated being personally sued in Colorado for refilling his own car. Boulder's attorney called that framing cavalier, insisting the theory lets companies keep producing as much as the market bears so long as consumers are properly informed.

No clear signal emerged from the arguments, and a ruling could take months. The outcome will likely hinge on narrower legal questions, like the scope of the Clean Air Act, that will ripple differently across the many other pending climate liability cases.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Funny how the same oil company lawyer who says this case is too complicated for a state court to handle can turn around and describe, in plain English, exactly what might happen if he loses, down to imagining himself getting sued for topping off his tank. That's not confusion, that's a man who understands the stakes just fine and would rather a jury in Colorado not get the chance to weigh in. Whether the bill ever comes due is now in the hands of eight people who spent two hours agreeing mostly that nobody wants to be the one to write the number.

Source: Read the original at Grist → Scored: Waltz of the Carnies · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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