Supreme Court spotlights fight against climate action in term opener

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Banjos Unite

Alexander Nakarada · creatorchords.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Tony Webster from San Francisco, California · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The Supreme Court opens its term with Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, the first of dozens of climate-accountability lawsuits to reach the justices, with oil companies arguing that federal law and the Constitution preempt local tort claims over climate damage.

Boulder sued Suncor and Exxon in 2018 for costs tied to heat waves, drought, and flooding, accusing the companies of misleading the public about fossil fuels' role in warming. The companies now invoke the same Clean Air Act authority the Trump administration has spent the year rolling back, including rescinding the 2009 endangerment finding that underpinned greenhouse gas regulation.

Justice Alito recused without explanation, leaving eight justices on a court that has already curtailed EPA authority once in West Virginia v. EPA. Advocates say the case is less about jurisdiction than about closing the last open door, after legislation and regulation, for anyone seeking to make fossil fuel companies pay.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

When a man unplugs the smoke alarm and then tells the fire marshal only the smoke alarm gets a say, you don't need a law degree to see the play. The oil companies spent years swearing up and down there was no problem, and now they want the one agency being stripped for parts to be the only one allowed to notice. Boulder just wants somebody to pay for the flood damage, which is the oldest idea in the courthouse.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Banjos Unite · Alexander Nakarada · CC BY 4.0

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