A battle over billion-dollar climate lawsuits that will play out at the Supreme Court this fall is emerging as a partisan fault line in Colorado’s election for its top legal officer.
All four Democrats running for attorney general in the upcoming June 30 primary have put their weight behind the city and county of Boulder’s climate lawsuit against fossil fuel producers. And while no Republican has won a statewide office in Colorado since 2016, the two GOP candidates have criticized Democrats for backing litigation they say could raise prices and threaten the state’s energy industry.
The case is “the wrong fight, in the wrong place, at the wrong time for working families,” said Michael Allen, a district attorney serving two counties and a GOP attorney general candidate.
The Democratic hopefuls include current Secretary of State Jena Griswold. She told POLITICO’s E&E News in an email that she supports the lawsuit and would “work to ensure the AG’s office has the resources to bring climate-related lawsuits without waiting on the governor’s administration.”
“I have seen some of the dangerous effects of climate change first hand,” Griswold added. “In 2013, the town where I grew up, Estes Park and many other cities faced historic flooding. And in the winter of 2021, the Marshall fire devastated my new town, Louisville. Climate change is making natural disasters worse and far too common.”
The Supreme Court is poised next term to take up Suncor v. Boulder, a blockbuster climate case that could derail more than two dozen lawsuits filed by local governments who want compensation for the costs of dealing with climate change.
The support of the Democratic candidates serves to potentially elevate the lawsuit’s profile in the state. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser — both Democrats — have largely declined to publicly back the litigation.
Weiser, who is running for governor, previously has been skeptical of the case, telling E&E News in 2019 he was “unconvinced.” His gubernatorial campaign did not say whether he supported the lawsuit, even though his office defended it before the state Supreme Court.
In a debate this month hosted by the Colorado Sun — which Griswold did not attend — the other three Democratic candidates for attorney general all endorsed the lawsuit.
Michael Dougherty, the Boulder district attorney, said the suit was “one of those moments where I’m really proud to live and work in Boulder County” and praised the county for “taking companies and holding them to account.”
Hetal Doshi, a former federal prosecutor, said she supported “making sure that Colorado does everything through the attorney general’s office that we can to fight back in this existential moment where a planet is being boiled and where corporate polluters, you’re getting away with just about everything.”
And David Seligman, a consumer rights attorney and executive director of the nonprofit legal organization Towards Justice, said the Boulder litigation is “essential.”
The oil and gas industry — which has vowed to defeat the swath of lawsuits — jumped on the remarks, with Energy in Depth, an arm of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, calling the candidates “out of step with prominent Colorado voices across the political spectrum.”
The post by the oil lobbying association noted the Denver Post editorial board opposed the lawsuit when it was filed in 2018. And it highlighted comments from Gale Norton, a former Colorado attorney general who served as Interior secretary in the George W. Bush administration, who argued a “patchwork of litigation by municipalities should not determine America’s path forward on energy and climate.”
Exxon, Canada’s Suncor Energy and others have asked the justices to overturn a 2025 Colorado Supreme Court ruling allowing the lawsuit to proceed in state court. If the Supreme Court sides with industry, it could wipe out the entire array of lawsuits that the companies contend could cost them billions of dollars.
More than two dozen allies of the energy industry last month filed “friend of the court” briefs on behalf of oil companies, including seven Colorado counties. The counties argued that one county “may not impose its policy preferences on sister counties through tort litigation.”
The counties say Boulder’s “political and economic priorities differ” from theirs. They said Boulder’s lawsuit will “discourage continued domestic energy production and investment,” threatening rural counties’ economies and their ability to fund their priorities.
Boulder and its supporters have until July 27 to file responses to the Supreme Court.
Amy Oliver Cooke, president of Denver-based Always On Energy Research, said in an interview she expected the lawsuit to emerge as a talking point across statewide races.
“Affordability and reliability are the top concerns about energy for consumers, and this has a direct implication on both,” said Cooke, an energy fellow at the right-leaning Independence Institute. “This isn’t just the city and county of Boulder, this isn’t just Colorado, this has national implications that could raise the cost of energy.”
The Republican attorney general candidates have criticized their Democratic opponents for backing the litigation.
Dave Willson, an attorney who has run on election integrity issues, said in an email that Colorado “should absolutely promote responsible stewardship of our land, air, water and natural resources,” but added “we cannot exchange Colorado’s economy, jobs, small businesses, agriculture, energy independence, and affordability for climate policies that are heavy on mandates and light on common sense.”
Allen, his GOP primary rival, took a similar stance.
“Boulder shouldn’t be trying to set national energy policy from a Colorado courtroom — and Colorado shouldn’t be dragged into costly, politically driven climate lawsuits that do nothing but drive-up energy bills,” he said.
Heidi Leathwood, climate policy analyst for the environmental group 350 Colorado, said the Democratic candidates’ support could mean Colorado’s next attorney general has an opportunity to make a splash on climate litigation.
“We need our leaders to use every means possible to protect us from impacts of the climate crisis,” Leathwood said. “For the attorney general, that means pursuing accountability in the courts, and for the governor, that means supporting legislation to hold major fossil fuel corporations accountable, and vetoing any attempts to let them off the hook.”
