The growing number of lawsuits that seek to hold oil and gas companies financially accountable for climate change is worrying justices of the Colorado Supreme Court who this week examined one of the oldest such lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry.
Oral arguments in the case centered on a bid by Exxon Mobil — which along with Suncor Energy is being sued by the city and county of Boulder — to overturn a lower court decision that allowed the lawsuit to move forward in state court.
Boulder’s lawsuit is among more than two dozen similar challenges that have been filed across the country, and Justice Richard Gabriel on Tuesday told lawyers for both sides that he’s worried that local governments’ cumulative claims against the oil industry might eventually amount to regulation.
“There is a feeling that this is something that should be regulated by federal law,” Gabriel told Marco Simons, an attorney for the communities. “There is a concern, just a practical one that … if every city in the country brought this claim, it really would be regulation. It would be shutting down all of the oil companies.”
