An environmental lawsuit over alleged air pollution from a Suncor refinery in Colorado is getting a second life after a federal appeals court on Monday reversed a lower court that had tossed the case.
The question of when groups can sue over pollution from power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities comes as the Trump administration has eased off environmental enforcement. It intervened in a different citizen suit over emissions from an xAI data center in Memphis for the novel purpose of quashing the challenge.
GreenLatinos, 350 Colorado and the Sierra Club sued Suncor over emissions from its Commerce City refinery, which processes over 100,000 barrels of oil per day. The groups’ complaint identified thousands of days and hundreds of tons of alleged violations for pollutants including hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.
The case initially was dismissed last year by Judge Daniel Domenico of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, a Trump appointee.
