The Trump administration is expanding its assault on a swath of climate lawsuits that seek compensation from the fossil fuel industry, weighing in at the Supreme Court on behalf of oil giant Exxon Mobil.
In a friend of the court brief filed Thursday, Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris sided with the industry, which wants the lawsuits transferred out of state courts and sent to federal courts, where they are more likely to be dismissed.
The federal intervention comes a month after Exxon, along with Suncor Energy, asked the high court to review a Colorado Supreme Court decision that gave the city and county of Boulder a green light to have their lawsuit against the companies tried in state court.
The Colorado court, Harris wrote, got it “manifestly wrong on a question of vast nationwide significance.” And if the decision holds, Harris added, “then every locality in the country could sue essentially anyone in the world for contributing to global climate change.”
