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Colorado Supreme Court clears a path for a major climate lawsuit against Suncor, Exxon Mobil
https://www.cpr.org/2025/05/12/colorado-supreme-court-allows-boulder-climate-lawsuit-suncor-exxon/A marquee lawsuit seeking to hold Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil responsible for climate-driven disasters in Boulder County took a big step toward an official trial on Monday.
After years of legal wrangling, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled the lawsuit first filed by Boulder County and the City of Boulder in 2018 could proceed within Colorado. The decision returned the case to a lower district court, which had already ruled the lawsuit wasn’t preempted by federal law and belonged in the state legal system.
The Boulder lawsuit claims taxpayers shouldn’t bear the full cost of disasters like floods and wildfires. It argues both companies should share the financial burden after knowingly contributing to climate change and misleading consumers about the risks of burning fossil fuels.
Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann said the ruling recognized the ballooning costs local governments face due to global warming. In 2021, the Marshall fire, the most destructive fire in Colorado history, burned more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County and caused more than $2 billion in damages. Scientists have linked the disaster to climate change.