Big Oil can’t hide behind the Clean Air Act 

The first case that the Supreme Court will hear this term, Suncor v. Boulder, could have major consequences for state and local governments’ ability to protect their residents from tortious conduct by corporations that are knowingly putting profits over people.

In this case, the court can ensure that state and local governments from Maine to Hawaii can get a fair hearing in court to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for concealing and misrepresenting their decades-long knowledge that the unabated use of fossil fuel products would contribute to more destructive, more frequent and more extreme weather events.

Today, U.S. communities are facing billions of dollars in costs to protect residents from the onslaught of deadly fires, floods, droughts and extreme heat. The impacts from climate change are becoming increasingly prevalent and damaging, creating public health crises that threaten the lives and livelihoods of people all across our country — with the worst health impacts falling hardest on children and other vulnerable communities who can least protect themselves.

In Suncor v. Boulder, ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy are asking the justices to overturn a Colorado Supreme Court decision that allows one of those lawsuits, from the city and county of Boulder, to move forward. Though the Colorado courts soundly rejected their argument, the oil companies insist that they should not stand trial because their actions are somehow shielded under the federal Clean Air Act, the landmark law that was designed to limit air pollution and protect public health. As former senior EPA officials who spent years working to enforce the Clean Air Act, we can say with confidence that the oil companies’ arguments on this issue have no........

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