"Boulder urges SCOTUS to reject Big Oil’s ‘impatient,’ ‘failed,’ and ‘speculative’ arguments to stop climate deception case", 30 July 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court should reject Big Oil’s meritless arguments to stop the City and County of Boulder, Colorado, from putting ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy on trial for deceiving the public about the dangers of fossil fuels, the local governments said in a filing this week, as the high court prepares to hear arguments this fall.

Boulder is seeking to make Exxon and Suncor pay for local climate damages — including wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat — that the companies fueled by “concealing and/or misrepresenting the dangers associated with fossil fuels’ intended use.” The two oil majors are asking the Court to overturn last year’s Colorado Supreme Court ruling that allowed the case to advance to discovery. But the companies “have come to the wrong forum at the wrong time with the wrong arguments,” Boulder explained in briefs filed this week, and the justices should therefore allow the City and County’s case to proceed in Colorado state court…

Like other communities across the country, Boulder is facing staggering costs to protect residents and infrastructure from climate damages…

Even if the U.S. Supreme Court believes Boulder will not ultimately prevail at trial, that does not establish a basis for ruling that the case is preempted and should end at this stage, Boulder pointed out: “The Constitution does not preempt hard cases for being hard.”