The Supreme Court has another opportunity to rein in rogue state supreme courts that have allowed cities to pursue tort claims against oil companies for injuries that they have allegedly suffered from the effect of greenhouse-gas emissions on global climate change. In their pending certiorari petition in a case brought by the city of Boulder, Colorado, Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil set forth their position that the Constitution “does not permit a State to provide relief under state law for injuries allegedly caused by pollution emanating from outside the State.”
As this National Review article points out, David Bookbinder, a longtime member of Boulder’s legal team, acknowledged in a recent Federalist Society webinar that if Boulder’s case were to succeed, the result would be an “indirect carbon tax” on oil companies’ global operations. (See 32:55-33:20.)
I’d like to highlight another statement by Bookbinder that strikes me as at least as significant:
[O]nce the first plaintiff gets a final, non-appealable judgment, no one else gets paid because every defendant in all of these cases immediately declares bankruptcy because they have to. (34:00-34:13.)
Now is the time for the Court to decide the important question of federal law presented by the pending certiorari petition. The Court shouldn’t wait until after every oil company has declared bankruptcy.