By John Kruzel and Andrew Chung
WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a bid by ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy to scuttle a lawsuit brought by officials in Boulder, Colorado that seeks to hold the oil companies liable for helping fuel climate change in a case that could affect dozens of similar lawsuits around the country.
The justices on Monday took up an appeal by the companies of a lower court’s ruling that let the litigation move forward. The suit alleging state law violations by the companies seeks unspecified monetary damages for costs incurred by Boulder associated with mitigating the impact of climate change.
President Donald Trump’s administration backed the appeal by the oil companies.
The Boulder litigation is the latest chapter in efforts by numerous U.S. jurisdictions seeking damages from companies that extract, produce, distribute or sell fossil fuels. These plaintiffs are seeking compensation for harms they attribute to the role these companies played in causing climate change.
The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing more of the sun’s heat to be trapped, which leads to a rise in the average global temperature over time.
The Boulder government officials in their 2018 lawsuit accused the U.S.-based Exxon and Canada-based Suncor of misleading the public about the role that their products played in exacerbating climate change while profiting from unchecked fossil fuel sales. The companies deny wrongdoing.
The plaintiffs have said the oil companies should cover past and future costs incurred by the city and county governments for steps taken to mitigate the effects of climate change, citing infrastructure repairs, environmental damage, emergency management and harms to public health.
The companies urged lower courts to dismiss the case, arguing among other things that Boulder’s lawsuit would illegally interfere with the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
The Colorado Supreme Court in May 2025 denied their request, prompting the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Oil companies for years have been trying to avoid the burgeoning volume of climate-related litigation, but so far have achieved little success.
Nearly 60 state and local governments have brought lawsuits like these seeking billions of dollars in damages, with more continuing to be filed, the companies told the Supreme Court in a filing.
The Trump administration has acted in various ways to bolster the companies’ positions. Last year, it launched two preemptive cases seeking to stop Hawaii and Michigan from filing climate-related lawsuits against oil majors that the administration said would imperil domestic energy production.
The Supreme Court previously turned away a similar bid by Sunoco and other oil companies to throw out a climate-related lawsuit by Honolulu after Hawaii’s top court allowed it to proceed.
That lawsuit seeks to hold the companies liable for their alleged role in contributing to extreme weather affecting the region, as well as a significant rise in the average sea level along the Honolulu Pacific coastline, a development linked to flooding, erosion and beach loss.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
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