On March 16, 2023, the Solicitor General filed a brief expressing the United States’ view that the Supreme Court should deny fossil fuel companies’ petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the affirmance of a remand order in a climate change case brought by three local governments in Colorado. The brief argued that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals “correctly declined to recharacterize [the local governments’] state-law claims” as arising under federal common law because the Clean Air Act had displaced any relevant federal common law and no exception to the well-pleaded complaint rule applied. The brief asserted that the Grable test for when a state-law claim necessarily raises an actually disputed and substantial federal issue was not satisfied because “no federal issue is ‘embedded’ within respondents’ own articulation of their claims.” The Solicitor General’s brief also argued that “artful pleading” and complete preemption exceptions to the well-pleaded complaint rule did not apply. The brief contended that the Tenth Circuit’s affirmance of the remand order did not conflict with decisions in other courts of appeals, including the Second Circuit’s affirmance of the dismissal of <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/case/city-new-york-v-bp-plc/">New York City’s state-law claims</a> against fossil fuel companies.

Action by Colorado local governments seeking damages and other relief from fossil fuel companies for climate change harms.

Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Solicitor General Opposed Fossil Fuel Companies’ Petition for Writ of Certiorari on Jurisdiction Issues in Local Government Climate Case

Filed

United States of America

Colorado

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

Solicitor General Opposed Fossil Fuel Companies’ Petition for Writ of Certiorari on Jurisdiction Issues in Local Government Climate Case

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector