Appeals Court Keeps Boulder Climate Lawsuit Against Exxon in State Court

A lawsuit from the Boulder and San Miguel counties and the City of Boulder that seeks to hold ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy accountable for climate damages they knew their products would cause can proceed in state court, where it was filed, a federal appeals court ruled today.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rejected a series of arguments the fossil fuel companies made to move the case to federal court. It is the first federal appeals court to issue a decision on this issue following a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Six other federal circuit courts are considering similar arguments from Exxon and other oil and gas companies, which have repeatedly lost efforts to move climate accountability lawsuits out of state court.

The ruling came on the same day that the U.S. House Oversight Committee held a second hearing in its ongoing investigation of the fossil fuel industry's role in spreading climate disinformation.

In response, Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:

"This is a major victory for efforts to hold Exxon and other polluters accountable for the climate damages they knowingly caused. The people of Boulder and San Miguel counties, many of whom are still recovering from fossil-fueled wildfires, deserve their day in state court to make polluters pay.

"Oil and gas companies are desperate to avoid having to explain their lies and deception in front of juries in state court, but once again judges have rejected their efforts to escape accountability."

Background on lawsuits seeking to hold Big Oil accountable for deceiving the public about climate change:

Since 2017, the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, as well as 20 city and county governments in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Washington, have filed lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products' role in climate change.