Environmental & Energy
Oct. 19, 2026
Climate change on trial: Can oil companies escape state court?
Federal law does not preempt state tort suits against energy companies for their role in climate change. Yet Supreme Court oral arguments left considerable doubt about whether those suits will proceed.
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).
As a matter of law, it should be an easy question for the Supreme Court: federal law does not preempt the ability to sue energy companies for their role in causing climate change. But oral arguments on Monday, Oct. 5, in Suncor Energy, Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County left considerable doubt as to how the Court will rule.
The plaintiffs, the County Commissioners of Boulder County and the City of Boulder, sued Exxon Mobil Corporation and three Suncor Energy en...
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