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FIRST ON FOX: More than 100 House Republican lawmakers, led by Majority Leader Steve Scalise, are calling on the Supreme Court to block climate lawsuits that they say are waging “war on American energy” and could bankrupt the industry, Fox News Digital learned.
“Every day, hardworking Americans depend on access to affordable and reliable energy,” Scalise said in comment provided to Fox News Digital Friday. “Despite this, radical environmentalists and local leftist politicians continue to wage war on American energy by going after domestic energy companies in our courtrooms, demanding they meet impossible standards or pay billions in damages. Any regulation of global greenhouse emissions falls squarely within the federal government’s jurisdiction.”
Scalise and 102 Republican lawmakers filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court — otherwise known as a “friend of the court” brief — calling for the Supreme Court to end lawsuits originating in Colorado that seek compensation from Exxon and Suncor Energy, arguing it’s a federal issue, not a state matter.
Local jurisdictions in Boulder, Colorado, sued Exxon and Suncor Energy in 2018, claiming the companies had for years downplayed risks surrounding burning oil and gas, requesting damages from the companies under Colorado law.
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The massive energy companies argue that the case focuses on cross-border emissions, making the matter a federal issue and not a state issue. Exxon and Suncor requested the U.S. Supreme Court take the case up after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in May that it could move forward within state courts.
Colorado’s highest court determined in its May ruling that federal law did not block Boulder from claiming the energy companies allegedly misled the citizens.
“This ruling affirms what we’ve known all along: corporations cannot mislead the public and avoid accountability for the damages they have caused,” Boulder, Colorado, Mayor Aaron Brockett said in a statement at the time celebrating the state Supreme Court’s decision. “Our community has suffered significantly from the consequences of climate change, and today’s decision brings us one step closer to justice and the resources we need to protect our future.”
The lawmakers wrote that the case is one steeped in national security and stability concerns, arguing it could throttle the American energy industry, “if not bankrupt it altogether.”
“Respondents, the City and County of Boulder, Colorado, would substitute their own preferred policies for those of the federal government,” the amicus brief reads. “They dress their complaint in the language of state law, but they cannot escape that every claim in some way turns on global greenhouse gas emissions. And the sheer magnitude of the damages at issue—likely tens of billions of dollars—would restructure the American energy industry if not bankrupt it altogether, especially when multiplied by the dozens of similar cases around the country.”
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“This has continued long enough. States have no authority to regulate interstate and international emissions that originate beyond their respective,” it added.
Scalise stressed in his statement provided to Fox News Digital that local “extreme political” agendas are risking U.S. national security if local governments are able to bypass federal authority and continue with the suits.
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“Energy security is national security — we cannot allow state and local governments to supersede federal authority and put our country at risk for their own extreme political agenda,” he said. “I’m proud to lead this amicus brief to defend domestic energy production from radical state ‘Green New Scam’ policies, uphold our balance of powers, and safeguard our energy security, and am grateful to be joined by so many of my colleagues. I urge the Supreme Court to carefully consider our arguments as they deliberate this impactful case.”
The amicus brief argued the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling allowing the suits to continue “supplants the legislative prerogative of Congress, permitting a balkanized patchwork of state and local regulation over matters of uniquely federal concern.”
“This case, and others like it, threaten the abundant, reliable energy that underpins every aspect of American life, including the standard of living for ordinary Americans,” the more than 100 lawmakers wrote. “Although national energy policy is the subject of vigorous debate, it is a national issue that must be decided at the national level—by officials elected by the people of all States—not in a local jury room.”
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