Advancing American Freedom led a coalition of eight other amici filing an amicus brief in Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, a case where the city and county of Boulder, Colorado have sued Suncor and Exxon over their alleged contributions to “global climate change.”
Since 2017, as many as sixty local governments have sued energy companies that produce and sell fossil fuels seeking billions of dollars in damages allegedly caused by their contributions to “global climate change.” If these suits, like the one brought by Boulder, were successful, localities could effectively engage in nationwide and even international regulation through lawsuits with exorbitant demands.
The founders were deeply concerned about ceding too much of states’ power to regulate within their borders to the federal government. But they also knew from experience what happened when states could pursue their own interests at the expense of other states. The Constitution thus commits authority over national and international issues to the federal government, not to activist localities and state courts.
“The Constitution was designed to leave most powers to the states, as demonstrated both by the limited enumeration of federal powers and the express statement of reserved powers in the Tenth Amendment. But when state policies have a significant national and even international effect, they harm other states and the nation as a whole. Boulder’s litigation would impose the significant costs of its idiosyncratic regulatory agenda on the entire nation and on virtually every American,” said AAF General Counsel J. Marc Wheat. “One state, much less one locality, cannot usurp the authority of all the others represented in the federal government. Boulder’s litigation must not be allowed to proceed.”