On April 17, 2018, the Colorado communities of Boulder County, San Miguel County, and the City of Boulder—with legal support from EarthRights International, Niskanen Center, and The Hannon Law Firm, LLC — filed a lawsuit against Suncor and ExxonMobil, two oil companies with significant responsibility for climate change. The communities have demanded that these companies pay their fair share of the costs associated with climate change impacts, so that the costs do not fall disproportionately on taxpayers.
Climate change affects fragile high-altitude ecosystems and hits at the heart of these communities’ local economies, affecting roads and bridges, parks and forests, buildings, farming and agriculture, the ski industry, and public open space. Adapting to such a wide range of impacts requires local governments to undertake unprecedented levels of planning and spending. Over the next three decades, these communities will face at least one hundred million dollars in costs to deal with the impacts of climate change caused by the use of fossil fuel products like those made and sold by Suncor and Exxon.
Suncor and Exxon have known about the costly consequences of fossil fuel use for more than 50 years. Yet they continued to promote and sell their products, while recklessly deceiving the public and policymakers about the dangers.
In the past year, nine coastal communities in California and New York filed climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies. This is the first such lawsuit in Colorado—or anywhere in the U.S. interior—aimed at holding fossil fuel companies accountable for paying their fair share of the costs of climate change.
Other related articles:
- https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2018/04/17/three-colorado-communities-to-sue-exxon-mobile.html
- https://bouldercolorado.gov/newsroom/colorado-communities-file-lawsuit-against-oil-giants-for-climate-change-costs
A National Environmental Law Firm
The Hannon Law Firm, LLC, has decades of experience in environmental litigation in Colorado and throughout the country. The Firm has pioneered groundbreaking approaches to protect and compensate its clients in trial courts and appeals courts. The Firm has 20 years of experience with toxic chemical exposure cases, including those involving: PFOAs and PFCs, lead, cadmium, asbestos, mold, industrial solvents, and above ground and underground storage tanks.