Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed his climate lawsuit against ExxonMobil seven weeks after his state’s budget cratered by nearly $4 billion.
Now the Supreme Court is about to hear the case that could make every one of those suits disappear.
A federal judge just told them exactly what the Supreme Court is going to say.
The ExxonMobil and Suncor Climate Lawsuit Democrats Are Counting On
At least 11 Democrat-run jurisdictions are simultaneously suing major energy companies for billions while cutting services, laying off workers, and begging taxpayers for more.
Boulder County, Colorado is seeking damages from Suncor and ExxonMobil while eliminating 90 positions and slashing $13.2 million from its 2027 budget.
The District of Columbia filed its climate suit against ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell two months after its own financial officer projected a $1.5 billion revenue loss that exceeded the city's entire reserve fund.
Multnomah County, Oregon, is demanding more than $51 billion from energy companies – then closed a $93.2 million budget gap by gutting its Homeless Services Department.
San Francisco sued oil companies in 2017 during a tech-fueled budget surplus, then quietly closed a $936.6 million two-year deficit while laying off city employees.
This is not a coincidence.
Attorney Chris Horner, who has filed amicus briefs on the energy industry's behalf, said: "This is a revenue grab."
Minnesota's Keith Ellison gave the game away back in 2020 – he told the Associated Press a settlement could look like the $7 billion the state extracted from tobacco companies in the 1990s.
That is the template.
Sue an industry with deep pockets, claim the moral high ground, and let activist law firms collect contingency fees while broke governments paper over mismanagement they caused.
The Climate Superfund Ruling That Previews What SCOTUS Will Do
Chief U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes struck down New York's Climate Change Superfund Act on September 1 – a $75 billion scheme that would have forced energy companies to pay into a state fund for storm and flood damage the state claimed was caused by climate change.
The ruling was decisive: the Clean Air Act preempts states from running their own emissions-compensation programs.
The same argument sits at the heart of the Boulder case the Supreme Court will hear on October 5.
Suncor and ExxonMobil argue that greenhouse gas emissions cross state and international borders – meaning a single Colorado county has no legal authority to haul international energy companies into state court and demand payment for global climate effects.
The Trump Justice Department agrees.
DOJ filed a statement of interest backing the energy companies in the New York case, and U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer has requested permission to argue as amicus curiae in favor of Suncor before the Supreme Court.
The Trump administration filed an unsolicited brief in September 2025 urging SCOTUS to take the Boulder case – a signal of how seriously the White House views the threat these suits pose to American energy producers.
Suncor v Boulder Could Kill Every Climate Lawsuit in America
The Boulder decision – expected by June 2027 – won't just settle one county's lawsuit against two oil companies.
It will set the precedent for roughly two dozen similar cases pending nationwide.
Baltimore already learned this lesson the hard way.
Maryland's highest court already showed how this ends – it threw out Baltimore's climate suit in March, the first state supreme court in the country to kill one of these cases outright, after eight years of litigation.
Chevron's counsel called it part of a "growing chorus" of dismissals – and the record backs them up.
O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance for Consumers, called it exactly what it is: a woke lawfare crusade using courthouses to impose what Democrats cannot pass through legislatures.
Now the Supreme Court – the same court that ended the Chevron doctrine and rolled back EPA overreach – is about to weigh in.
These Democrat politicians spent years telling their constituents that energy companies owe them billions.
The Supreme Court is going to tell them they were wrong.
Sources:
- Simon August, "Cash-Strapped Blue Cities Stand To Collect Billions From Climate Suits Headed To The Supreme Court," Daily Caller News Foundation, September 3, 2026.
- Amy Howe, "Supreme Court agrees to hear case on Colorado dispute over climate change," SCOTUSblog, February 23, 2026.
- "New York Judge Blocks State of New York's Unconstitutional Climate Superfund Act," U.S. Department of Justice, September 1, 2026.
- "Federal Court Holds New York Climate Change Superfund Act Preempted," Hodgson Russ, September 1, 2026.
- "Climate Change on Trial: Why Suncor Energy v. Boulder County Matters," Spencer Fane, June 2026.
