Amicus Brief: Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County

The Colorado Supreme Court allowed Boulder County to pursue a cockamamie climate-change lawsuit against several energy companies, alleging various state tort-law claims. The idea is that, by producing greenhouse gases that cause climate change, the defendants are harming Boulder County. Of course, this is all “preempted” (trumped) by federal regulations. The genius of America’s constitutional structure is that it leaves most policy issues to the states while allowing the federal government to handle truly interstate issues. The regulation of our national energy network and of national—indeed global—greenhouse gas emissions are such areas of authority that the Constitution wisely gives to Congress, not to the states (let alone county and local governments). 

The Manhattan Institute, joined by three other think tanks that vigorously defend federalism—the Frontier Institute (Montana), Independence Institute (Colorado), and Pelican Institute (Louisiana)—has filed a brief illustrating this dynamic and supporting the energy companies’ petition for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.

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