Scalise Leads GOP Campaign Against ‘War on American Energy’ Climate Lawsuits

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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 has learned.
“Every day, hardworking Americans depend on access to affordable, reliable energy,” Scalise said in comments provided to Fox News Digital on Friday. “Despite this, radical environmentalists and local left-wing politicians continue to wage war on American energy by suing domestic energy companies in our courtrooms, demanding that they meet impossible standards or pay billions in damages. Any regulation of global greenhouse gas emissions is clearly within the jurisdiction of the federal government.”
Scalise and 102 Republican lawmakers filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court – also known as a “friend of the court” brief – calling on the Supreme Court to end the Colorado lawsuits and seeking compensation from Exxon and Suncor Energy, arguing that it is a federal issue and not a state issue.
Local courts in Boulder, Colorado, sued Exxon and Suncor Energy in 2018, claiming the companies had for years downplayed the risks of burning oil and gas, seeking damages from the companies under Colorado law.
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Big energy companies say the case focuses on cross-border emissions, making it a federal, not a state, issue. Exxon and Suncor asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in May that it could move forward in state courts.
Colorado’s highest court determined in its May ruling that federal law did not prevent Boulder from claiming energy companies misled citizens.
“This decision confirms what we have known all along: Corporations cannot mislead the public and avoid accountability for the harm 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 impacts of climate change, and today’s decision brings us closer to the justice and resources we need to protect our future.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise speaking to the media. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The lawmakers wrote that the case was steeped in national security and stability concerns, arguing that it could strangle the U.S. energy industry, “or even 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 states. “They present their complaint in the language of state law, but they cannot escape the fact that each allegation relates in one way or another to global greenhouse gas emissions. And the sheer scale of the damages in question – probably 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 across the country. ”
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“This has been going on for quite a long time. States have no authority to regulate interstate and international emissions that originate outside their respective borders,” he adds.
Scalise emphasized in his statement provided to Fox News Digital that “extreme political” local programs endanger U.S. national security if local governments are able to circumvent federal authority and pursue prosecutions.

A climate protester scales the Wilson Building in Washington, DC, as part of an Earth Day rally against fossil fuels in 2022. (Getty Images)
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“Energy security is national security – we cannot allow state and local governments to override federal authority and put our country at risk through their own extreme political agenda,” he said. “I am proud to lead this amicus brief to defend domestic energy production against the state’s radical ‘new green scam’ policies, defend our balance of power, and safeguard our energy security, and I am grateful to be joined by so many of my colleagues. I urge the Supreme Court to carefully consider our arguments in its deliberations on this impactful case.
The amicus brief argued that the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision allowing the lawsuits to proceed “supersedes Congress’s legislative prerogative, authorizing a balkanized patchwork of state and local regulations on matters of uniquely federal concern.”

The facade of the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC, at dusk, illuminated by lights. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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“This case, and others like it, threaten the abundant and reliable energy that underpins every aspect of American life, including the standard of living of ordinary Americans,” more than 100 lawmakers wrote. “While 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 the states – and not in a local jury room.”