Climate lawfare’s back-channel campaign, and how you’ll pay the bill

The article argues that climate activists have pursued lawsuits against energy companies after federal courts rejected an earlier route, and says newly released emails show efforts to influence judges through climate seminars and legal reference materials. It focuses on the Supreme Court case Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, where Boulder seeks to make two companies pay for climate change impacts under state nuisance law.

The article says Paul Hanle, founder of the Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project, wrote that seminars for “key judges” could affect case outcomes; it says at least 140 federal judges attended them. It also describes Michael Burger’s behind-the-scenes contributions to a proposed climate chapter for a federal science manual, which was later withdrawn. The piece contends that climate plaintiffs face difficulties linking particular local harms to individual companies, noting that about 90 per cent of emissions occur outside the United States.