as a group of youth aged 15-25 is there something that we can actually do that will make an impact? or should we just sit there and watch the world burn cuz there's almost nothing we can do?
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has recused himself from a landmark climate lawsuit pitting Boulder against major oil companies, the court announced in a letter Monday.
In a 2018 complaint, the city and county of Boulder argued that the oil giants ExxonMobil and Suncor deceived consumers of the harms of burning fossil fuels, and that they should share the costs of adapting to the escalating toll of climate disasters, such as floods and wildfires.
Alito does not own Suncor or ExxonMobil stock. But he does own thousands of dollars in investments in the oil companies ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66, according to a report released earlier this month from the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, and Alito’s own 2025 financial disclosures.
Alito has batted down previous calls to recuse himself from the case earlier this year. A Supreme Court spokesperson also told NBC News in May that he had inadvertently recused himself in 2023, when Suncor and Exxon unsuccessfully asked the Court to review the case.
“Justice Alito’s recusal from Suncor v. Boulder is the right decision, and one he should have made from the start,” said Consumer Watchdog organizing director Alexandra Nagy in a statement.
“The public should not have to wonder whether a justice’s personal investments could benefit from a ruling that shields the fossil-fuel industry from liability,” she added.
Water regulators and farmers in Colorado’s San Luis Valley are in a lose-lose situation.
Either they adopt a plan to aggressively manage the use of groundwater from their rapidly declining aquifer, likely forcing a contraction of the local agricultural economy, or continue overpumping and further lower the water table, which will likely force mass shutoffs of well water in the future.
“It’s really draconian,” Colorado state Sen. Cleave Simpson, a fourth-generation valley farmer and general manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, said in an interview in March. “I don’t know how my community is going to survive.”
But Simpson sees no other option.
Ranchers, conservative legal scholars, and former Republican EPA chiefs are siding against oil companies. Here's why.
The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in the case on Monday. The court’s decision could have huge ramifications for efforts to hold companies accountable for deceiving the public about the dangers of burning fossil fuels — and the larger question of who pays for the costs of adapting to a hotter world. Oil majors have pulled out all the stops to stymie the dozens of climate lawsuits that local and state governments have brought against them, with billions and billions of dollars on the line. With a conservative-dominated Supreme Court and the Trump administration’s Department of Justice as a powerful ally, oil companies saw their chance to stop these suits, said Alejandro Camacho, a professor at UCLA School of Law.
That calculus changed slightly this week when Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a strong conservative with financial holdings in oil companies, recused himself from the case. His withdrawal makes it harder for oil companies to get at least five justices — a majority of the court — on their side.
The city and county of Boulder, Colorado, originally sued Suncor and Exxon Mobil in 2018. The lawsuit slowly wound its way through the court system. Oil companies tried to dismiss it or move it to federal court, a more industry-friendly venue, but Boulder won at every stage. In May 2025, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the case should proceed in state courts.
Much of the support for Boulder and the oil companies falls along familiar, partisan lines. Republican states and business associations tend to side with the oil companies; Democratic states and environmental advocates typically back Boulder. A watchdog organization found that 25 of the 38 briefs filed to the Supreme Court in support of Exxon and Suncor were written by groups with financial ties to the fossil fuel industry or foundations opposing climate science and regulation. But Colorado ranchers aren’t the only surprising source of support for Boulder’s case — some conservative thinkers are challenging oil companies’ arguments.