April 2018

In the first climate cost recovery led by landlocked communities, the city and county of Boulder and the county of San Miguel, Colorado, are suing ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy. Boulder County estimates its climate costs could exceed $150 million by 2050, and the plaintiffs, led by EarthRights International, laid out various ways higher temperatures are generating costs and threatening safety and way of life in the Intermountain West, including wildfires, drought and water availability. According to a press release accompanying the suit, “Climate change affects fragile high-altitude ecosystems and hits at the heart of these communities’ local economies, affecting roads and bridges, parks and forests, buildings, farming and agriculture, the ski industry, and public open space. Adapting to such a wide range of impacts requires local governments to undertake unprecedented levels of planning and spending.”