A Supreme Court Shield for Big Oil Would Come at Your Expense

When we talk about someone wanting to both eat their cake and still have it, we’re using a logical impossibility to highlight the cake-haver’s delusional mental state. When it comes to the fossil-fuel industry’s cake and its treatment by President Donald Trump’s administration and possibly the Supreme Court, almost anything is literally possible, logic be damned.

Earlier this week, at the urging of Trump’s Justice Department, the Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. to throw out a lawsuit brought by the city and county of Boulder, Colorado, that seeks to recoup climate-change damage from the oil giants. It’s not clear whether the high court will ultimately take the case because it also asked the two sides to present arguments on whether the case is truly ready to be heard. Those are expected in the fall.