Boulder vs. Big Oil - Boulder Residents Rally as Big Oil Corporations Ask to Escape Accountability for Climate Impacts

Boulder Residents Rally as Big Oil Corporations Ask to Escape Accountability for Climate Impacts

Residents urged the U.S. Supreme Court to give Boulder its day in court with Big Oil.

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Contacts: Micah Parkin, 350 Colorado, 504-258-1247, micah@350colorado.org or Sandra Duggan, 350 Colorado, 360-620-9423, sandra@350colorado.org

BOULDER, COLORADO — Boulder residents rallied in front of the Boulder County Courthouse Monday, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the City and County of Boulder to have its day in court with Big Oil.

Boulder is one of dozens of communities across the country suing Big Oil companies for lying about the climate harms of their products and knowingly fueling the climate crisis communities are facing today. After Colorado courts advanced the case toward discovery, ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy turned to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to escape facing trial in a Colorado courtroom. The justices heard arguments in the case October 5.

“Our community and many others have suffered terribly from worsening wildfires, floods and drought because of the deception of big oil companies, who knew that burning fossil fuels would overheat our planet, but chose to obfuscate the truth to prioritize their profits,” said Micah Parkin, 350 Colorado Co-Founder and Executive Director and 350 Boulder County Leadership Council Member. “Boulder deserves to have our day in court to hold these corporations accountable for the costs our community is having to bear.”

Over 100 people attended the Boulder v. Big Oil Press Conference and Rally. Speakers included Boulder Mayor Aaron Brocket, Marshall Fire survivors, youth who signed the amicus brief in support of Boulder’s case, local business and winter sports industry representatives, public health and faith voices, and an ex-Exxon employee who spoke about the climate deception of the industry. The local rally was held in tandem with The People v. Big Oil rally in Washington, D.C., where dozens of people gathered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as Boulder fought for its ability to present the evidence of Big Oil’s decades of climate deception in court.

Background on Boulder et al. v. Suncor et al.

Originally filed in 2018, Boulder’s lawsuit seeks to make ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy pay for the costs of local climate damages, arguing that the companies deceived the public about the dangers of their fossil fuel products and continued to produce, market, and sell them at dangerous levels despite knowing the risk.

In May 2025, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the case could move into discovery and proceed toward trial. Exxon and Suncor appealed the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will now decide whether or not Boulder gets its day in court with Big Oil.

Like other communities across the country, Boulder is facing staggering costs to protect residents and infrastructure from climate damages. In 2021, 1,084 homes in the county were destroyed in the deadly Marshall Fire, which scientists found was made more destructive because of climate change, and caused more than $2 billion in damages.

The event was sponsored by the Colorado Make Polluters Pay Coalition, with co-host organizations including 350 Boulder County, 350 Colorado, CO Sierra Club, Colorado Rising, Climate Defiance CO, Extreme Weather Survivors, Union of Concern Scientists, Sunrise Movement Boulder Valley School District, Sunrise Movement Denver, Save the Aurora Reservoir, Colorado Jewish Climate Action and others.

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Quote deck:

“Eight years ago, Boulder County and the City of Boulder filed this lawsuit because we believe our community deserves the opportunity to hold ExxonMobil and Suncor accountable for their fair share of the costs of harms their products have caused and the deception we allege concealed those harms. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the companies’ arguments to stop our case before we ever have our day in court. We are asking the Court to let us have that day, because this is not an abstract issue for Boulder. It is a reality for our community. People across Boulder have experienced the impacts of a changing climate, from hotter summers and extreme heat, to drought, declining snowpack, worsening wildfire risk and devastating fires. And every time those impacts intensify, our community pays.” – Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett

“Our community and many others have suffered terribly from worsening wildfires, floods and drought because of the deception of big oil companies, who knew that burning fossil fuels would overheat our planet, but chose to obfuscate the truth to prioritize their profits. Boulder deserves to have our day in court to hold these corporations accountable for the costs our community is having to bear.” – Micah Parkin, 350 Colorado Co-Founder and Executive Director, and 350 Boulder County Leadership Council Member

“My family’s life has been changed forever by the Marshall Fire. We have spent nearly five years dedicating every spare moment to rebuilding our home, all while managing the work of our daily lives: working full time jobs, raising our children, and constantly fighting on behalf of the entire Marshall Fire survivor community.” – Kelly Watt, Marshall Fire survivor and Vice President of Marshall Together

“Big Oil needs to step off Colorado’s communities. We’re tired of everyday Coloradans living with and paying for the consequences of a climate crisis that is fueling more extreme heat, wildfires, floods, and other disasters.” – Caitt Maeve, Colorado Rising

“Third Act leaders and volunteers are active in our climate and democracy work in states and cities throughout the country. Third Act Colorado staunchly supports Boulder and Boulder County in their pursuit of justice for the deceit of Exxon and Suncor. They knew their products would cause damage, and they lied to us about it. It would be incredibly damaging to society for the Supreme Court to let them off the hook, giving license to polluters of all sorts to lie to the public.” – Paul Culnan, Third Act Colorado Coordinating Committee

“It is a painfully hard truth to face as a high schooler that fossil fuel companies like Suncor have been able to evade accountability for years, fueling wildfires, drought, severe wind, and more. They have caused our loss of education & homes, and declining health. Climate action has been largely left to young people, and while that is terrifying, it is a necessity that we continue to fight for our communities’ right to be heard because we, and countless others, shouldn’t be paying for climate impacts we aren’t at fault for.” – Muriel Soutiere, Good Trouble Policy Director and Sunrise BVSD leader & delegate

“Like companies around the globe, Boulder’s small businesses have been paying the cost of climate impacts for years — lost revenue on smoke days and power outages, shortened shifts in the heat and insurance bills that keep climbing. This effort simply asks that the companies who knew this was coming help cover the bill.” – Doyle Albee, a co-founder and managing partner of Prolexity, a Boulder-based communications agency, who served on the Boulder Chamber board for six years.

“Fossil fuels companies have known for decades that their products would cause damages to communities like ours. Any kid can tell you that if you make a mess, you clean it up. Because of Suncor and Exxon, Boulder has seen one heck of a mess. The year of the Marshal Fire, Suncor and Exxon made billions in profits, while our Boulder neighbors lost everything.” – Hannah Berman, Director of Sustainability & Philanthropy at Aspen One.

“ExxonMobil emphasized uncertainty in climate science to policymakers while recruiting researchers on the promise of clean energy transition work in their careers and also internally engineering facilities to withstand rising sea levels and severe weather events predicted by climate science for business-as-usual fossil fuel dependence.” – Dar-Lon Chang, former research engineer at ExxonMobil for 16 years. After working on decarbonization research projects that were canceled, he could not in good conscience continue working for ExxonMobil as it doubled down on profiting from fracking while influencing governments to delay climate action. He left the oil and gas industry in 2019 and is currently Board President of Colorado Rising.

“As our state struggles with water and extreme drought, isn’t it time to turn the tables on the industry that has been lying to our faces for 50 years? We deserve reparations for the harms we are ALL suffering from. Save The Aurora Reservoir continues to maintain that fracking is harming the climate and fracking in residential areas, as the industry prefers in Colorado, is simply wrong. Sending this case back to our state court to decide as a local issue IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. The courts MUST step in where the administration has failed.” – Randy Willard, Save the Aurora Reservoir

“As said by Oren Lyons (Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation): “Downstream in this river of life, our children will pay for our selfishness, for our greed, and for our lack of vision.” – Kristi Douglas, Former Council Member for Commerce City (Suncor Refinery location) and community leader

Media Coverage:

Learn more about our rally and press conference speakers, watch the livestream, and see more photos and videos here.