Will SCOTUS end America's energy independence?

October 5, 2026

By Matt Coday

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) heard oral arguments today in Suncor v. Boulder, a Colorado state court lawsuit that blames oil and gas companies for "climate change". Sounds bad, right? It gets worse.

In 2020, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute over "climate change" issues.

SCOTUS refused to take up that matter, leaving it in Minnesota state court.

Today, Justice Clarence Thomas asked attorneys for Suncor why the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over this matter. For all of us who work in the oil and gas industry, we know what happens when radical "environmental" groups and opportunistic trial lawyers are able to use state attorneys general, district courts, and misinformed juries to hurt our vital industry, jobs, and families.

Death by a thousand verdicts.

There are about 25 more lawsuits against our industry waiting to proceed from California to the East Coast. The ruling in Suncor v. Boulder matters.

If the Supreme Court remands this to Colorado state court, it could set off a domino effect of cuts to our jobs and threaten America's energy independence.

Misinformed and inflamed juries in local district and state courts could award billions -- even trillions -- of dollars in damages for nonexistent and unprovable problems. Those would hurt every oil and gas producer, but especially the smaller independent producers that account for over 85% of all U.S. oil production.

Those jury awards would cut into operators' budgets, raise production costs, discourage investment, put smaller independent producers out of business, kill our jobs and economy, make us dependent upon foreign oil imports, and (almost certainly) permanently raise gas and diesel prices for all Americans.

You see, this fight isn't just for us. This fight is for all Americans.

I'm Matt Coday, President & Founder of Oil & Gas Workers Association. I'm a fourth-generation oilfield worker from the Permian Basin who broke out on rig floors in 1998. I started this independent, nonpartisan organization in 2015 because I wanted to save American oil and gas jobs. I don't know everything, so I welcome your advice, input, and complaints at members@ogwausa.com.

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