Hello Houston: The Commuter Cut
Oct 13, 2026 · 40 min · 15 segments
In today's edition of "The Commuter Cut," we hear from Seth Chandler, a professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center, who breaks down some…
Tessa BarreraHostBrandon J. MarksGuest
Michael AtkinsonHost
So some of the cases on the docket include the Suncor Energy USA Inc. versus county commissioners of Boulder County.
It's a climate change case, and it really involves the issue of the extent to which states and juries are going to decide the liability of energy companies for their alleged contributions to climate change or whether it's going to be left to the federal government and federal law.
At issue is whether the Supreme Court is going to uphold Colorado's decision that state courts and state law and state juries can hold parties energy producers like Exxon and Conoco and the rest are liable on a theory that they were deceptive, that they didn't tell people adequately that when you buy gasoline, you're also killing the polar bears.
Or is this something that should be handled under the Clean Water Act or left to a matter of federal law?
So that was a case that was already argued, and Justice Alito recused himself because of ties to other oil companies that could be affected by this.
If you could read into the tea leaves, what is taking Alito out of the mix going to do for this argument, do you see?
It actually sort of is a precursor to what might happen if Justice Alito resigns, as some are thinking he might at the end of this term.
And President Trump has difficulty pushing a new nominee through the perhaps more Democratic Congress.
But for this case, it means, you know, a vote that one might ordinarily think would be cast in a conservative direction isn't there.
The Colorado Supreme Court decision would stand, but it wouldn't serve as a form of precedent for the rest of the country.
Nonetheless, Colorado can impose enormous damages on these energy companies and potentially that has a significant nationwide effect.
Colorado is a beautiful place, and you can tell they really care or put emphasis on their environment and who's affecting that climate around them.
Colorado is very much of a purple state in the sense that you've got liberal enclaves like Boulder, but then you have the western part of the state, which is very conservative.
So some of the cases on the docket include the Suncor Energy USA Inc. versus county commissioners of Boulder County.
It's a climate change case, and it really involves the issue of the extent to which states and juries are going to decide the liability of energy companies for their alleged contributions to climate change or whether it's going to be left to the federal government and federal law.
At issue is whether the Supreme Court is going to uphold Colorado's decision that state courts and state law and state juries can hold parties energy producers like Exxon and Conoco and the rest are liable on a theory that they were deceptive, that they didn't tell people adequately that when you buy gasoline, you're also killing the polar bears.
Or is this something that should be handled under the Clean Water Act or left to a matter of federal law?
So that was a case that was already argued, and Justice Alito recused himself because of ties to other oil companies that could be affected by this.
If you could read into the tea leaves, what is taking Alito out of the mix going to do for this argument, do you see?
It actually sort of is a precursor to what might happen if Justice Alito resigns, as some are thinking he might at the end of this term.
And President Trump has difficulty pushing a new nominee through the perhaps more Democratic Congress.
But for this case, it means, you know, a vote that one might ordinarily think would be cast in a conservative direction isn't there.
The Colorado Supreme Court decision would stand, but it wouldn't serve as a form of precedent for the rest of the country.
Nonetheless, Colorado can impose enormous damages on these energy companies and potentially that has a significant nationwide effect.
Colorado is a beautiful place, and you can tell they really care or put emphasis on their environment and who's affecting that climate around them.
Colorado is very much of a purple state in the sense that you've got liberal enclaves like Boulder, but then you have the western part of the state, which is very conservative.
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