Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Oct 5, 2026 · 53 min · 17 segments
Plus, the Supreme Court is back in session and justices will decide if Boulder, Colorado can sue companies for climate disasters. And how surveillance culture makes it harder to hook up in your car.
Madeleine BrandHost
Stephen HydenGuest
Jessica LevinsonGuestLauren BanzGuest
But before we get into the technicalities, give us the broad overview of what this case is about.
So the big overview is whether cities and counties and states can bring state law claims against companies that allegedly contribute to climate change.
And the question is, again, can you bring those claims in state courts under state law or do they have to be heard in federal courts under federal law? And as you said, there's a lot of technicalities, but it all boils down to what's the correct court, what's the correct venue for these types of claims.
What the companies are arguing here are that these are the types of claims that can only be heard in federal court, in part because they have not just nationwide implications, but international implications as well.
And so that's what we heard in that tape above is the lawyer for the oil company saying, look, this is going to unleash a barrage of lawsuits.
It would be more than 90,000 potential lawsuits and just would be a nightmare for the legal system in general.
I think that 90,000 figure, frankly, sounded like it hit a bit as inflated in the room.
But there certainly are more than 60 similar suits that are pending right now.
And this case could answer the question as to whether those claims can go forward.
And again, basically what Boulder is arguing is that this is a simple nuisance case.
under state law, that these are companies that are costing cities and counties money.
And they're not asking these companies to, for instance, have emissions caps.
This is just about saying what you're doing is causing this city and this county monetary harm.
But before we get into the technicalities, give us the broad overview of what this case is about.
So the big overview is whether cities and counties and states can bring state law claims against companies that allegedly contribute to climate change.
And the question is, again, can you bring those claims in state courts under state law or do they have to be heard in federal courts under federal law? And as you said, there's a lot of technicalities, but it all boils down to what's the correct court, what's the correct venue for these types of claims.
What the companies are arguing here are that these are the types of claims that can only be heard in federal court, in part because they have not just nationwide implications, but international implications as well.
And so that's what we heard in that tape above is the lawyer for the oil company saying, look, this is going to unleash a barrage of lawsuits.
It would be more than 90,000 potential lawsuits and just would be a nightmare for the legal system in general.
I think that 90,000 figure, frankly, sounded like it hit a bit as inflated in the room.
But there certainly are more than 60 similar suits that are pending right now.
And this case could answer the question as to whether those claims can go forward.
And again, basically what Boulder is arguing is that this is a simple nuisance case.
under state law, that these are companies that are costing cities and counties money.
And they're not asking these companies to, for instance, have emissions caps.
This is just about saying what you're doing is causing this city and this county monetary harm.
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