A massive climate lawsuit that could land before the Supreme Court is an attempt at a back-door "carbon tax," a climate attorney involved in the case divulged during a legal forum. (Brian A. Jackson/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
David Bookbinder, who was the counsel of record in Boulder’s lawsuit but is no longer actively involved in the case, joined a Federalist Society forum in October called "Can State Courts Set Global Climate Policy," where he identified the case as part of an effort to impose an indirect carbon tax. In other words, the case is intended to increase costs on oil companies that are then passed down to consumers as part of the broader effort to decrease the use of oil across the board. He joined the forum in a personal capacity, he told Fox Digital.
"Essentially, the tort liability is an indirect carbon tax," Bookbinder said during the forum. "You sue an oil company, an oil company is liable, the oil company then passes that liability on to the people who are buying its products. In some sense it is the most efficient way — the people who buy those products are now going to be paying for the cost imposed by those products. I'd prefer an actual carbon tax, but if we can’t get one of those, and I don’t think anyone on this panel would agree that Congress is likely to take on climate change anytime soon. So this is a rather convoluted way to achieve the goals of a carbon tax. The people who use the products pay for the damage that they cause."
The Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a Tennessee law banning transgender medical procedures for adolescents in the state is not discriminatory, ruling 6-3 to uphold the law. (AP/Jon Elswick)
Dozens of Republican House lawmakers wrote in an amicus brief in October that the case is one steeped in national security and stability concerns, arguing it could throttle the American energy industry, "if not bankrupt it altogether."
Climate suits and litigation have been heating up in the U.S. in recent years, with conservative lawmakers and experts railing that left-wing activists are carrying out "lawfare" to potentially bankrupt the industry.
The Climate Judiciary Project, for example, repeatedly has come under the ire of lawmakers such as Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as influencing judges presiding over climate cases, with Cruz previously arguing the group is "pressuring judges to set aside the rule of law, and rule instead according to a predetermined political narrative."
The Climate Judiciary Project (CJP), founded in 2018 by the left-wing Environmental Law Institute, describes itself as providing judges with "authoritative, objective, and trusted education on climate science, the impacts of climate change, and the ways climate science is arising in the law," according to its website.
Climate activists attend a rally to end fossil fuels, in New York, Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)
CJP and Environmental Law Institute have repeatedly denied that their work influences judges or support litigation, instead serving an educational resource for the legal community.
"CJP does not participate in or provide support for litigation. Rather, CJP provides evidence-based continuing education to judges about climate science and how it arises in the law. Our curriculum is fact-based and science-first, grounded in consensus reports and developed with a robust peer review process that meets the highest scholarly standards," Environmental Law Institute spokesman Nick Collins told Fox News Digital in September, denying that ELI did not fund the nature study at the heart of Isaac's letter that month.
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Fox News Digital reached out to CJP and ELI for additional comment on Friday but did not immediately receive a reply.
Fox News Digital's Deirdre Heavey and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
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