Whitehouse and Former Governor Inslee Highlight the Suncor Case and SCOTUS Meddling in Climate Litigation on “Making the Case”

New episode of Making the Case available now on Spotify , Apple , and YouTube Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee and Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, released the eleventh episode of season two of his podcast, Making the Case.  In the new episode, Whitehouse is joined by Jay Inslee, former Governor of Washington and a leading advocate for climate action. Governance in America is done by legislation, regulation, and litigation.  The Supreme Court struck a fatal blow to climate legislation by unleashing dark money through its Citizens United decision.  The Court later struck down EPA’s Clean Power Plan and concocted the “major questions doctrine” to kill climate regulation efforts.  Whitehouse and Inslee dive into what’s next for the captured Court and how a landmark climate liability case – Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County – could upend the future of climate litigation and with this trifecta, create a governance-free zone for the industry.  They discuss how the nation’s highest court assumed a star role in stopping climate action and how the American people, from coast to coast, are experiencing a climate upheaval that’s already roiling insurance markets. “After blowing up both congressional efforts to legislate on climate and prior administrations’ climate pollution standards, immunizing the fossil fuel industry from litigation is the final target for the Captured Court.  It’s why Suncor is such an important case, and why Governor Inslee and I are watching this one closely,” said Whitehouse. “Remember this episode when the dangers of an ungovernable, free-to-pollute industry start landing hard at home.” The episode is now available on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , and other podcast platforms. Whitehouse recently led 90 members of Congress on an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the Suncor case, explaining that nothing in the Clean Air Act, the Constitution, and federal foreign policy prevents states and localities from holding oil and gas companies accountable for climate-related harms. Whitehouse has long been the Senate’s leading voice for improving transparency and accountability at the Supreme Court, delivering a series of speeches on the Senate floor about the special-interest scheme to remake the judicial branch.  In May, Whitehouse took to the Senate floor for a speech converging his “Scheme” series with his “Time to Wake Up” speech series, chronicling the fossil fuel industry’s $600 million effort to capture the Court and protect its ability to pollute for free.