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A Supreme Court case could redefine accountability for climate change.

CLIMATE GOES TO COURT: On October 5, in a showdown over liability for global warming, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Suncor Energy Inc. vs. County Commissioners of Boulder County. The eight-year-old lawsuit, aimed at defendants Suncor and ExxonMobil, is seeking partial compensation for the toll of climate change in the state, including wildfires, storms, and extreme heat waves. The city and county of Boulder, the plaintiffs, allege that the two oil companies “knowingly and substantially” fed into the climate crisis by producing and selling fossil fuels–and by deceiving the public about their core product’s impact.

The issue at the moment is one of jurisdiction. To this point, the plaintiffs have overcome each legal hurdle. The state trial court refused to dismiss the case. Then the Colorado Supreme Court ruled against the defendants’ brief, which asserted that any state court claim was invalid because federal law holds sway over interstate air pollution claims. That’s when the companies petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, their last resort for avoiding trial.

What’s At Stake?:  

• In 2025, climate-linked damages in the U.S. exceeded $100 billion. And across the U.S., local, county, and state governments are facing prohibitive costs to adapt to climate change.  

• If the U.S. Supreme Court clears the way for Boulder‘s suit to be heard in state court, it could open the door for dozens of other similar pending claims around the country, none of which have yet made it to trial.

• If the plaintiffs prevail, it could set a landmark precedent for civil litigation. Justice Elena Kagan compared the case to past efforts to hold tobacco and opioid companies “responsible for broad social harms.” But if the Supreme Court blocks Boulder from advancing, the other cases could be doomed. Left with no way to hold fossil fuel companies accountable, states and communities could be hard-pressed to cover bills from soaring energy costs, the damage linked to global warming, and the steep financial demands of adaptation.

With Samuel Alito recusing himself, one defection from the Court’s conservative majority could deadlock the justices at 4 to 4 and allow Boulder to move forward. A decision is expected toward the end of the Court’s term in June or July 2027.

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🚗 1.0 – Electrify Transportation

• R2 on a Roll: In the third quarter, Rivian’s deliveries year over year jumped 45 percent,  while production rose 85 percent. The new, more affordable R2 electric SUV accounted for roughly 6,000 deliveries on its own. The company’s strong showing offers a rare bright spot in the U.S. EV market, where sales have fallen 24 percent since the $7,500 federal tax credit expired a year ago (The Verge).

• Pump Action: Europe’s fully electric car sales surged 52 percent in August as record fossil fuel prices made switching to EVs a more compelling economic choice. With more than one in three new vehicles sold through August featuring a plug, geopolitical volatility, along with cheaper models and government incentives, is accelerating an EV transition (Bloomberg).

💡 2.0 – Decarbonize the Grid

• Load-Bearing: U.S. battery energy storage system (BESS) installations are expected to rise by more than half (in megawatts) by 2031, according to Wood Mackenzie. The expansion of utility-scale storage is being driven by falling costs and the need to balance increasingly large loads and renewable generation. At the same time, hyperscalers will be adding storage to “provide needed capacity faster, cheaper and more reliably than gas alone” (Energy-Storage.News).

• Cape Crusaders: Fervo’s first Cape Station unit in Utah became the first greenfield enhanced geothermal project to achieve contractual operations on a commercial scale–and meeting an industry-leading timeline. When Fervo completes its next phase of infrastructure projects in 2028, it will be nearly halfway toward satisfying advanced purchase contracts for more than 1 gigawatt of geothermal power (Renewable Energy Magazine).

🐄 3.0 – Fix Food

• Leftover Credit: Startup Brightly is selling a new type of carbon credit that rewards food rescue organizations for keeping surplus food out of landfills, where it would decompose and release methane. While up to 80 percent of revenue goes back to the food rescue groups, critics warn that companies could use these credits to offset their own CO2 emissions, despite the different climate impacts of short-lived methane and long-lasting carbon dioxide (Fast Company).

• Grounds for Growth: Small food-scrap haulers are filling gaps in municipal composting services. Case in point: Detroit’s Scrap Soils collects from more than 70 homes and businesses for as little as $15 a month. There’s a sizable untapped opportunity for community composting solutions; a 2023 survey counted just 230 municipally supported curbside programs nationwide, as compared with thousands of conventional trash collection programs (AP).

🌳 4.0 – Protect Nature

• Seas of Change: The world’s oceans absorbs roughly 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions. In 2025 alone, the seas added about 40 times as much energy as humanity consumes in a year. A sweeping scientific assessment linked this phenomenon to prolonged marine heatwaves and accelerated sea-level rise. The absorbed CO2 has also made seawater 17 percent more acidic since 1985 (Financial Times).

• Forest on the Ballot: Carbon Brief estimates that Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s enforcement policies have spared at least 20,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest—roughly the area of New Jersey—from deforestation since 2022. But those gains could be in jeopardy after climate skeptic Flávio Bolsonaro edged Lula in the first round of Brazil’s presidential vote, setting up an October 25 runoff that could determine whether forest protections endure (Carbon Brief).

OKR Highlight

PUMPING IRON: On October 8, near Houston, Texas, Hertha Metals broke ground on the United States’ first high-purity iron production plant. In the short term, the facility’s innovative electric arc furnace could begin to disrupt China’s near-monopoly on rare earth magnets. Down the road, it could help to decarbonize the manufacture of steel, a global sector that now emits 2.8 gigatons of carbon each year.

As Speed & Scale’s Ryan Panchadsaram told the assembly in Texas, Hertha’s success would “close a critical security gap in our nation’s supply chain” and also “prove that a new way of making steel is more efficient and more cost-effective than the old one.”

Beyond cutting costs by 25 percent as compared with traditional blast furnaces, Hertha’s novel approach could make meaningful inroads on climate. When the company scales, one model predicts that it could slash conventional emissions from steel-making by up to half–and that’s for a furnace running on natural gas. As green hydrogen comes into the mix–perhaps by the early 2030s, according to Hertha CEO Laureen Meroueh–the emissions reduction could range up to 98 percent.

🧱 5.0 – Clean Up Industry

• Steel Yourself: Just three months after closing a €1.4 billion financing round, Swedish green steel developer Stegra needs fresh capital for the company’s first large-scale, low-carbon steel plant in the town of Boden. After work was scaled back, inflation and ramp-up costs widened the funding gap. Under a new board chair, the company maintains that its timeline is intact for a plant that aims to produce 5 million metric tons of green steel per year (ESG Today).

🧹 6.0 – Remove Carbon

• Removal Approval: The Natural Resources Defense Council issued its first formal endorsement of carbon dioxide removal, including “north star” principles for doing it responsibly. In a notable turn for a mainstream environmental group on a field long met with skepticism, Chief Program Officer Julie Cerqueira framed removal as a complement to emissions cuts, not a substitute (NRDC).

• True North: Canada is exploring a Paris Agreement framework that would let other countries buy and count Canadian carbon removal toward their own climate targets. According to the country’s environment minister, the move could open international demand for Canadian projects using clean energy, geologic storage, biomass capture, direct air capture, and ocean- or river-based carbon removal. Exported carbon credits would not count toward Canada’s own targets (Forbes).

🏛️ 7.0 – Win Politics And Policy

• Winners’ Circuit: The Senate’s bipartisan permitting bill would cut red tape by exempting geothermal test wells and surveying from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review, and by compelling utilities to deploy grid-enhancing technologies or face Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) penalties. But while the bill would boost Fervo and other geothermal explorers, faster permitting would also expedite fossil fuel projects. Meanwhile, industrial decarbonization, methane abatement, EVs, hydrogen, and carbon removal would gain little from the legislation (Heatmap News).

• Permit Pending: The 417-page permitting bill would also cap litigation, protect already-issued permits, and insulate ratepayers from the costs of data center grid upgrades, a concept that’s drawn backing from oil, coal, and renewables groups, along with the White House. Even so, co-author Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) expects revisions, and the Natural Resources Defense Council says it’s unclear whether the transmission gains outweigh the environmental rollbacks (Axios).

🏃 8.0 – Turn Movements Into Action

• Emission Omission: While data center opposition is spreading through red and blue states alike, voters are less concerned about climate impacts than about water use, power bills, and local pollution. If all proposed on-site gas plants were to be built, they could increase U.S. power sector emissions by up to 33 percent, making AI infrastructure a significant climate risk (WIRED).

• Core Strength: Apple’s emissions are down 60 percent from 2015 even as the company has seen revenue gains of more than 75 percent. Apple says it remains on track toward its goal to cut emissions by 75 percent, though the 2030 target still leans on carbon credits to close the gap (Fast Company).

⚡ 9.0 – Innovate!

• Drive Time: Millions of motors inside U.S. buildings and factories are wasting electricity that could help ease the country’s energy supply crunch. Variable frequency drives (VFDs) can cut motor energy use by 40 to 60 percent, potentially freeing up gigawatts of grid capacity for data centers, EVs, and electrification–and without building new power plants (Canary Media).

• Microgrid Movement: Swedish entrepreneur Jonas Birgersson is testing a new system of small, decentralized electric grids in Sweden that could trump Europe’s traditional large grids in producing, storing, and sharing electricity. By using local solar, batteries, and dedicated software to distribute electricity among buildings, smart microgrids could cut operating costs and improve resilience. With Europe’s electricity needs projected to rise 60 percent by 2030, the model may soon find its moment (New York Times).

💰 10.0 – Invest!

• Assembly Required: Nearly 90 percent of U.S. organizations that buy, produce, or refine inputs across solar, battery storage, grid equipment, and critical minerals say at least some of their most tariff-exposed products have no domestic substitute at a competitive price. While U.S. factories can now handle the final stages of clean energy production, solar wafers and cells, battery materials, and refined critical minerals are still mostly imports. In responding to the tariffs, firms are rerouting supply rather than reshoring it (Crux).

• Power Shift: Energy and data center companies have taken $31 billion this year to date, or nearly 70 percent of all climate-tech venture and growth capital –up from just 20 percent five years ago. The shift reflects a growing view that if AI expansion is inevitable, the biggest climate opportunity will be to supply it with cleaner, more efficient energy. As one venture founder put it: “Climate is out. Power is in” (Wall Street Journal).

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