Three conservative justices pressed Exxon and Suncor as they asked the Supreme Court to end Boulder’s climate suit.
Eight justices heard nearly two hours of argument on Monday, Oct. 5, on whether Boulder’s Colorado-law suit can go forward or is barred by federal law. Several asked whether the Court can review the unfinished case at all. The Trump administration argued for the oil companies.
Boulder sued in 2018. Its complaint cites more than 700,000 acres of Colorado land hit by a mountain pine beetle outbreak.
October 6, 2026 · Six stories, illustrated
- Pressed the companiesChief Justice John Roberts
“Not quite sure what makes this situation different from all those other ones, where we’ve allowed them to proceed in state court.”
He, Gorsuch and Barrett, three conservatives, pressed the companies hard.
- Pressed the companiesJustices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett
The other two conservatives who pressed Exxon and Suncor.
- Tobacco and opioidsJustice Elena Kagan
“This is Chapter 3. So, if this is Chapter 3, were Chapters 1 and 2 also preempted?”
Comparing the suit to tobacco and opioid litigation. Preempted means blocked by federal law.
- A narrower roadJustice Brett Kavanaugh
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Urging the companies to rely on Clean Air Act precedent instead of a constitutional theory.
- The exit doorJustice Ketanji Brown Jackson
“Sort of premature from the standpoint of this court exercising its jurisdiction.”
To Suncor’s lawyer, about the appeal itself.
- Sat outJustice Samuel Alito
He owns stock in ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66, though not in Exxon or Suncor. His empty seat is why a tie is possible.
Questions at argument are not votes. The Trump administration argued for the companies through Principal Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris.
A tie would leave the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling in place, and Boulder’s suit would proceed.
- 2011 · AEP v. Connecticut
- The Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that the Clean Air Act displaced federal nuisance claims seeking emission caps.
- 2021 · Second Circuit
- Dismissed New York City’s suit because it targeted cross-border emissions directly.
- Jan. 2025 · Honolulu
- The Supreme Court declined Honolulu’s similar case after the Solicitor General called review premature.
- 2018 · Boulder
- Sued Exxon Mobil and Suncor under Colorado state law. The complaint cites more than 700,000 acres of Colorado land hit by a mountain pine beetle outbreak.
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Trump says threats drove all 12 B-1 bombers out of RAF Fairford, hours after Rubio called it a routine rotation.
U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal the threat was an Iranian plot to hit the jets with drones and kill American pilots. Neither government has publicly confirmed it, and senators were never briefed on the move, says Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
A routine rotation; he “wouldn’t directly tie” it to the suspected plot.
“They didn’t fly out by accident. There were some threats.”
Solid bars run from the day of arrest to the day of bail; dashes are time out on bail. Every suspect was free before the bombers left. Neither government has publicly confirmed the Iranian drone plot that U.S. officials described to The Wall Street Journal.
“Historic, unprecedented, and an indication of the sense of vulnerability” of U.S. forces abroad.David Dunn, University of Birmingham, on the pullout
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Trump eased the limits on tax-exempt red diesel, which skips the 24.4-cent federal road-fuel tax.
He signed the executive order on Monday, Oct. 5, to cut record-high fuel costs before the November midterm elections. Red diesel is ordinary diesel dyed red to mark it for untaxed off-road use. Vice President JD Vance pushed the idea as relief for farmers.
24.4 cents federal highway tax a gallon, about 4 percent. Red diesel skips it.
$6.32 the national average a gallon on Monday, Oct. 5
Price per the Washington Examiner, just below the $6.38 weekly average the Energy Information Administration posted for Sept. 28. Red diesel is dyed for off-road use: tractors, construction equipment and generators.
The tax is drawn at the top only so it can be seen; its height, not its place, is the measurement. Analysts doubt the order will move pump prices much.
- Ohio
- Georgia
- Kentucky
Only these three so far. The order tells the Transportation Department to work with states on waiving theirs.
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The U.S. is watching the suspected plague death of a 28-year-old worker at a Siberian lab that studies the disease.
She worked at Irkutsk’s anti-plague research institute and died last week. Trump said the U.S. would help Russia and that he has not spoken with Putin about it.
Pneumonia of undetermined origin
Officials say her samples showed no microbes tied to her lab work. No other institute staff have reported illness.
A hospital under quarantine
Russian media report that nearly 200 people who had contact with her are under medical watch. The State Department and CDC are tracking it as a suspected case of pneumonic plague, the lung form of the infection.
No confirmed cause
Russia has not published a confirmed cause of death, and no second case has been reported.
“I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and the cause to just keep an eye on it and we’re doing that.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Trump: “That’s a disease we used to be able to control, but somehow those microbes got stronger and smarter than like an army.”
Per CDC, standard antibiotics still treat plague and usually stop it spreading within hours. Ashish Jha, the former White House Covid coordinator, said a lab would worry him far more if it ran biological weapons programs.
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Gross federal debt has passed $40 trillion, above the $39.4 trillion the Congressional Budget Office forecast for the end of fiscal 2026.
CBO, Congress’s nonpartisan budget scorekeeper, made that projection in February for Sept. 30, when the fiscal year ended. Treasury’s figure is $40.2 trillion. In 2020, CBO did not expect the debt to reach $40 trillion this decade.
The debt is the running total of every past gap. The year’s deficit, about $2 trillion or 6.2% of GDP, is a preliminary Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimate, and is not drawn here.
in interest on the debt in fiscal 2026, a record and 3.4% of GDP. That is more than the government spent on defense or on Medicare.
- Per resident
- $117,208 the gross debt divided across every U.S. resident
- In 2020
- Not this decade CBO did not expect the debt to reach $40 trillion this decade
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The Pentagon says it has stopped using Anthropic’s Claude AI, after missing its own late-August phase-out deadline.
A Pentagon official told the BBC the department “has ceased the use of Anthropic products.” People familiar with the matter say Claude was still used in Iran operations as recently as last week.
A supply-chain risk
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic the label after it refused to drop safety limits built into Claude. The label has historically been reserved for foreign-linked firms such as Russia’s Kaspersky and China’s Huawei and ZTE.
Inside Maven
Claude ran inside the Maven Smart System, Palantir’s intelligence and targeting platform. Anthropic was the first frontier AI company deployed on classified U.S. government networks, starting in June 2024.
Anthropic is suing
On Sept. 25, a divided D.C. Circuit panel sided with the Pentagon 2–1. Anthropic’s challenge to the label continues. Google, xAI and OpenAI now hold Pentagon AI contracts.
Anthropic’s Pentagon deal carried a $200 million two-year ceiling, the same as Google’s, OpenAI’s and xAI’s.