Questions Grow Over Weiser’s Role in Boulder Climate Lawsuit

By Kyle Kohli | Complete Colorado

For years, City and County of Boulder officials have defended their ongoing climate lawsuit against energy companies by pointing to its outside counsel arrangement, where lawyers work on a contingency fee agreement along with repeated assurances that local taxpayers would not be paying for the arrangement.

However, new comments from Boulder District Attorney and Democrat state attorney general candidate Michael Dougherty raise serious questions about whether Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser – and potentially Colorado taxpayers – helped support that legal operation from behind the scenes. If so, it would represent a clear flip flop from Weiser, who has long voiced skepticism about the legal merits of the case.

At a recent Colorado Sun debate, Michael Dougherty, Boulder’s DA in the race, clearly stated he supported the lawsuit and then further suggested that Attorney General Phil Weiser quietly supported Boulder’s lawsuit (starts at 44:15 in the video) by helping ensure the county had the “outside counsel,” “resources,” and “support” needed to bring the case:

“He could have either joined in litigation, supported it without joining affirmatively by making sure that they had the support they needed from outside counsel and the access that they needed to the resources and support to bring that lawsuit, or third, decline to be involved at all, and he actually went with the second option.

“He didn’t decline to be involved at all,  from my view, and from my understanding of the litigation. I know that the Attorney General’s office has strongly supported the work of Boulder County and our allies in this fight.”

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