Consumer Watchdog: New Report Exposes Fossil Fuel-Backed Network Flooding Supreme Court with Briefs Seeking to Shield Oil & Gas Companies in Climate Deception Case
Investigation identifies coordinated fossil fuel funding behind most industry-supporting briefs and raises new questions about Justice Samuel Alito's participation in the case
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Consumer Watchdog investigation has uncovered an interconnected network of fossil fuel companies, billionaire investors, and longtime climate denial organizations behind two-thirds of the groups urging the U.S. Supreme Court to shield ExxonMobil and Suncor from accountability for deceiving the public about the dangers of climate change.
Go through a data visualization guide of the links here.
The report, A Field Guide to Fossil Fuel Front Groups: Coordinating a Supreme Court Campaign to Shield Big Oil, examines every organization that filed an amicus brief supporting Exxon and Suncor in Suncor Energy Inc. v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County. This landmark case could determine whether states and local governments can recover climate damages from companies that knew about climate change and misled the public—or whether taxpayers will continue bearing those costs.
Consumer Watchdog found that 25 of the 38 organizations (66%) supporting Exxon and Suncor have documented financial ties to fossil fuel defendants, the broader fossil fuel industry, or climate denial foundations and dark-money networks that spent decades financing opposition to climate science and environmental regulation. Sixteen organizations received funding tied to the two fossil fuel defendants—either directly from ExxonMobil or from entities connected to billionaire Paul Singer, whose Elliott Investment Management is one of Suncor's largest investors.
"The fossil fuel industry wants the Supreme Court to believe there's a broad, independent movement supporting Exxon and Suncor," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "Follow the money and you understand it's a fossil fuel funded and coordinated echo-chamber: these groups are financed by the same fossil fuel companies, billionaire investors, and climate denial networks that spent decades disputing the industry's role in climate change. Now they are asking the Supreme Court to make it harder to hold those companies accountable for deceiving the public."
A coordinated funding network — not independent public interest organizations
The report found that organizations supporting Exxon and Suncor repeatedly intersect across three overlapping funding networks:
- The fossil fuel defendants themselves, including:
- ExxonMobil (funded 11 groups)
- Entities connected to billionaire Paul Singer, whose Elliott Investment Management is one of Suncor's largest shareholders (9 groups)
- The broader fossil fuel industry, led by:
- Charles Koch's network of foundations, donor funds, and affiliated organizations (16 groups)
- Sarah Scaife Foundation — built from the Mellon family's oil, coal, banking and industrial wealth (10 groups)
- Coal billionaire Joe Kraft and oil billionaire Harold G. Hamm (2 groups)
- Climate denial foundations and dark-money networks, including:
- Leonard Leo's judicial advocacy network (9 groups)
- The Bradley Foundation (16 groups) and the Searle Freedom Trust (8 groups) which have spent decades financing organizations opposing climate science, environmental regulation, and climate accountability.
Many organizations received funding from multiple networks simultaneously, creating what Consumer Watchdog describes as a financial feedback loop in which the same fossil fuel interests repeatedly finance organizations that present themselves as independent voices before the Court.
The report also found that many organizations advanced nearly identical legal arguments in numerous instances, despite filing separate briefs, underscoring the interconnected nature of the network.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments on October 5. At issue is whether communities can use traditional state consumer protection and tort laws to recover damages from companies that knew about the dangers of climate change, misled the public about those risks, and shifted billions of dollars in climate costs onto taxpayers
New report raises questions about Justice Samuel Alito's participation in the case
The report also identifies a series of financial and ethical connections involving Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and billionaire Paul Singer, whose hedge fund Elliott Investment Management is one of Suncor's largest investors.
Elliott Investment Management holds approximately $2.3 billion in Suncor stock while the case has been pending before the Supreme Court, giving Singer a financial stake in the outcome. Consumer Watchdog also found Singer has longstanding financial relationships with organizations supporting Suncor before the Court, including serving as chairman emeritus and a major donor to the Manhattan Institute, which filed an amicus brief urging the Court to reject the lawsuit.
Per a ProPublica report, Justice Alito previously accepted transportation aboard Singer's private jet without publicly disclosing the trip and later declined to recuse himself from cases involving Singer's Elliott Management. According to a recent Guardian report, the Alito family's financial interests also intersect with Singer's business empire. Justice Alito's wife leased the family's Oklahoma mineral interests to Citizen Energy, an oil and gas producer that was later acquired for more than $2 billion by Validus Energy, a company in which Elliott Investment Management holds a majority ownership stake. Despite those overlapping relationships, Justice Alito has not recused himself from the Suncor case.
"Americans deserve confidence that Supreme Court decisions are based solely on the law — not influenced by undisclosed relationships or financial entanglements involving parties with billions of dollars at stake," said Court.
SOURCE Consumer Watchdog
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