13/02/2021

(USA) Youths Say They Won't Give Up On Climate Change Initiative After Court Turns Back Lawsuit

San Francisco Chronicle - Bob Egelko

A federal appeals court refused Wednesday to revive a lawsuit by 21 young people demanding government action against climate change, reaffirming a ruling that judges have no power to order such action.

Youth plaintiffs in the Juliana vs. the United States climate change lawsuit gather in a federal courthouse for a hearing with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland, Ore., in June 2019. The court Wednesday refused to revive the lawsuit. © Robin Loznak / Associated Press 2019

The suit was filed in 2015 by plaintiffs ranging in age from 8 to 19. Saying some had seen their homes and schools flooded because of warming temperatures and others had been harmed by smoke from wildfires, they argued that the government was violating their constitutional rights to life and liberty by approving continued oil, gas and coal development.

A federal judge in Oregon refused to dismiss the suit but was overruled in January 2020 by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Although climate change is potentially catastrophic, the remedy the youths seek — requiring the government to move toward a carbon-free energy system by mid-century — is beyond the powers of the judiciary, the court said in a 2-1 ruling that it described as reluctant.

Lawyers for the youths asked the full appeals court for a new hearing before a larger panel. On Wednesday, the court said the request had failed to gain a majority among the 25 judges taking part in the vote. It did not disclose the vote total but said four judges — M. Margaret McKeown, Daniel Collins, Daniel Bress and Lawrence VanDyke — did not participate, for reasons the court did not specify.

Supporters attend a June 2019 rally for young people whose lawsuit charges that U.S. energy policies are causing climate change and hurting their future. © Steve Dipaola / Associated Press 2019

The youths will seek review from the Supreme Court and will also invite President Biden’s administration to the negotiating table, their lawyers said. Former President Donald Trump described as a “hoax” the scientific consensus that humans are responsible for climate change.

But Biden has promised to work toward carbon-free power production by 2035, stopped issuing oil and gas drilling permits on federal land, rejoined the Paris climate accord and named former Secretary of State John Kerry as his envoy on climate change.

The ruling deprives people in the nine states covered by the Ninth Circuit of “the ability to seek a resolution of a real controversy with their government, and hear a controversy about harm to the health and safety of children,” said attorney Julia Olson of the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust. “That travesty cannot stand.”

“I hope that President Joe Biden will understand the crisis we’re in, stop fighting our claims and our rights, and will decide to come to the settlement table in our case,” one of the youths, Sahara V., said in a statement released by the lawyers.

In last year’s ruling, Judge Andrew Hurwitz said the changes the lawsuit seeks would require “a fundamental transformation of this country’s energy system, if not that of the industrialized world.” The youths must instead make their case to the president and Congress, he said.

In dissent, U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton of Santa Ana, temporarily assigned to the appeals court, said the courts may not be able to undo climate change but can require the government to take meaningful action. “The Constitution does not condone the nation’s willful destruction,” she said.

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