Court tosses out kids’ climate-change lawsuit

A federal appeals court has tossed out a high-profile case brought by 21 youths in a bid to block the federal government from encouraging the use of fossil fuels.

Juliana vs. the United States, filed in 2015, alleges that the U.S. government knew for decades that burning fossil fuels would lead to damaging climate change but failed to do enough to stop it. Two judges out of a three-judge panel ruled that the issues raised in the case are best left to Congress.

“There is much to recommend the adoption of a comprehensive scheme to decrease fossil fuel emissions and combat climate change, both as a policy matter in general and a matter of national survival in particular,” Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz wrote in the court opinion. “But it is beyond the power of an Article III court to order, design, supervise, or implement the plaintiffs’ requested remedial plan. As the opinions of their experts make plain, any effective plan would necessarily require a host of complex policy decisions entrusted, for better or worse, to the wisdom and discretion of the executive and legislative branches.”

Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said in an email the “decision is a disappointment but not a surprise.” 

Gerrard added: “Many U.S. judges have vigorously enforced the environmental laws written by Congress but won’t go beyond that. They want to leave the key decisions to the ballot box. So for now, all three branches of the federal government are sitting on their hands as the planet burns.”

The plaintiffs have the option to request a hearing by the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals or even ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case.

This is a developing story.