Remember the lawsuit from 2016 in which a group of teenagers sued to stop climate change, alleging that governmental actions had encouraged the use of fossil fuels and this was endangering their rights under the Constitution? It’s still rolling onwards:
The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that a novel and sweeping case, which the Obama administration first tried to extinguish in 2016, can proceed toward a trial. Trump’s Justice Department is expected to ask the Supreme Court to shut it down.
The group of mostly teenagers in Oregon alleged in a 2015 complaint that government policies have exacerbated global warming in violation of their rights — and those of future generations — under the U.S. Constitution.
They claim that for more than 50 years, the office of the president and eight federal agencies promoted regulations to support the U.S. energy industry’s proliferation of fossil fuels, accounting for a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions. They asked the court to force the government to formulate a formal plan to change course.
I’m not sure what tangible procedures they hope to establish, or if they’d be of much help against climate change, but as a symbolic action, it could be quite powerful.
