Youths try new climate tactic

After a federal appeals court reluctantly dismissed a lawsuit by 21 young people demanding government action against climate change, the youths proposed Tuesday to scale back their suit and seek only a ruling that U.S. promotion of fossil fuels violates their rights to life and liberty.

In a 21 ruling Jan. 15, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that although global warming is potentially catastrophic, the courts have no power to order government to address the problem by moving toward a carbonfree energy system. Now the youngsters and their environmental backers are trying another path to have the court assess the government’s responsibility for the impending crisis while staying within its selfdefined limits of authority.

Evidence in the case shows that federal officials’ “actions (or inaction), such as coal leasing, oil development, fossil fuel industry subsidies, and the setting of fuel efficiency standards for vehicles” are violating the youths’ rights, their lawyers said in a federal court filing in Oregon. The youths “merely seek justice for the injuries they are suffering at the hands of their government,” and a judicial declaration of illegality would be a major step forward, the filing said.

The lawyers also urged the Biden administration to abandon the “scorchedearth tactics” of exPresident Donald Trump’s administration, which fought the suit for four years, and to negotiate a settlement “based on technically and economically feasible solutions to the climate crisis.”

President Biden’s Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The suit was filed in Oregon in 2015 by plaintiffs ages 8 to 19.