Five of the seven youth petitioners with their attorney, Andrea Rodgers, after the hearing today. (photo: Our Children's Trust)
Massive
Victory for 7 Kids in Climate Change Lawsuit in Washington State
By Our Children's Trust
01 May 16
Today,
in a surprise ruling from the bench in the critical climate case brought by youths
against the State of Washington’s Department of Ecology, King County Superior
Court Judge Hollis Hill ordered the Department of Ecology to promulgate an
emissions reduction rule by the end of 2016 and make recommendations to the
state legislature on science-based greenhouse gas reductions in the 2017
legislative session.
Judge
Hill also ordered the Department of Ecology to consult with the youth
petitioners in advance of that recommendation. The youths were forced back to
court after the Department of Ecology unexpectedly withdrew the very
rulemaking efforts to reduce carbon emissions the agency told the judge it had
underway. This case is one of several similar state, federal and
international cases, all supported by Our
Children’s Trust, seeking the legal right to a healthy atmosphere
and stable climate.
“For
the first time, a U.S. court not only recognized the extraordinary harms young
people are facing due to climate change, but ordered
an agency to do something about it,” Andrea Rodgers, the Western Environmental
Law Center attorney representing the seven youths, said. “Ecology is now
court-ordered to issue a rule that fulfills its constitutional and public trust
duty to ensure Washington does its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
protect the planet.”
In
granting the youth a remedy, Judge Hill noted the extraordinary circumstances
of the climate crisis, saying, “This is an urgent situation … these kids can’t
wait.” The court discussed the catastrophic impacts of climate destabilization
globally, including the impending loss of polar bears and low-lying countries like
Bangladesh. The court explained that while it had no jurisdiction outside of
Washington state, it did have jurisdiction over the Department of Ecology
and would order the agency to comply with the law and do its part to address
the crisis.
“It
was absurd for Ecology to withdraw its proposed rule to reduce carbon
emissions,” petitioner Aji Piper, who is also a plaintiff on the federal
constitutional climate lawsuit, supported by Our
Children’s Trust, said. “Especially after Judge Hill declared last fall
that our ‘very survival depends upon the will of [our] elders to act now … to
stem the tide of global warming.’ I think Ecology should be ashamed by its
reversal of potentially powerful action and today, Judge Hill issued a
significant ruling that should go down in history books. Our government must act
to protect our climate for benefit of us and future generations.”
After
a landmark November, 2015 decision,
in which Judge Hill found that the state has a “mandatory duty” to “preserve,
protect and enhance the air quality for the current and future generations” and
found the state’s current standards to fail that standard dramatically,
the Department of Ecology nonetheless unilaterally withdrew its proposed
rule to reduce carbon emissions in the state in February, just months after
Judge Hill specifically underscored the urgency of the climate crisis.
“This
case explains why youth around this country and in several other countries, are
forced to bring their governments to court to secure a healthy atmosphere and
stable climate,” Julia Olson, executive director and chief legal counsel at Our
Children’s Trust, said. “Despite clear scientific evidence and judicial
recognition of the urgency of the climate crisis, Washington and most
governments across the U.S. and other countries are failing to take
correspondingly urgent, science-based action. That failure unfairly consigns
youth to a disproportionately bleak future against which they can only
reasonably ask the courts to step in to address this most time sensitive issue
of our time.”
Related cases brought by youth to protect
the atmosphere are pending before other U.S. courts in the federal district court in Oregon and in the
state courts of North Carolina, Pennsylvania,Colorado, Massachusetts and Oregon.
“This
is a massive victory,” petitioner Gabe Mandell said.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
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has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
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