Youth Climate Activists Sue Trump Administration Over Executive Orders

New York Times

5 days ago

Young people who sued state governments over climate change have begun a legal challenge aimed at President Trump's spate of executive orders on climate and the environment.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Montana, argues that three of the executive orders are unconstitutional and would cripple the clean energy industry, suppress climate science and worsen global warming.
The 22 plaintiffs, ranging in age from seven to 25 years old, are mostly from Montana, as well as Hawaii, Oregon, and other states, and are represented by the nonprofit legal group Our Children's Trust. That group has notched two important legal victories in recent years, winning cases against the state of Montana and the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
'Trump's fossil fuel orders are a death sentence for my generation,' said Eva Lighthiser, 19, the named plaintiff. 'I'm not suing because I want to. I'm suing because I have to. My health, my future, and my right to speak the truth are all on the line.'
The plaintiffs argue that they are already experiencing harms from a warming planet in the form of wildfires, drought and hurricanes, and that Mr. Trump's executive orders will make conditions even worse. They say the executive orders violate their Fifth Amendment rights to life and liberty by infringing on their health, safety and prospects for the future.
Further, they argue that the orders constitute executive overreach, because the president cannot unilaterally override federal laws like the Clean Air Act.
The executive orders in question include those declaring a 'National Energy Emergency,' directing agencies to 'Unleash American Energy,' and 'Reinvigorating America's Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.'
The complaint points to immediate consequences from the executive orders, like exempting the Colstrip coal-fired power plant in Montana from pollution rules. The aging plant emits more harmful fine particulate matter pollution, or soot, than any other power plant in the nation, according to Environmental Protection Agency data. A Biden-era rule would have compelled the facility, the only coal plant in the country to lack modern pollution controls, to install new equipment, but it received an exemption from the Trump administration last month.
Several of the plaintiffs live near the plant or a mine that provides it with coal, or along the facilities' transport routes, said Julia Olson, founder of Our Children's Trust.
The suit names Mr. Trump and several cabinet secretaries and agencies, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum; Energy Secretary Chris Wright; and Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator.
The Interior Department and the E.P.A. both declined to discuss pending litigation. The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The complaint also takes aim at the Trump administration's cuts to federal climate research projects like the National Climate Assessment, which is the government's flagship report on how global warming is affecting the country. The report is required by Congress but last month the administration dismissed hundreds of scientists and experts who had been working on the latest version.
'In order for them to protect their rights, they need science,' Ms. Olson said of the young people.
One of the plaintiffs is Rikki Held, 24. She was also the named plaintiff in the Montana case, in which the Montana Supreme Court agreed that the state's energy policies had violated Montanans' constitutional right to a clean environment.
A daughter of a ranching family in the town of Broadus in southeastern Montana, Ms. Held studied environmental science and is now teaching high school students in Kenya.
Ms. Held said her science career had been inspired by the U.S. Geological Survey researchers who would visit her family's land to study the Powder River. That agency is facing significant reductions under the Trump administration's proposed budget.
In an interview from Kenya, Ms. Held said that her family had endured numerous effects of a warming planet, including increased wildfires. That effects livestock, the economy and the food systems that she and her neighbors rely on, she said.
'With all the wildfires, there's smoke in the air that affects health,' she said. 'Especially for ranchers, you don't have an option to stay inside. You have to go out and work take care of your livestock. I've been out fencing in 110 degree days, which is a record-breaking temperature from my area. In 2021, we had two or three of those days, and you just have to be out in the heat and keep working, because you don't have another choice.'
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the orders unconstitutional, block their implementation and protect the rights of youth as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and their respective state constitutions.
Our Children's Trust was joined in filing the suit by Gregory Law Group of California, McGarvey Law of Montana and Public Justice, a public interest law firm in Washington.
Another case by Our Children's Trust filed in 2015, Juliana v. United States, was described as a legal landmark, but was dismissed by a federal appellate court. In March, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
That suit argued that the federal government had violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs with policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels over many decades. In dismissing the case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that courts were not the right venue to address climate change. Our Children's Trust said the new case was different because it is focused on specific executive orders and their implementation in recent months.