A federal appeals court has soundly rejected a youth-led climate lawsuit that accused federal environmental regulators of discriminating against children by placing less value on the future benefits of curbing planet-warming pollution.
Three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a lower court’s ruling that the young people lacked standing to sue EPA because they failed to show they were harmed by the agency’s policies.
“We share the district court’s view that plaintiffs’ theories have deep, fundamental flaws at odds” with constitutional requirements to bring a legal claim, Judge Milan Smith wrote for the court.
The case — filed in December 2023 during the Biden administration — alleged EPA “forged an unlawful path” by failing to keep climate pollution at a level that protects children, who are more vulnerable than adults to the effects of rising temperatures.
