President Joe Biden is struggling to regain his popularity with young voters who helped put him in the White House in 2020.
A group of youth climate activists say they have an answer to the president’s dilemma: Biden’s Department of Justice needs to drop its opposition to a long-running lawsuit that seeks to curb the U.S. government’s reliance on fossil fuels.
“It’s a mistake for the Department of Justice to take this position in an election year, especially when young voters continue to be more and more disenchanted with the current administration and the permitting of big fossil fuel projects,” said Mat dos Santos, co-executive director and general counsel of Our Children’s Trust, the Oregon-based law firm that represents young climate activists in Juliana v. United States. “This is an opportunity for the administration to do right by young people.”
Allowing Juliana to get to trial after nearly a decade of procedural delays, dos Santos added, “would allow climate action to be front and center while elevating youth voices.”
