A group of former Biden administration officials is siding with young climate activists who are suing President Donald Trump over executive orders that seek to boost fossil fuel production.
Former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Biden climate advisers Gina McCarthy and John Podesta filed a friend of the court brief on Tuesday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In it, they argue that courts have the authority to block “unlawful executive actions and have exercised it consistently across administrations.”
The brief comes as the youth challenge an October federal court decision that tossed their lawsuit, which takes aim at three executive orders that encourage the use of coal, oil and gas. Judge Dana Christensen of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana said he did not have the authority to act, though he was “troubled by the very real harms presented by climate change.”
But the Biden officials argue courts have the power to act in such cases and granting relief would not “invite judicial policymaking or require the court to monitor compliance.” Several former senior federal officials joined in on the brief, including former President Barack Obama’s Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Former President George H.W. Bush’s EPA Administrator William Reilly.
