Young climate activists faced sympathetic, if not skeptical, judges in courtrooms in California and Alaska this week as they fought EPA policies and a massive fossil fuel project.
The hearings came as attorneys for the youth in a pair of climate lawsuits sought to overturn their court losses in the two states.
In California Thursday, three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared likely to uphold a finding by a lower bench that the young activists lacked standing to sue EPA because they failed to show they were harmed by agency policies that place less value on the future benefits of pollution.
“This is pretty ephemeral stuff,” Judge Milan Smith said as Brianna Rosier Kabwika, an attorney for the youth, began presenting her case. “It’s fine to say, ‘This happened, that happened.’ But you’ve got to show it. You’ve got to trace it. And I’m not seeing that.”
