Young activists sue U.S. government over climate change policy

Eight children are asking a Seattle judge to findWashington state in contempt for failing to adequately protect themand future generations from the harmful effects of climate change,part of a nationwide effort by young people to try to force actionon global warming.

The petitioners, between 12 and 16 years old, are heading back tocourt Tuesday afternoon to ask a state judge to step in and orderthe state Department of Ecology to do a better job of curbinggreenhouse gas emissions.

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The case is part of a nationwide effort led by the Oregon-based non-profit Our Children's Trust to force states and the federalgovernment to take action on climate change.

This month, a federal judge in Eugene, Oregon, allowed a similarclimate change case against President BarackObama's administrationto proceed. In that lawsuit, 21 activists ages 9 to 20 argue thatthe federal government's actions violate their constitutional rightsto life, liberty, and property, and the government has violated itsobligation to hold certain natural resources in trust for futuregenerations.

The juvenile climate activists in Seattle brought their petitionin 2014 asking the court to force state officials to adopt new rulesto limit carbon emissions based on the best available science.

In November, King County Superior Court Judge Hollis Hill deniedtheir appeal but affirmed some of the children's arguments, sayingthe state has an obligation to protect natural resources for futuregenerations.

Need to act 'decisively'

"Petitioners assert and this court finds, their very survivaldepends upon the will of their elders to act now, decisively and unequivocally, to stem the tide of global warming by acceleratingthe reduction of emission of GHG's before doing so becomes first toocostly and then too late," Hill wrote in November.

At the time, the judge noted that the state's Department ofEcology was already working onmeeting that obligation by writing new rules for greenhouse gasemissions ordered by the governor.

The plaintiffs again asked the judge to step in after Ecology inFebruary withdrew its proposed clean air rule to make changes.Ecology was in the process of writing new rules but Hill in Aprilordered the agency to proceed with its rulemaking and come up with arule by the end of 2016.

The Seattle children contend the clean air rule that the stateadopted in September which caps emissions from the state's largestcarbon polluters doesn't do enough to protect young people, andthat the state is violating prior court orders by not doing more.

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The state says in court documents that there's no basis forfinding Ecology in contempt. Ecology complied with court orders byadopting its clean air rule requiring power plants, refineries andothers large polluters to reduce emissions by an average 1.7 percent each year, Assistant Attorney General Katharine Shirey wrote ina response filed with the court Friday.

"Taken together all the things Ecology have done to date aren't protecting the rights of these kids, and that's why they need to domore," said Andrea Rodgers, an attorney representing the youngpetitioners. "There's no dispute that they have not fulfilled theirresponsibility."

The state's lawyer, Shirey, said in court documents that thecourt didn't direct Ecology to adopt any particular rule, nor didthe court say what should or should not be in the rule. She alsowrote that the plaintiffs' claims amount to a challenge of Ecology'sclean air rule, which should be heard in Thurston County SuperiorCourt.