Justice Department asks Supreme Court to toss kids' climate change lawsuit

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department Appeals to the US Supreme Court Thursday to put a stop to a massive environmental lawsuit, just over a week before it is scheduled to go to trial.

The following was filed in 2015 by a group of young people, ranging in size from 10 to 21, who said the federal government has failed to make the most of it. They claim that they have a right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life.

They seek sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and a national plan for restoring the earth's energy balance. Despite repeated efforts by the federal government – under both the Obama and Trump administrations – to get the lawsuit tossed out, lower courts have allowed it to go forward. It is now set for 50 days of what the plaintiffs call the trial of the century, beginning October 29 in Oregon.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco said the case to proceed, the judge oversees the case of the young people's claim that they have a right to certain climate conditions.

"Their alleged injuries stem from the cumulative effects of CO2 emissions from every source in the world over decades," Francisco said. "Any additions to the global atmosphere that would somehow be attributed to the government" would be minimal.

And, he said, only Congress has the authority to impose the nature of fossil fuels that the lawsuit seeks.

In July, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, the Supreme Court of the United States of America

One of the young people behind the lawsuits, Xiuhtexcatl Martinez of Colorado, defended the sweeping nature of the case in an NBC News interview. Politicians – Democrats, Republicans – are not doing the best job of our future. "

Federal courts typically do not allow lawsuits to go forward unless the parties make a claim that they face some specific harm, unique to them, caused by a government action. Generalized claims are disfavored, and the young people filing this lawsuit do not allege that they are affected differently than anyone else.

"The plaintiffs are asking for the full settlement of the U.S. economy, and the chance of them prevailing in court I think is zero," said Jeffrey Holmstead, a former assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.