A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by young climate activists that aimed to halt Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel executive orders.
The dismissal by US district judge Dana Christensen on Wednesday came after 22 plaintiffs, ages seven to 25 and from five states, sought to block three of the president’s executive orders, including those declaring a “national energy emergency” and seeking to “unleash American energy” – as well as one aimed at “reinvigorating” the US’s production of coal.
According to the plaintiffs, the executive orders amount to unlawful executive overreach and breach the state-created danger doctrine – a legal principle designed to prevent government officials from causing harm to their citizens.
Among the plaintiffs were also several young individuals who had previously been part of the landmark 2023 Held v Montana case – the first constitutional climate trial in the United States. In that case, a judge ruled in favor of the youth plaintiffs who argued that the Montana state government had violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment.
In Wednesday’s ruling, Christensen said that the plaintiffs presented “overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing at a staggering pace, and that this change stems from the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, caused by the production and burning of fossil fuels”.
However, Christensen said: “Yet while this court is certainly troubled by the very real harms presented by climate change and the challenged [executive orders’] effect on carbon dioxide emissions, this concern does not automatically confer upon it the power to act.”
He added: “Granting plaintiffs’ injunction would require the defendant agencies, and – ultimately – this court, to scrutinize every climate-related agency action taken since” the start of Trump’s second presidency on 20 January 2025.
“In other words, this court would be required to monitor an untold number of federal agency actions to determine whether they contravene its injunction. This is, quite simply, an unworkable request for which plaintiffs provide no precedent,” Christensen continued.
In response to Christensen’s decision, Julia Olson, chief legal counsel at Our Children’s Trust and lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said: “Every day these executive orders remain in effect, these 22 young Americans suffer irreparable harm to their health, safety, and future. The judge recognized that the government’s fossil fuel directives are injuring these youth but said his hands were tied by precedent.”
Olson added: “We will appeal – because courts cannot offer more protection to fossil fuel companies seeking to preserve their profits than to young Americans seeking to preserve their rights. This violates not only the constitution and supreme court precedent, but the most basic principles of justice.”
According to a new report from Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy and ethics non-profit, Trump has picked more than 40 people who were directly employed by coal, oil and gas companies to be part of his administration.
Since taking office, Trump has launched broad attacks on both sustainable energy alternatives and climate science. In August, his administration released a report that said “climate change is a challenge – not a catastrophe”, a claim that drew sharp criticism from climate experts who called the report a “farce” filled with misinformation.
