Young Americans demand court halt Trump’s biggest rollbacks of pollution protections | Trump administration

Eighteen American teenagers are demanding that the court immediately stop the Trump administration from repealing the scientific finding that underpins nearly all U.S. climate regulations.

Plaintiffs sued the Trump administration in February after officials rescinded a 2009 hazard finding that found greenhouse gas pollution threatened public health and welfare. Venner v EPA, filed in the Washington DC circuit appeals court, claims that the move violates rights guaranteed by the US constitution, including religious liberty, life and liberty.

“My faith has taught me to protect and nurture all children, all living things, all living things,” said Elena Venner, a 21-year-old plaintiff in the case. “Living conditions are not protected by these cancellations.”

According to a stay motion filed on Wednesday and shared with the Guardian, the rule needs to be stopped urgently because it is already causing damage: car companies are already changing their business plans to lock in more gas-powered vehicles.

The filing also asks the court to immediately halt the repeal of annual motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the same day it reversed its finding of danger. According to the filing, cancellations in the time it takes for the case to end up in court could lead to an additional billion tons of planet-warming CO2 pollution; This is more than Japan’s total emissions in a year. It is based on this figure EPA’s 2024 calculations Pollution cuts attributable to regulations each year.

“The increased exposure to all pollutants resulting from this rule is irreversible,” said Julia Olson, founder and general counsel of Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit law firm behind the lawsuit. “The damage suffered by the petitioners is irreparable.”

The White House and EPA declined to comment.

More than a dozen environmental groups and public health advocacy organizations also sued the EPA over the February cancellations, but the Venner v EPA plaintiffs were the first to seek a stay of the lawsuit. They are also the only ones who want the annulment decision to be annulled on constitutional grounds.

Challengers say the administration is violating their rights to life and liberty by worsening planet warming and toxic pollution. This also threatens the ability of states to protect their citizens’ rights protected by the Fifth Amendment.

In June 2024, for example, Hawaii committed to decarbonizing its transportation system by 2045 in a settlement in Navahine v. Hawaii Department of Transportation, another Our Children’s Trust case. The case was filed under the state’s constitution; It stated: “All public natural resources are held in trust by the State for the benefit of the public.”

“Hawaii’s ability to decarbonize transportation and move toward electric vehicles, comply with settlement agreement [and to] Those who defend their own constitution are all harmed by what the EPA just did,” Olson said.

Objectors say the repeal also impedes plaintiffs’ ability to practice religious practices, which violates religious freedom rights guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. For example, a Muslim contestant in California says his ability to fast during Ramadan is threatened due to the increased risk of dehydration due to extreme heat.

Venner, meanwhile, said repealing this law would degrade the natural world, hampering his ability to practice the Catholic faith that the environment should be protected. Inside Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home“Pope Francis said that climate is a common good, that it belongs to everyone and is for everyone because it is a fundamental system that helps support all human life,” Venner noted in a 2015 encyclical.

“When I look at what is being rolled back now, it makes the foundation less stable,” he said.

Elijah Schaffzin, a 17-year-old Memphis native who challenged the suit, said repealing it would affect his ability to practice Judaism. He suffers from asthma and has a severe pollen allergy, forcing him to take a “cocktail of medications” and avoid going outside in the spring. Increasing heat and pollution He said this would make his illnesses worse, which would make it difficult for him to practice his faith, for example, he would be denied the opportunity to go to synagogue on Saturdays. Jewish law prohibits the operation of motor vehicles while observing Shabbat.

“If I want to go to services on Saturdays, I have to walk, and my walk is about 0.7 miles, so it takes 20 to 25 minutes round trip. [along] “It’s a six-lane road that’s extremely busy and polluted,” he said. “This means I can’t go to unshaded areas on days when the heat index is very high, there’s an air quality warning or when pollen is very high.”

Olson said the Trump administration betrayed its commitment to polluting companies by rescinding the endangerment finding.

“They are putting the financial interests of certain industries ahead of the health and safety of children,” he said.