SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit filed by a group of teens against the state arguing its fossil fuel policies contribute to climate change and harm their lives.
In a unanimous ruling, the Court upheld a lower court judge's decision to dismiss the lawsuit. However, the justices reversed the lower court and ordered the lawsuit to be dismissed "without prejudice," allowing the teens to bring a new legal challenge. That gave them a partial victory.
Seven teens represented by Our Children's Trust sued Governor Spencer Cox and Utah's Division of Oil, Gas & Mining. They basically argued that the state's energy policies — with a heavy reliance on fossil fuels — contributes heavily to climate change and that harms their health, in violation of the Utah Constitution's "right to life" provision. They were asking the Utah Supreme Court to revive their lawsuit and the justices heard arguments last year.
The Utah Supreme Court's ruling largely focused on technical matters, and noted a change in the law by the Utah State Legislature over energy policy focusing on "developing energy resources and planning an energy future 'with a focus on human well-being and quality of life.'"
"The challenged provisions do not—as the youth plaintiffs claim—limit the government defendants’ discretion in making decisions about fossil fuel development. Thus, even accepting as true the allegation that less fossil fuel development will ameliorate the adverse health effects of climate change, we can only speculate that striking these specific provisions would lead to less fossil fuel development in this state," Justice Diana Hagen wrote in the opinion. "The youth plaintiffs try to address this deficiency by asking the court to instruct the government defendants on how they must act 'going forward,' but such instruction would amount to an impermissible advisory opinion."
But Justice Hagen and the rest of the Court did leave a door open for the teens to bring a new legal claim. They ordered the lawsuit to be dismissed "without prejudice."
"In the proceedings below, the youth plaintiffs did not seek leave to amend their complaint. So once the district court determined that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, it should have dismissed the complaint without prejudice, providing the youth plaintiffs an opportunity to cure the jurisdictional deficiencies in a repleaded complaint," she wrote.
In an interview with FOX 13 News on Thursday, one of the teen plaintiffs said the ruling was still a victory.
"This ruling means that another door has been left open for us to continue with our case and continue to challenge the actions of the state," said Natalie Roberts. "But more specifically, challenge specific actions that promote fossil fuels in the state."
Roberts said the impacts of climate change can be seen every day in Utah.
"One of our biggest things here in at least the Salt Lake Valley Valley is air quality. You know, we experience some pretty bad air quality here in the valley and that can be directly attributed to the state's fossil fuel policy," she said. "Then more of like the long-term changes, you know, our weather and our snow."
Roberts and the other teens' attorney, Andrew Welle, said they will be filing an amended lawsuit as a result of the Utah Supreme Court's ruling.
"There's no boundary, no legal mandate for the state that forces them to approve fossil fuel development permits," he said Thursday. "And critically, if they chose to protect the health and safety of Utah's youth, they could completely phase out fossil fuel development permitting tomorrow."
The ruling came the same day Gov. Cox touted a new compact between Utah, Idaho and Wyoming for energy production needs. He said energy will become a critical need in the future and this agreement would streamline development and cut through red tape to make it happen.
"Energy production is one of the great challenges of our time," the governor told reporters at his monthly news conference on PBS Utah.
Asked by FOX 13 News about the ruling, Gov. Cox said it was a "great decision" by the Utah Supreme Court to reject the teens' lawsuit. He also criticized "the radical agenda of the extreme environmental movement" that he said uses regulation and litigation to block projects that can benefit the planet.
"Innovation is the key to securing our energy future, decarbonizing our atmosphere and making life better for all of us," he said.
Read the Utah Supreme Court's ruling here:
