Over two years ago now, 21 children filed a lawsuit against the United States of America for infringing on their constitutional rights to having a stable climate and environment—something that United States has been dragging its feet on doing for the past few decades. Last November they received a big victory when a federal district court judge in Oregon struck down the government’s motion to dismiss the case. An interesting bit of history here is that the powerful fossil fuel lobbies that decided to “help” the government by stepping in to attempt to get the case dismissed now want to slink quietly away, and according to Inside Climate News, they have asked a federal judge “for permission to withdraw” from the case.
It is unusual for intervenors to seek to withdraw from a case. API and AFPM filed withdrawal motions in federal district court in Eugene, Oregon, on Thursday, and NAM filed a similar motion on Monday. It is unclear when federal judge magistrate Thomas Coffin will rule on their requests.
Now, why would they want to withdraw now? I mean, you know they don’t care about those kids, right?
Julia Olson, one of the lead counsels for the plaintiffs and executive director of the environmental group Our Children's Trust, said the industry lobbyists are seeking to withdraw in order to avoid handing over potentially damaging information.
Two separate investigative series in 2015, first by InsideClimate News and then the Columbia University School of Journalism/Los Angeles Times, revealed that the oil industry conducted cutting-edge research on climate change as far back as the 1970s before launching a multibillion-dollar campaign in the 1990s to cast doubt on climate science and delay action to cut fossil fuel emissions.
Maybe Texas Republican Rep. and ExxonMobil bagman Lamar Smith can sue these children for infringing on big fossil fuel’s “freedom of speech”?