SEATTLE — Environmental activists are suing Washington state, the latest state-level effort to boost use of renewable energy.
Thirteen children backed by the non-profit Our Children’s Trust filed a lawsuit on Friday in King County Superior Court to force the state to end its reliance on fossil fuels. The only way to do so would be for the state to move toward producing all of its energy through renewable means by 2050, Andrea Rodgers, one of the lawyers that filed the case, said in an interview.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar case filed in Alaska in October. In June, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. was withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, a pact that aimed to slow the rise in global temperature by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Similar legal action taken by OTC-backed minors in Massachusetts succeeded in 2016, but failed in Pennsylvania a year later. Lawmakers in Washington’s Democratic-controlled Senate are debating the imposition of a gradually-increasing tax on carbon emissions, although critics charge it doesn’t do enough to combat climate change.
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee has made fighting climate change a central tenet among his policies, signing an order a year ago that requires producers of greenhouse gasses to limit emissions and incentivizes investment in renewable energy. That order is being challenged in court.
