ELR Citation: 43 ELR 20117
No(s). 11-cv-2235 (D.D.C. May 22, 2013) (Wilkins)

A district court denied a motion to reconsider its earlier dismissal of a lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief based on the federal government's alleged failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Plaintiffs—five teenage citizens and two environmental groups—argued that each of the defendants, as the heads of various federal agencies and as officers of the federal government, violated their fiduciary obligations to protect the atmosphere under the federal public trust doctrine. In its prior ruling, the court dismissed the case with prejudice, concluding that the plaintiffs failed to establish a basis for federal jurisdiction because the public trust doctrine is a creature of state common law and not federal law. The court had also explained that even if the public trust doctrine had been grounded in federal common law at some point in time, Congress plainly displaced any such doctrine, at least in this context, through its passage of the CAA. The plaintiffs filed a motion for the court to reconsider its earlier decision under Fed. R. Civ. P. Rule 59(e). But Rule 59(e) offers relief only in narrowly circumscribed and extraordinary circumstances. Here, the plaintiffs either presented all of these arguments previously, or they failed to seize the opportunity to do so when they should have. The court, therefore, denied the motion, noting that the plaintiffs' recourse, if any, lies with the Court of Appeals.