ELR Citation: 55 ELR 20023
No(s). CV 23-10345-MWF (AGRx) (C.D. Cal. Feb 11, 2025) (Fitzgerald, J.)

A district court granted EPA's and OMB's motion to dismiss a challenge brought by California youth against certain agency policies for allegedly undervaluing the lives of children in cost-benefit analyses and thus harming them by failing to resolve the climate crisis. The youth argued the policies violated the Equal Protection Clause and Take Care Clause, and sought a permanent injunction. The agencies moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. The court found the youth failed to show traceability as to their environmental harms—that the policies resulted in underregulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which burdened them by disrupting their education, recreation, and religious expression—because the agencies' policies were not legally binding; and that they failed to show injury-in-fact as to their discrimination harms—that the policies resulted in a suboptimal rate of future GHG emissions, which would disproportionately impact present-day children—because the harms would be experienced relatively equally by all people alive at the time of the impacts. It granted the motion to dismiss without leave to amend.