Fifteen young people belonging to environmental groups Our Children’s Trust and Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA) are seeking to strike down state laws they say worsen the climate crisis and violate constitutional rights, Wisconsin Public Radio reports.
Attorneys for the two groups filed the lawsuit Friday against the Public Service Commission and Wisconsin Legislature in Dane County Circuit Court.
Groups brought the challenge on behalf of youth between eight and 17 years of age, who say their health has been affected by poor air quality due to wildfire smoke, flooding, extreme heat and Lyme disease, which have grown more common as a result of climate change.
Tony Wilkin Gibart, executive director at MEA, said state laws that prohibit utility regulators from considering pollution from new fossil fuel plants and cap their renewable energy requirements violate their constitutional rights.
“We believe that (their constitutional rights are) being violated by the state continuing to pump greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and drive the climate crisis in ways that are harming our clients and profoundly disrupting their ways of life and jeopardizing the stability of their future,” he said.
The new lawsuit follows a landmark ruling in Montana last December, in which 16 young people successfully challenged that state’s pro-fossil fuel policies.
