Posted on 05/18/2016 12:03:36 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
Four Massachusetts teens who say they were sick of watching the state drag its feet on global warming went to court — and yesterday came away with a historic victory that could have lasting effects for decades.
The Supreme Judicial Court has sided with Olivia Gieger and Shamus Miller of Wellesley High School, and Isabel Kain and James Coakley of Boston Latin School — high school kids who sued the Department of Environmental Protection. The court agreed with them that the state has failed to fulfill its legal obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“It’s so surreal. I always believed in what we were doing, so it was such an amazing moment to see the results,” said Gieger, 17. “It’s amazing to see what effect we can have.”
The students were joined by the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance and lawyers from the Conservation Law Foundation. They argued that the state misinterpreted the Global Warming Solutions Act — a 2008 state law that requires a 25-percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and an 80-percent reduction by 2050.
They said the Department of Environmental Protection failed to create effective regulations as required by the law, and set back the “commonwealth’s efforts to mitigate climate change impacts,” according to the suit.
The SJC unanimously agreed, and Justice Robert Cordy wrote that the department has to act now and create regulations that address greenhouse gas emissions, set emission limits for each year and make sure those limits decline “on an annual basis.”
“I was in school and I ran to tell Olivia that it worked out that way,” Miller said. “I kept telling her, ‘We won! We won!’ It was such a great day for us and the people in Massachusetts.”
The students sat in the Supreme Judicial Court in early January as their attorneys and lawyers from the attorney general’s office did battle. “It was intimidating,” Gieger said, but she had a feeling her side had better arguments.
Hours after the decision came down, Attorney General Maura Healey congratulated members of Mothers Out Front — a Cambridge-based nonprofit fighting to raise awareness of climate change, which also filed an amicus brief in the suit.
“The Supreme (Judicial) Court said today that Mothers Out Front was right — this needs to happen and in a unanimous decision decided that this will happen and so congratulations to all of you,” Healey said at a luncheon, according to a transcript of the event.
Staged play. Popcorn, anyone?
Inmates have been running the asylum for a long time now. A very long time.
I am incredulous!
You get what you vote for Mass.
Abysmal ignorance on display.
I wonder how much they were paid to pretend they came up with this all on their own.
“the department has to act now and create regulations”
Start with ones that directly target the SJC, their family, friends, and financiers. Cut back their winter heating, electricity and transportation usage by 80%. Ditto for their metabolisms. They best lead by example.
“I was in school and I ran to tell Olivia that it worked out that way,” Miller said. “I kept telling her, ‘We won! We won!’ It was such a great day for us and the people in Massachusetts.”
A pyrrhic victory. They won the right to give total control of their lives to the state and pay outrageously high utility costs for little or no effect.
Yea!
You’d be surprised how many kids in MA really are SJWs like this. Even when I was suffering through high school there back in the 80s, there were quite a few activists in my class.
Those chilluns’s families need to lead by example, eh?
Walk, ride bicycles, take public transit. Never drive.
Keep their hoses at 68 in winter, 76 in summer.
Lights and electronics off at 10 pm.
Dry laundry on clotheslines.
No sports vehicle usage (boats, atv’s, campers).
Use only an un-powered reel lawn mower.
Hand shovel snow.
If and when these young morons - each and every one of them full of him/herself - reach adulthood and find their costs to raise a family insupportable and their taxes ludicrous, they’ll see the light.
More likely, they’ll move to some far more conservative state... and then try the same sh*t there.
Insanity
Most will never connect the dots. The blame greedy power companies.
It’s gonna suck once all of the school busses get parked for good.
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Man made global warming is a myth , at best...Greenland is named that because it was once a garden paradise.....did man made cooling cause all that ice and snow??probably not.
76 in the summer? How about 80? I live in one of the hottest urban cemters of the country and keep my thermostat no lower than 78 and leave it at 80 during peak times and when I’m not home(Due to pets) otherwise it would be slightly higher. Actually they shouldn’t have any AC on. How hot does it get in Massachusetts anyway?
I keep my house at 60 summer and winter.
I detest heat.
.
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