An Alaska Superior Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by young plaintiffs who sought to block the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project on the grounds that it would exacerbate climate change and thereby violate their rights under the Alaska Constitution. The plaintiffs also sought a declaratory judgment that they had a “fundamental right to a climate system that sustains human life, liberty, and dignity” under Article VIII and Article I, Section 7 of the Alaska Constitution. The court concluded that Alaska Supreme Court precedent in Kanuk ex rel. Kanuk v. State (2014) and Sagoonick v. State (2022) addressed “substantially similar facts and legal theories” and dictated the dismissal of the claims in this case as barred by the political question doctrine and on prudential grounds. The Superior Court said the plaintiffs “impermissibly ask this Court to substitute its own policy judgment for that of the legislature, which … has determined that promotion of the Alaska LNG Project is in the best interest of Alaskans.” The Superior Court cited “prudential grounds” for denying the declaratory relief and further noted that the political question doctrine would bar judicial enforcement of any declaratory judgment. The court wrote that although the plaintiffs might be “frustrated” by elected officials’ policy choices, “they may not utilize the courts to undercut a valid exercise of the legislature’s Article VIII powers.”

Lawsuit asserting that laws requiring development of a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska violated the youth plaintiffs' rights under the Alaska Constitution.

Sagoonick v. State

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Alaska Trial Court Dismissed Young Plaintiffs’ Lawsuit Seeking to Block LNG Project

Filed

United States of America

Alaska

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.