Courts
The Justice Department is perhaps the weakest link in Biden’s “all of government” approach to climate change. From caving on the administration’s oil and gas leasing pause, to standing up for the Line 3 and Dakota Access pipelines over the demands of Native activists, to defending a potentially catastrophic plan to drill in the Arctic, the DOJ made a number of decisions this year that puzzled and enraged climate activists. A small but particularly heartbreaking move came in April when the DOJ effectively quashed any hope of moving forward for a landmark case brought against the federal government by 21 young climate activists.
“The court system has an essential role to play in addressing the climate crisis, and Biden has promised to hold polluters accountable for the damage they knowingly caused,” Kassie Siegel, the Climate Law Institute director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told Earther in April. “The court system is the number one venue in which you do that—it’s all about accountability.” Attorney General Merrick Garland clearly needs to study up on that role.
Grade: F
