{"id":31705,"date":"2013-10-11T08:56:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T13:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=31705"},"modified":"2013-10-11T08:58:25","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T13:58:25","slug":"state-judge-is-wrong-to-say-it-must-protect-atmosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/10\/11\/state-judge-is-wrong-to-say-it-must-protect-atmosphere\/","title":{"rendered":"State: Judge is Wrong to Say It Must Protect Atmosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

Photo by SAUL LOEB\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>

The court upheld an EPA regulation aimed at curbing emissions linked to global climate change.<\/p><\/div>\n

From The Texas Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is appealing a lawsuit that it has already won \u2014 and that was filed by children. Environmental advocates say the appeal shows that the state will go to any lengths to fight the suggestion that it address climate change.<\/p>\n

As part of a national environmental movement, a group of youths in 2011 demanded that the commission enact steps to reduce greenhouse gases. The agency refused, and the youths\u2019 parents sued on their behalf.<\/p>\n

A year later, Travis County District Judge Gisela Triana ruled in the agency\u2019s favor, saying it could use its own discretion and decide not to institute greenhouse gas regulations. But the commission still appealed, insisting that the court did not have jurisdiction over the case to begin with and that she made an \u201cimproper declaratory judgment\u201d \u2014 that Texas is responsible for protecting \u201call natural resources of the State including the air and atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Triana agreed with the plaintiffs that a tenet of U.S. common law known as the \u201cpublic trust doctrine\u201d requires the government to protect the atmosphere as a resource for public use. The agency had disagreed, saying Texas\u2019 duty to protect resources under public trust were \u201climited to the waters of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

State lawyers late last month argued in front of the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals<\/a> that Triana\u2019s comments were beyond the scope of the case and should be \u201cvacated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t it a little disconcerting to have the state want that wiped off the books?\u201d said Adam Abrams, an attorney for the plaintiffs. \u201cIs it really so far-fetched to think that the air and the atmosphere belong to all of us?\u201d Abrams called the appeal \u201ca waste of taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terry Clawson, an agency spokesman, said its costs associated with the case are mostly \u201cinternal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe TCEQ has concerns with how the district court opinion addressed the matter of public trust doctrine,\u201d Clawson added. \u201cThe scope of this doctrine is a very important issue which deserves to be fully vetted.\u201d<\/p>\n

But David Spence, a professor of business and law at the University of Texas at Austin, said the scope of public trust is more symbolic than practical.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a sense it\u2019s a kind of low-stakes argument,\u201d Spence said. \u201cThe public trust doctrine in the U.S. is a fairly weak thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each state applies the principle differently, and few have used it with much force. The doctrine has generally been successful only at protecting open beaches for public use, Spence said.<\/p>\n

Still, even if Triana\u2019s statement does not mean much in practice, the environmental movement has seen it as symbolic \u2014 and the state has seen that as a threat. The agency complained to the court that Triana\u2019s statements were seen by the plaintiffs \u201cas a victory,\u201d even noting that environmental groups had called her ruling a \u201cblockbuster\u201d for the movement to combat climate change in news releases.<\/p>\n

Spence said the appeals court could vacate her statements, because her entire opinion is up for review. But the court may also say, \u201cLook, this is dicta. Everybody calm down,\u201d Spence said. (\u201cDicta\u201d refers to a simple statement that cannot serve as precedent.)<\/p>\n

That is what Abrams expects the court to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is the state harmed by this?\u201d he said. \u201cIf this wasn\u2019t centered around climate change and this statement that the air and the atmosphere belong to all of us, you have to question whether the state would waste its resources on appealing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune<\/a> at http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/10\/11\/state-judge-wrong-say-it-must-protect-atmosphere\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Texas Tribune The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is appealing a lawsuit that it has already won \u2014 and that was filed by children. Environmental advocates say the appeal shows that the state will go to any lengths to fight the suggestion that it address climate change. As part of a national environmental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[122,87],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31705"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31716,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31705\/revisions\/31716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}