[Law-envtlcert] Children's Trust and Florida Climate Change Action

[Erin Ryan]

Dear Environmental Program Students,

Please see the below email from former FSU Law Professor Donna Christie, about opportunities to work with the Youth Climate lawsuits in Florida and other states.  Best,

--ER

From: Donna Christie <dchristie at law.fsu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 5, 2022 4:35 PM
To: Erin Ryan <ERyan at law.fsu.edu>; Klein,Christine Ann <kleinc at law.ufl.edu>
Subject: Andrea Rodgers, Children's Trust and Florida Climate Change Action

Hi Erin and Christine,

I have been trying to help out Andrea Rodgers (Bill Rodgers’ daughter and senior attorney in the Juliana litigation) with informing and recruiting Florida youth to support climate action in the state.  The letter below from Andrea explains what she is doing in Florida. I would like to recruit your help in distributing the information to the law schools’ environmental organizations in hopes that the members might be willing to use their access to social media to spread some of the information she has supplied for purposes of getting support for the cause.

It isn’t about money to support the organization, but about motivating young voices and spreading information about this effort in Florida. Because she is supplying materials ready for posting (social media toolkit link below), students can participate without having to make big time commitments.  But if they do want to become more involved, I’ll be happy to put them directly in touch with Andrea.  Here’s her letter:

If you recall, we have been representing a group of youth in Florida in a constitutional climate change case, Reynolds v. State of Florida. Earlier this year the 1st DCA affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of our constitutional claims on political question grounds. Given the condition of Florida state courts, the youth we represent have decided to file a petition for rulemaking that asks the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) to use its explicit authority under Florida law to promulgate a rule establishing a goal of 100% renewable energy from the electricity sector by 2050. I was hoping we could get your support by: (1) spreading the word so that we can get as many young Floridians (under the age of 25) signed onto the petition as possible; and (2) asking FDACS Commissioner Nikki Fried to grant our petition for rulemaking after it is filed on January 6, 2022.

 Attached is a one-pager that provides more information about this youth-led petition for rulemaking, along with a social media toolkit<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/docs.google.com/document/d/113drTQ7VBOwIKVaxga9Pf6LylJ67XdylVHhvlsNshgM/edit__;!!PhOWcWs!lRT3PYUfFHTS9DfotYki-izQbNcIkZLBghESJvh7ORk4jBbxlh1mfI3uqMOYZIyP-rY$> that you can use to spread the word to your networks and communities. We will also send you the full petition when it is complete in the next month or so. We are also happy to jump on a zoom if you want to discuss this in more detail.

This is a huge opportunity for youth in Florida to put energy and climate issues front-and-center during the Florida Governor's race …. Putting this petition on Commissioner Fried's desk - signed by as many young people in Florida as we can possibly reach!
 This message may contain privileged and/or confidential information. It is for the exclusive use of the intended recipient(s). Any review, use, disclosure or distribution by persons or entities other than the intended recipient(s) is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply and destroy all copies of the original message. Thank you.

Thank you so much for spending a few minutes forwarding this letter to your environmental law students. Anything you can do will help and anything they can do will help! Also, please feel free to direct any of your students to me if they want to become more involved in this effort in Florida.

Best always,
Donna Christie
Professor Emerita of Law
Florida State University College of Law

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