Creative Investment Research Files Amicus Brief in Federal Climate Case

WASHINGTON - Sept. 23, 2025 - PRLog -- Creative Investment Research CEO William Michael Cunningham today announced the filing of an amicus curiae brief in the landmark case Lighthiser, et al. v. Trump, et al., currently before the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana (Case No. CV-25-54-BU-DLC). The Court granted Mr. Cunningham's motion for leave to file on September 8, 2025.

The brief was authored by Mr. Connor Stout, a 20-year-old senior at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and highlights how recent executive actions expanding fossil fuel development and dismantling climate protections will impose severe, measurable, and disproportionate costs on young Americans.

"This case is about much more than environmental policy," said William Michael Cunningham, economist and founder of Creative Investment Research. "It is about the transfer of trillions of dollars in hidden costs from today's decision-makers to tomorrow's taxpayers. Young people like Connor will literally pay the price in diminished health, shortened life expectancy, lost income, and destabilized communities. That is why it is both fitting and powerful that a member of the next generation wrote this brief."

Key Findings from the Amicus Brief

The brief marshals extensive economic, scientific, and legal evidence, showing that the challenged Executive Orders (14154, 14156, and 14261):

• Reverse proven public health protections — EPA data shows clean air rules prevented 230,000 premature deaths and preserved $1.8 trillion in economic value in 2020 alone.
• Impose staggering costs on youth and families — Air pollution and climate disasters already carry trillions in annual economic damages, including higher healthcare costs, lost productivity, and destroyed assets.
• Destabilize the housing and insurance markets — Major insurers are withdrawing from disaster-prone states, leaving young homeowners, renters, and small business owners vulnerable to uninsured losses.
• Constitute an intergenerational transfer of risk — Deregulation effectively shifts both immediate and long-term costs from policymakers and corporations to younger generations, undermining economic security and constitutional protections.

Broader Significance

The amicus brief urges the Court to recognize that the rollback of climate protections is not speculative in its harm, but immediate and measurable. By dismantling climate monitoring, weakening insurance solvency, and reversing proven clean air rules, the Executive Orders at issue represent a direct violation of intergenerational equity and constitutional protections.

"Courts must understand that these harms are not abstract — they are happening right now," Cunningham said. "Every missed school day due to asthma, every lost home in a flood, every insurance policy canceled in California or Florida is a concrete reminder that deregulation has real economic victims. They are the young, the vulnerable, and the generations yet to come."

For more, see: https://www.impactinvesting.online/2025/09/a-young-voice-...