(CN) — In a historic decision on Monday, a Montana state court ruled in favor of 16 young climate activists who claimed the state’s provisions to an environmental act violated their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment.
“Today, for the first time in U.S. history, a court ruled on the merits of a case that the government violated the constitutional rights of children through laws and actions that promote fossil fuels, ignore climate change and disproportionately imperil young people,” said Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and executive director of Our Children’s Trust, in a statement.
Along with Our Children’s Trust, the young plaintiffs — now ages 5 to 22— are represented by attorneys with the Western Environmental Law Center and McGarvey Law. Together, they helped the plaintiffs sue Montana, its Governor Greg Gianforte and several state agencies in a lawsuit representing the first constitutional climate case in the United States.
Filed in March 2020, the lawsuit challenged Montana’s fossil fuel-based provisions to its State Energy Policy Act. The 1993 law requires state agencies to balance the health of the environment against resource development, but since it was enacted the Montana Legislature has adopted amendments that the plaintiffs say undermined the core purpose of the law.
Lewis and Clark County Court Judge Kathy Seeley found Montana's energy laws allowed the state to permit projects without considering the impact of increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
“The state has known of the dangerous impacts of GHG emissions and climate change for at least the last thirty years,” Seeley wrote, adding that in 2007 the defendants were informed of issues concerning the impacts of climate change in Montana, including rising temperatures, accelerating warming, reduced snowpack and the need for Montana to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
“By prohibiting consideration of climate change,” Seeley later wrote, “GHG emissions and how additional GHG emissions will contribute to climate change or be consistent with the Montana Constitution, the MEPA limitation violates plaintiffs’ right to a clean and healthful environment as is facially unconstitutional.”
The state legislature amended provisions of the Montana Environmental Policy Act, regarding legal challenges to its environmental reviews, under Senate Bill 557. Signed in May by Governor Gianforte, the bill eliminated preventative, equitable remedies for plaintiffs who raised challenges over greenhouse gas emissions or climate change.
In 2011 the legislature passed an amendment that limited the scope of environmental reviews by prohibiting state agencies from considering actual or potential impacts beyond its borders. Then, this year, the legislature adopted an amendment under House Bill 971 to clarify the “MEPA limitation” by prohibiting state agencies from considering “an evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions and corresponding impacts to the climate in the state or beyond the state’s borders.”
Seeley's 103-page order follows a bench trial in June at which, the judge writes, “unrefuted testimony established that plaintiffs have been and will continue to be harmed by the state’s disregard of GHG pollution and climate change pursuant to the MEPA limitation.”
In 2019 the total annual fossil fuels extracted in Montana led to the release of about 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a total higher than many countries, including Brazil, Japan or the United Kingdom, according to data cited in the order. That same year, the total annual fossil fuels consumed in Montana led to nearly 23 million tons of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, with another 80 million tons released from the state’s fossil fuel transportation and processing.
The latter number is the equivalent of all greenhouse gas emissions from Columbia, a country with 50 times the population of Montana.
“In terms of per capita emissions, Montana’s consumption of fossil fuels is disproportionately large and only five states have greater per capita emissions,” Seeley wrote.
By declaring the MEPA limitation unconstitutional, state agencies can now consider greenhouse gas emissions and the impacts of projects on climate change. State agencies can now also consider renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuels across all sectors.
“It is technically and economically feasible for Montana to replace 80% of existing fossil fuel energy by 2030 and 100% by no later than 2050, but as early as 2035,” Seeley wrote.
Montana now has 60 days to appeal Seeley’s decision to the Montana Supreme Court.
“This ruling is absurd, but not surprising from a judge who let the plaintiffs’ attorneys put on a weeklong taxpayer-funded publicity stunt that was supposed to be a trial,” said Emily Flower, spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, in a statement.
Flower added that “Montanans can’t be blamed for changing the climate” and that the “same legal theory has been thrown out of federal court and courts in more than a dozen states.”
In a previous statement, Flower called the entire lawsuit a “meritless publicity stunt” to increase fundraising for Our Children’s Trust “at the expense of Montana taxpayers.
“Our Children’s Trust is a special interest group that is exploiting well-intentioned Montana kids — including a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old — to achieve its goal of shutting down responsible energy development in our state,” Flower said. “Unable to implement their policies through the normal processes of representative government, these out-of-state climate activists are trying to use liberal courts to impose their authoritarian climate agenda on Montanans.”
Follow @alannamayhampdx
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
