A Montana judge ruled that residents of the state have a constitutional right to a clean environment and that a group of young climate activists had their rights violated as a result of fossil fuel development.
District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled against the state government and in favor of sixteen Montana youth, finding that the state’s policy for evaluating fossil fuel permits was unconstitutional because it blocked agencies from looking at potential greenhouse gas emissions.
Montana law explicitly prevents state officials from considering “actual or potential impacts that are regional, national, or global in nature” when deciding whether to approve or deny a permit. However, the Montana constitution says that “the state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations,” and that “the legislature shall provide for the administration and enforcement of this duty.”
In her decision, Seeley wrote that greenhouse gas emissions and climate change “have been proven to be a substantial factor in causing climate impacts to Montana's environment and harm and injury” to the young plaintiffs. She added that the plaintiffs “have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life-support system.”
Seeley’s ruling reverses Montana’s current permitting policy, allowing agencies to consider impacts on climate change when weighing permission to harvest fossil fuels. The ruling, however, does not bar mining or burning fossil fuels in the state.
Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Montana Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen, said in a statement provided to the media that the official would appeal the decision.
“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,” she said. “Their same legal theory has been thrown out of federal court and courts in more than a dozen states.”
Environmental groups, on the other hand, were quick to praise Seeley. Our Children’s Trust Executive Director Julia Olson, who brought the case forward on behalf of the climate activists, said that the ruling was a landmark moment in American 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,” she said. “As fires rage in the West, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s ruling in Montana is a game-changer that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos. This is a huge win for Montana, for youth, for democracy, and for our climate. More rulings like this will certainly come.”
Montana is heavily reliant on fossil fuels with respect to both energy consumption and production. Some 42% of electricity generation in Montana came from coal last year, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. The state is home to forty-five named oil fields as well as six coal mines.
