Montana’s highest court on Dec. 18 ruled for climate activists, finding that the state violated residents’ constitutional right to a clean environment by permitting oil, gas, and coal projects without environmental considerations.
“The State repeatedly tries to redirect our focus to global climate change and the staggering magnitude of the issue confronting the world in addressing it. The State argues that it should not have to address its affirmative duty to a clean and healthful environment because even if Montana addresses its contribution to climate change, it will still be a problem if the rest of the world has not reduced its emissions. This is akin to the old ad populum fallacy: ‘If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?’” Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote in the majority opinion.
“Plaintiffs may enforce their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment against the State, which owes them that affirmative duty, without requiring everyone else to stop jumping off bridges or adding fuel to the fire. Otherwise, the right to a clean and healthful environment is meaningless.”
“While I agree the clean and healthful provision is an expansive right that is intended to apply to every citizen of Montana, it does not follow that any impact, current or imminent, upon a clean and healthful environment allegedly allowed by a statute alone constitutes a sufficiently concrete injury to every citizen for standing purposes, such that an action can be brought without demonstration of a personal stake in the litigation—that is, the government’s application of the statute in a controversy affecting the citizen,” Rice said.
In seeking to overturn the lower court ruling, the state had argued that the plaintiffs should be required to challenge individual fossil fuel development permits as they’re issued, which would have involved trying to challenge even smaller amounts of emissions.
“This ruling is a victory not just for us, but for every young person whose future is threatened by climate change,” lead plaintiff Rikki Held said in a statement after the ruling was released.
Going forward, Montana must “carefully assess the greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts of all future fossil fuel permits,” said Melissa Hornbein, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center who represented the plaintiffs.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said the state was still reviewing the new decision but warned of “perpetual lawsuits that will waste taxpayer dollars and drive up energy bills for hardworking Montanans.”
“This decision does nothing more than declare open season on Montana’s all-of-the-above approach to energy,” he said, which promotes using gas, solar, and other types of energy.
Incoming state Senate President Matt Regier and House Speaker Brandon Ler joined Gianforte in alleging the justices were overstepping their authority and had strayed into making policy.
“Judicial reform was already a top priority for Republican lawmakers,” Regier and Ler said, warning the justices to “buckle up.”
