Major Win for Youth Climate Activists in Montana Supreme Court

The Montana Supreme Court upheld a landmark victory on Wednesday, affirming a lower court’s decision that the energy policies of the state violated youth activists’ constitutional rights to a clean environment.

The ruling in Held v. Montana last August invalidated a law stopping regulators from taking into consideration the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions when issuing permits for new fossil fuel projects, reported The Guardian.

The six-to-one decision was the first state supreme court decision of its kind in the United States.

“This ruling is a victory not just for us, but for every young person whose future is threatened by climate change,” said 23-year-old Rikki Held, the lawsuit’s named plaintiff, on Wednesday, as The New York Times reported. 

Many of the 16 youth plaintiffs in the case testified that they had witnessed extreme weather in Montana, a state that has big investments in gas, oil and coal.

The young environmental activists were represented by attorneys from nonprofits Western Environmental Law Center and Our Children’s Trust.

Lead counsel for the plaintiffs Nate Bellinger said the ruling showed that “the future of our children cannot be sacrificed for fossil fuel interests,” reported The New York Times.

Professor of Law Emeritus Patrick Parenteau, a senior climate policy fellow at the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law and Graduate School, said Montana was one of only a few states that had environmental provisions written into its constitution, and that they were possibly the strongest in the nation. Parenteau said similar lawsuits were likely to be filed in other states following the decision.

Parenteau added that the “strong language” in Montana District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s opinion from last year had paved the way for the Montana Supreme Court to uphold the decision. Parenteau said he did not see a way to appeal the decision in the U.S. Supreme Court, since the case was within the scope of state law.

“It’s a landmark because it’s the first court in the U.S. to recognize a constitutional right to a stable climate,” Parenteau said, pointing out that the decision could face political opposition, since there was strong support for the fossil fuel industry by state officials.

“That’s where the limits of a judicial decision like this come into play,” Parenteau explained. “Not to diminish it, just to say what the reality is: It takes a much broader political consensus to really address climate change.”

Western Environmental Law Center said the ruling was “a turning point in Montana’s energy policy,” as BBC News reported.

The nonprofit said its legal team “are committed to ensuring the full implementation of the ruling.”

Several states — including Alaska, Hawaii and Utah — are scheduled to hear similar cases, as well as countries like Pakistan, Uganda, Colombia, Australia and New Zealand.

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