Montana’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a landmark climate ruling in July that said the state was violating residents’ constitutional right to a clean environment by permitting oil, gas, and coal projects without regard for global warming.
In a 6-1 ruling, the justices rejected the state’s argument that greenhouse gases released from Montana fossil fuel projects are minuscule on a global scale and reducing them would have no effect on climate change, The Associated Press reports. They likened it to asking: “If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”
The plaintiffs can enforce their environmental rights “without requiring everyone else to stop jumping off bridges or adding fuel to the fire,” Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote for the majority. “Otherwise the right to a clean and healthful environment is meaningless.”
Held v. State of Montana, [pdf] made waves in August, 2023, when District Court Judge Kathy Seeley found the policy the state uses in evaluating requests for fossil fuel permits—which does not allow agencies to evaluate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions—is unconstitutional. “Montana’s emissions and climate change have been proven to be a substantial factor in causing climate impacts to Montana’s environment and harm and injury,” she wrote in her ruling.
That had climate law specialists heralding a “huge win” and a “game changer” in the first constitutional climate case ever to go to trial in the U.S. “Sixteen young Montanans have accomplished something unprecedented in U.S. history,” Drilled News wrote at the time. “Judge Kathy Seeley agreed with the young people: they have a right granted by the state’s constitution to a healthy environment, and that right is being violated by the state government’s refusal to consider climate impacts in its permitting decisions.”
In a statement Wednesday, Oregon-based legal non-profit Our Children’s Trust called [pdf] the latest ruling a “turning point” in state energy policy.
“This is a monumental moment for Montana, our youth, and the future of our planet,” said Nate Bellinger, lead counsel to the plaintiffs. “The court said loud and clear: Montana’s Constitution does not grant the state a free pass to ignore climate change because others fail to act,” underscoring legislators’ “affirmative duty to lead by example.”
“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 Wednesday.
Only a few other U.S. states, including Hawaii, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, have similar environmental protections enshrined in their constitutions, AP writes.
During the 2023 trial in state District Court, the young plaintiffs described how climate change profoundly affects their lives: worsening wildfires foul the air they breathe, while drought and decreased snowpack deplete rivers that sustain farming, fish, wildlife, and recreation and affect Native traditions.
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 and attorney for the plaintiffs.
Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said the state was still reviewing the 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 both fossil fuels and renewables.
A day earlier, Gianforte held meetings on how the state can increase energy production, involving energy suppliers, large energy consumers, public utility companies, transmission stakeholders, and legislators.
Incoming Senate President Matt Regier and House Speaker Brandon Ler, both Republicans, 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.”
Montana courts have blocked or overturned numerous laws passed by Republicans in the 2021 and 2023 legislative sessions as being unconstitutional, including laws to limit access to abortion.
In seeking to overturn the District Court ruling, the state had argued 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.
Montana’s Constitution requires agencies to “maintain and improve” a clean environment. A law signed by Gianforte last year said environmental reviews may not consider climate impacts unless the federal government makes carbon dioxide a regulated pollutant. The Montana Supreme Court’s ruling found that law to be unconstitutional.
