By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – Montana’s top court ruled on Wednesday the state’s constitution guaranteed a right to a stable climate and invalidated laws barring regulators from considering the effects of greenhouse-gas emissions when permitting fossil-fuel projects.
The Montana Supreme Court upheld a landmark trial court decision in favor of 16 young people who said their health and futures were being jeopardized by climate change that the state aggravates through its permitting of energy projects.
The 6-1 decision came in the first lawsuit to go to trial in the United States by young environmental activists challenging state and federal policies they say are exacerbating climate change.
The youth-led lawsuits have taken aim at government policies at the state and federal levels that they say encourage or allow the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, and violate their rights under U.S. or state constitutions.
While some of those cases have faltered, the youth activists scored a major victory in June when the state of Hawaii agreed as part of a first-in-the-nation settlement to take action to decarbonize its transportation system by 2045.
The court rejected Republican-led Montana’s bid to overturn District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s 2023 ruling that the young people had a fundamental right to a clean and healthful environment under a 1972 amendment to Montana’s constitution that required the state to protect and improve the environment.
“Montana’s right to a clean and healthful environment and environmental life-support system includes a stable climate system,” Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote for the majority.
Representatives for the state did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for the young people at the group Our Children’s Trust had no immediate comment.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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