Want to keep up with climate news, law, and policy? Sign up for the Green Economy Law Monthly Newsletter here.

On August 14, 2023, a Montana court ruled in favor of sixteen young activists, aged 5 to 22, declaring certain pro-fossil fuel state laws in breach of the plaintiffs’ right to a “clean and healthful environment” under the Montana state constitution.

The plaintiffs suit alleged that the state’s “fossil fuel-based energy system…causes and contributes to climate change in violation of their constitutional rights.” Specifically, the plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of:

• Montana's fossil fuel provisions in the State Energy Policy Act;

• A Montana Environmental Policy Act clause, termed the “MEPA Limitation”, that restricts state agencies from assessing climate change impacts in environmental evaluations; and

• “[T]he aggregate acts the State has taken to implement and perpetuate a fossil fuel-based energy system pursuant to these two statutory provisions.”

In her ruling, Montana First District Court Judge Kathy Seeley accepted that the “unrefuted testimony” of climate scientists and medical experts “established that plaintiffs have been and will continue to be harmed by the State’s disregard of GHG pollution and climate change pursuant to the MEPA Limitation.”

Said harms included damage from “flooding, severe storms, wildfires, and drought” and other climate-change induced environmental changes that impacted the plaintiffs’ incomes, livelihoods, leisure activities, connection to their land and community, as well as their physical and mental health.

The judge further found that “Montana is a major emitter of GHG emissions in the world in absolute terms, in per person terms, and historically.” She recorded that, at a conservative estimate, “the total CO2 emissions due to Montana’s fossil fuel-based economy is about 166 million tons CO2” – the equivalent of CO2 emitted by Argentina, the Netherlands, or Pakistan. Therefore, “what happens in Montana has a real impact on fossil fuel energy systems, CO2 emissions, and global warming.”  

However, despite having been aware of the dangers of climate change for at least the last thirty years, the state “ignored GHG emissions and climate impacts when authorizing fossil fuel activities” since 2011, pursuant to the MEPA Limitation (both the 2011 and the amended 2023 version). 

With reference to a lengthy list of Montana’s environmental sins – including the continuous granting of fossil fuel project permits, such as oil and gas pipelines, coal mines, oil and gas leases, and fossil fuel power plants – the judge concluded that, as a matter of fact, the state’s “actions exacerbate anthropogenic climate change and cause further harms to Montana’s environment and its citizens, especially its youth;” and that the MEPA Limitation prevents full review of alternatives to fossil fuel energy in Montana.

As a result, the court granted an injunction prohibiting the state from acting in accordance with the challenged statutes, meaning state agencies will have to consider climate change and GHG emissions in future environmental reviews of their decisions. However, the plaintiffs’ initial claim for an order forcing Montana to adopt a remedial plan to reduce statewide GHG emissions was dismissed earlier in the litigation as being beyond the court’s proper jurisdiction.

Though the judgment was ultimately a narrow climate victory, in that it simply invalidated explicitly anti-environment state laws, by challenging traditional notions of causation and advocating for proactive climate governance, the ruling nonetheless sets a positive precedent, emphasizing the significance of localized climate impacts and the accountability of sub-national entities in global GHG emissions.

Montana plans to appeal the decision.

Please contact our firm at 647-725-4308 or info@greeneconomylaw.com for legal assistance in connection with climate and energy policy matters.