Montana youth ask judge for historic order in climate trial
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[June 21, 2023]
By Clark Mindock
(Reuters) - A lawyer for 16 young people on Tuesday asked a Montana
judge for a historic order declaring the state’s pro-fossil fuel
policies violate their rights, wrapping up arguments in the first
youth-led U.S. climate change lawsuit to make it to trial.
Judge Kathy Seeley in Helena took the case under consideration on
Tuesday after hearing from 12 of the plaintiffs during the course of the
trial who described how the state's policies are exacerbating the
climate crisis, impacting their health and threatening their futures.
Nate Bellinger, an attorney for the young people, said during his
closing statement on Tuesday that Seeley should issue a judgment that
the state’s ongoing approval of fossil fuel projects violates a state
constitutional guarantee to a “clean and healthful environment.”
He said that “future generations will look back on this historic trial."
Montana Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell countered that the
courts are no place to set climate policy, and that the plaintiffs
hadn't proved that Montana's relatively small emissions can be blamed
for a global crisis.
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“This case has received national attention because it has been billed or
perceived as a referendum on climate change generally,” he said. But
“this is not supposed to be a town hall or popularity contest.”
The trial began on June 12, three years after the youth plaintiffs, now
between the ages of 5 and 22, filed their lawsuit. It is one of several
youth-led constitutional climate cases pending in courts across the U.S.
The youth plaintiffs claim the state's ongoing permitting of things like
coal and gas exacerbates the climate crisis, despite the state having an
affirmative duty under a 1972 amendment to the Montana constitution to
protect and improve the environment.
Attorneys for the state said during the trial that the youth had failed
to target a specific policy upon which real relief could be granted.
They said the primary policy targeted by the lawsuit, the Montana
Environmental Policy Act, is a “procedural” law that does not mandate
specific outcomes.
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Cattle are seen near the flames of the
Lodgepole Complex fire in Garfield County, Montana, U.S. July 21,
2017. Picture taken July 21, 2017. BLM/Pete McFadden/Handout via
REUTERS/File Photo
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The trial included testimony from the youth plaintiffs who claimed
the state’s policies are contributing to extreme heat and drought,
shrinking the state’s famed glaciers and worsening wildfires.
"When I think about summer, I think about smoke. It sounds like a
dystopian movie, but its real life," plaintiff Claire Vlases, 20,
testified last week.
During the state’s defense, government officials said that agencies
like the Montana Department of Environmental Quality don't have the
authority to deny lawful permits, and said that a ruling in favor of
the plaintiffs likely wouldn’t change that.
The plaintiffs had originally sought an injunction ordering the
state to develop a remedial plan or policies to reduce emissions.
Seeley rejected that bid in 2021, since she said it would require
the court to make policy decisions better left to other branches of
government.
The case is Held v. Montana, Montana First Judicial District Court,
No. CDV-2020-307.
For the youth: Nate Bellinger and Julia Olson of Our Children's
Trust; Roger Sullivan of McGarvey Law; and Melissa Hornbein of the
Western Environmental Law Center
For the state: Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell of the
Montana Department of Justice; and Mark Stermitz of Crowley Fleck
(Reporting by Clark Mindock)
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