40 orgs, businesses, to Public Service Commission: Consider climate in utility regulation – Daily Montanan - Daily Montanan
40 orgs, businesses, to Public Service Commission: Consider climate in utility regulation - Daily Montanan
40 orgs, businesses, to Public Service Commission: Consider climate in utility regulation
Electricity pylons (Photo by Getty Images).
The Montana Public Service Commission should consider climate change in its regulation of gas and electric utilities, according to a petition submitted Wednesday to the regulatory agency.
The petition asks the PSC to “abide by Montanans’ Constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes the right to a stable climate.” A news release from the Western Environmental Law Center on behalf of more than 40 organizations and businesses said Montana courts have twice found the state has an obligation to consider climate change in its decision-making.
The historic decision in Held v. Montana this summer in the youth climate trial found a provision in the Montana Environmental Policy Act that prohibits state agencies from considering climate in their reviews to be unconstitutional. The organizations said the legislature exempts the Public Service Commission from MEPA, but the body still has a clear “constitutional obligation to maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment for present and future generations.”
“PSC Commissioners take an oath to uphold our Montana State Constitution,” said Winona Rachel, organizer with Families for a Livable Climate, in a statement. “Montana families need them to do their job to protect both our wallets and our shared climate. Our courts have already ruled that our youth have a right to a clean and healthful environment. We owe it to ourselves and our children and grandchildren to ensure a livable future for the place we all call home.”
The organizations said Montanans have the right to request state agencies adopt new administrative rules, and this petition asks the PSC to “include consideration of the economic, social and environmental implications its regulatory decisions have on the climate.”
Petitioners also are from the Montana Environmental Information Center, Earthjustice, Gallatin Valley Sunrise, Bridger Bowl Ski Area, Montana Wildlife Federation, Blackfoot River Brewery, Helena Hunters and Anglers and others.
This story will be updated.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”