Judge says youth climate lawsuit will proceed to trial in Montana ... - El Dorado News-Times

Judge says youth climate lawsuit will proceed to trial in Montana after state tried to scuttle case

By AMY BETH HANSON and MATTHEW BROWN

Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- A Montana judge on Friday said a climate change lawsuit from young people challenging the state's pro-fossil fuel policies will proceed to trial despite efforts by officials to derail the case.

Attorneys for the 16 young plaintiffs alleged state officials were trying to avoid the upcoming trial when Republican lawmakers in March repealed the state's energy policy. The plaintiffs and their backers are hoping to use the two-week trial that's set to start on June 12 to highlight the dangers of fossil fuel emissions that scientists say are making climate change worse.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a Republican, had asked state Judge Kathy Seeley to dismiss any part of the case touching on the cancelled energy policy. Attorneys for the state also wanted more time to resolve a dispute over recent amendments to a law that allows officials to ignore greenhouse gas emissions when approving fossil-fuel projects.

The judge was not swayed.

"I would suggest you continue to prepare for trial," Seeley told attorneys during a Friday court hearing in Helena. "I'm not intending to just stop everything so that we can spend months wrapped around that spoke."

The case was brought in 2020 by attorneys for the environmental group Our Children's Trust, which since 2010 has filed climate lawsuits in every state on behalf of youth plaintiffs. Many of the cases -- including a previous one in Montana -- have been dismissed. None have yet reached trial.

The pending Montana lawsuit originally sought in part to repeal a state policy promoting coal, gas and oil development. Scientists say burning those fuels is largely driving climate change by releasing planet-warming carbon dioxide.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Philip Gregory, told The Associated Press the policy was repealed "not because the state has committed to changing its fossil fuel policy and actions, but because the state seeks to avoid standing trial."

He explained in an email that the state's continued support for fossil fuels violates environmental protections in the Montana Constitution, which says the state "shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and all future generations."

The lawsuit documents how the consequences of climate change already are being felt by the young plaintiffs, with smoke from worsening wildfires choking the air they breathe and drought drying rivers that sustain agriculture, fish and wildlife.