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In a Montana Courtroom, Debate Over Whether States Can Make a Difference on Climate Change, and if They Have a Responsibility to Try

Inside Climate News · By Richard Forbes · last updated
The first youth-led climate lawsuit to go to trial considered if a statute preventing the state’s environmental agency from denying permits for fossil fuel development contradicts its constitution’s guarantee of a “clean and healthful environment.”

By Richard Forbes

HELENA, Montana—At the close of the final day of their lawsuit against Montana for its failure to rein in development of fossil fuels in the state and slow climate change, all but one of the 16 young plaintiffs filed out of the Helena courtroom with their lawyers, family members and other supporters. Grace Gibson-Snyder stayed, helping the judge’s scheduling clerk, Farrah Looney, collect the beige and blue cushions that had padded the uncomfortable wooden benches where the plaintiffs sat during the trial.

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