MSU professors offer insights on Montana climate case - Billings Gazette

MSU professors offer insights on Montana climate case

As the Gianforte administration appeals a District Court judge’s 2023 climate case ruling, parts of the state are experiencing a record-low snowpack, drought persists along portions of the Hi-Line and 2023 was the warmest year on record for the planet.

Two years ago this June the Yellowstone River, and portions of the Beartooth Mountains, witnessed a historic flood, damaging bridges, roads and homes.

No matter how the Montana Supreme Court rules on the state’s appeal of the Held case, brought by 16 teenagers asserting their right to a clean and healthful environment as outlined in the state’s constitution, legislators and lawyers are likely to be busy for a while, said Susan Dana, a Professor Emerita of Business Law at Montana State University.

People are also reading…

“I think there’s a lot of litigation ahead of us,” she told a gathering sponsored by the League of Women Voters at the Billings Public Library on Tuesday.

One of Dana’s colleagues pointed to the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the landmark 1954 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court declaring racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional, as an example of an issue that is still being litigated 70 years later.

“Hopefully, that is not what this will look like,” she said. “Partly because … it’s obvious we have to act now. We can’t take 70 years to figure this out.”
Cathy Whitlock, a professor at Montana State University and expert witness for the plaintiffs, testifies during a hearing in the climate change lawsuit, Held v. Montana, at the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse on June 13, 2023.

Dana was joined by Cathy Whitlock, a Regents Professor of Earth Sciences at MSU and one of the authors of the Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment. She was called as a witness in the Held case, testifying to the impacts of a warming climate on Montana and the world.

One example she presented from the assessment on Tuesday is that as recent as 1950, Montana’s winter climate was snow dominant down to about 7,000 feet.

“With warming, that snow line is going to rise to about 9,000 to 10,000 feet by the end of this century,” she said.

“We’re heading into warmer, drier summers and more drought because there’s less snow.”

Since 1950, the state has warmed by 2.7 degrees on average, she said.

The Gianforte administration is arguing before the state Supreme Court that Montana’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is too small to warrant regulation. Yet Whitlock said experts have calculated the state's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions at 166 million metric tons a year.

Broadus-area rancher Steve Held, the father of Rikki Held who was lead plaintiff in the climate lawsuit, said he is just a cheerleader for the great women in his life, pointing to his daughter, mother and Whitlock as worthy of praise.

“Cathy’s work on Held v. Montana was brilliant,” he said. “If you had the privilege of watching the trial it was an outstanding semester … in how to heal our home, the Earth, while science is still legal.

“We’re going to win this fight.”