Montana youth first to trial over whether state obligated to protect residents from climate change

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A group of Montana youth who say their lives are already being affected by climate change and that state government is failing to protect them are the first of dozens of such efforts to get their lawsuit to trial Monday. They will try to persuade a judge that the state’s allegiance to fossil fuel development endangers their health and livelihoods and those of future generations.

The 16 plaintiffs argue that Montana has a constitutional obligation to protect residents from climate change in a case experts say could set legal precedent, but isn’t likely to make immediate changes to policy in the fossil fuel-friendly state.

Environmentalists have called the planned two-week bench trial a turning point because similar suits in nearly every state have already been dismissed. A favorable decision could add to a handful of rulings globally that have declared governments have a duty to protect citizens from climate change.

One reason the case may have made it so far in Montana is the state’s Constitutional requirement that government “maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment.” Only a few states, including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York, have similar environmental protections in their constitutions.

The plaintiffs criticize state officials for their alleged failure to curb planet-warming emissions while Montana pursued oil, gas and coal development that provides jobs, tax revenue and helps meet the energy needs of people in Montana and elsewhere.

The plaintiffs cite smoke from worsening wildfires choking the air they breathe; drought drying rivers that sustain agriculture, fish, wildlife and recreation; along with reduced snowpack and shortened winter recreation seasons.

Experts for the state are expected to counter that climate extremes have existed for centuries and that Montana makes “miniscule” contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon dioxide, which is released when fossil fuels are burned, traps heat in the atmosphere and is largely responsible for the warming of the the climate. Carbon dioxide levels in the air this spring reached the highest levels they’ve been in over 4 million years, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration said earlier this month. Greenhouse gas emissions also reached a record last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

In the three years since the lawsuit was filed, the scope of the case has been narrowed to whether Montana’s Environmental Policy Act — which requires state agencies to balance the health of the environment against resource development — is unconstitutional because it does not require officials to consider greenhouse gas emissions or their climate impacts.

Judge Kathy Seeley has said she could rule that the state’s climate change exception in its environmental law is at odds with its Constitution, but she can’t tell the legislature what to do to remedy the violation.

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Brown reported from Billings, Mont.