Montana youth activists who won landmark climate case push for court enforcement | Montana
Young Montanans who won a historic victory in Held v Montana are calling on the state’s highest court to implement that victory.
In a groundbreaking legal ruling in August 2023, a judge in Montana ruled in favor of 16 teenage plaintiffs who accused state officials of violating their constitutional rights by promoting fossil fuels. The state’s high court upheld the judge’s findings in late 2024. But in a petition filed Wednesday, 13 of the 16 plaintiffs argued that state lawmakers violated the judge’s order by passing new laws this year that contradict that order.
“These new policies mean the state will continue to act in ways that increase greenhouse gases, which were shown in the Held case to disproportionately harm young people,” said lead petitioner Rikki Held, 24, the named plaintiff in the earlier case. “This means we will continue on a path that we already know and have proven to be harmful.”
The Held decision said state laws that limit the ability of government agencies to consider greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts during environmental reviews are unconstitutional. It was also stated that although the climate crisis is a global problem, Montana bears the responsibility of finding solutions to the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions within the state.
“The decision confirms that laws that intimidate agencies during environmental reviews are unconstitutional,” said Nate Bellinger, staff attorney at Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit law firm that filed the petition and Held v Montana. “But now the state is actually blinding institutions again.”
Under the new challenge, elected leaders during the 2025 Montana legislative session passed a bill that prohibits the state from adopting air quality standards more stringent than those contained in the federal Clean Air Act. Bellinger said this is a “complete reversal” in which federal standards would serve as a ceiling for regulation rather than a floor.
The legislature also amended the state’s Environmental Policy Act to name just six climate-warming gases for the state to inventory when conducting environmental reviews of energy projects. It also mandated that upstream and downstream emissions (or emissions from transporting fossil fuels or burning fuels produced in Montana outside the state) should not be included in the analysis, although the agencies do consider those impacts.
In an “even more egregious” provision, lawmakers expressly prohibit state agencies from using obtained information about pollution to condition or deny permits for these proposals, Bellinger said.
“These provisions are unconstitutional,” Bellinger said.
The petition names the state of Montana as defendants, as well as its governor, Greg Gianforte, and the department of environmental quality. The agency declined to comment on the challenge. It was not immediately possible to comment on the state of Montana.
Bellinger said lawmakers behind the new policies have made it “pretty clear” that their proposals are a response to the youth’s victory in 2023. Late last year, the incoming state Senate president and House speaker even issued a joint statement Call to the court to ‘fasten your seat belts’ for the next session.
In the new petition, opponents ask the Montana supreme court to strike down these new laws. They say this is a necessary step to ensure that the state fulfills the duties set out in its constitution, which guarantees the right to a “clean and healthy environment”.
This challenge comes amid the Trump administration’s assault on climate and environmental regulations. Youth activist Held said these attacks make it even more important for states to protect their citizens.
“This is a time when we really need to see our government take more action on greenhouse gas emissions,” Held said.
Bellinger said Montana is moving in the opposite direction, with the state’s governor creating a task force to provide recommendations to “unleash” fossil fuel production, recalling the executive order Trump signed in January. civil servants actively to evaluate He said there are proposals to expand coal, oil and gas in line with Trump’s pro-fossil fuel agenda.
“We need to get these laws off the books as quickly as possible so they can have all the tools they need in front of them to not feel like they have to deny and approve these permits,” Bellinger said.
Held says he has directly felt the effects of the climate crisis, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. On his family farm where he grew up, drought took a toll on the health of animals and crops, while extreme weather conditions limited his ability to spend time outdoors. He said global warming got worse between the filing of Held v Montana in 2020 and the plaintiffs winning the case three years later.
“We don’t have another five years to wait for protections while the state continues to burn fossil fuels,” he said. “This is really urgent.”
