Montana Wants Landmark Climate Ruling Overturned — Will Appeal to State Supreme Court

The state of Montana is going to appeal a ruling last August by District Court Judge Kathy Seeley that the state is violating the rights of young people by not providing them with a clean and healthful environment.

Apparently, the judge agrees with the 16 kids who filed the suit that regulators in Montana are not considering the impact of climate change when they approve fossil fuel projects.

The state wants the Montana Supreme Court to come to the conclusion that the lawsuit ought not have been heard in the first place. And Montana Attorney General Austin Knudson — who is handling the case for the state — wants the decision reversed.

His reasoning is the 16 young people did not have the legal standing to have restrictions placed on an agency when it comes to consideration of greenhouse gas emissions.

Judge Keeley is the first judge in the nation to consider a suit by young activists who are challenging state and federal climate change policies. The judge agrees that young people do have a fundamental constitutional right to have a healthy and clean environment.

She sited a 1972 amendment to Montana’s constitution that requires the state to protect and improve the environment as the reason she sided with the 16 kids that are aged two to 18.

Knudson called Seeley’s decision a “taxpayer-funded publicity stunt.”

Source link: Insurance Journal — https://bit.ly/3zMM7Qs