Today’s groundbreaking ruling by a Montana court decided that the state’s failure to incorporate climate change considerations in reviewing fossil fuel projects was unconstitutional and failed to protect the rights of individuals to a “healthful environment.”
At issue in the case was the constitutionality of the Montana Environmental Policy Act and the fact that the state’s constitution guarantees a right to a clean and healthful environment for its citizens. The young people who brought the lawsuit contended that Montana’s policy must be struck down, as the state has never denied a permit for a fossil fuel project, and they detailed injuries they suffered from the state’s harmful environmental conditions that have been exacerbated by a failure to incorporate health rights into the evaluation of fossil fuel projects.
Health equity advocates were quick to note that one important impact of the court’s ruling is the acknowledgement that health inequities can be experienced by populations marginalized by environmental factors. Notwithstanding a number of court dismissals seen among U.S. environmental cases led by youth, the Montana public policies guaranteeing rights to a healthful environment were sufficient to supersede the defense’s claim that the matter should be decided in the legislature rather than in the courts.
Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that Montana’s emissions could be reasonably traced to the legal provision that prevents the state from evaluating the climate impacts of energy projects. Judge Seeley further stated that Montana’s emissions have, in fact, resulted in harm not only to the environment generally, but also to the health of the plaintiffs.
The Montana ruling can be found here. The local and global health equity communities believe this judicial outcome will serve as a basis for lawsuits in other states that could similarly connect environmental policies to health-related rights of the citizenry.
