Montana Judge Sides With Plaintiffs in Climate Change Lawsuit - Articles

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Montana Judge Sides With Plaintiffs in Climate Change Lawsuit

Posted by: Jarod Word on Aug 17, 2023

A Montana judge on Monday sided with a group of young people who sued the state over its failure to consider climate change when approving fossil fuel projects, The New York Times reports. Plaintiffs argued that children are especially vulnerable to climate change, which “harms [their] physical and psychological health and safety, interferes with family and cultural foundations and integrity, and causes [them] economic deprivations.” District Court Judge Kathy Seely agreed, saying the state’s greenhouse gas emissions “have been proven to be a substantial factor in causing climate impacts to Montana's environment and harm and injury to the youth plaintiffs.” Judge Seely added that the state has erred by not allowing proper analysis on greenhouse gasses, which could be a violation of the state’s constitution and the Montana Environmental Policy Act. The Montana attorney general’s office said the state will appeal, calling the ruling “absurd, but not surprising from a judge who let the plaintiffs’ attorneys put on a weeklong taxpayer-funded publicity stunt that was supposed to be a trial.” Read the order here.