A landmark climate change trial was set to begin Monday in Montana, where a group of youths has sued government leaders, accusing them of embracing fossil fuels in ways that are destroying the environment and robbing the futures of the state’s young residents.
The lawsuit, more than a decade in the making, is the first of a number of similar efforts to go to trial in the United States. The 16 plaintiffs contend that the state government has failed to live up to its constitutional mandate to “maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.”
The two-week trial, with opening statements scheduled Monday morning, will determine whether a judge should declare that the state’s support for the fossil fuel industry is unconstitutional, Such a finding would put legal pressure on government leaders to take action, and set a tone for other states that are watching how the proceedings unfold.
The effects of a warming climate are already spreading across Montana, including shrinking glaciers at Glacier National Park and a lengthening wildfire season that threatens the state’s treasured outdoor pastimes. The plaintiffs in the case, ranging in age from 5 to 22, have said the state’s inaction on climate change threatens their ability to access clean water, sustain family ranches or continue hunting traditions.
They have personally experienced daunting signs of the future, not only the smoke from wildfires but also the flooding at Yellowstone National Park.
Julia Olson, the executive director of Our Children’s Trust, the environmental nonprofit that helped bring the Montana lawsuit, said the case had the potential to set a new course for a healthier and more prosperous future for the generations to come. Many of the young plaintiffs planned to testify.
“The story that will be told at trial is an important American story,” Ms. Olson said. “It’s a dramatic story.”
Montana, whose unofficial nicknames include the “Treasure State,” has long had its fortunes yoked to the mining industry. Helena, the state capital, where the climate case is being tried, was founded in the 1860s by gold prospectors. Montana is the nation’s fifth-largest coal-producing state and the 12th-largest oil-producing state.
Earlier this year, continuing to demonstrate the state’s support of fossil fuels, Republican lawmakers approved a law that prohibits state regulators from considering the impact on climate when assessing large projects like new power plants or factories.
However, the state has also long treasured its unspoiled landscapes and crystal-clear lakes, embracing another unofficial nickname, “The Last Best Place.” The state added the language to its Constitution about the right to a clean and healthful environment in 1972 in response to growing concern about protecting those assets.
State leaders have resisted the climate lawsuit, which had its roots in an unsuccessful effort in 2011 that pressed the state Supreme Court to force the state to take action on climate change. As part of the case, state officials have disputed the overwhelming scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels is changing the global climate; denied that severe weather events in the state were linked to rising air temperatures; and contended that Montana contributes a trivial amount of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, compared with the rest of the world.
Lawyers for the state have unsuccessfully tried to block the case from proceeding to trial. In a recent court motion, they wrote that the process would become a “show” trial that amounted a “gross injustice.”
Our Children’s Trust has undertaken legal action in every state on the climate issue, and several of the group’s lawsuits are pending. The group won another preliminary victory on June 1 when a judge ruled that a youth case in Oregon, aimed at the federal government, could go to trial.