Young Montana Environmentalists Win Climate Change Trial

By MATTHEW BROWN and AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Young environmental activists scored a potentially ground-breaking legal victory when a Montana judge said state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean environment by allowing fossil fuel development without considering its effects on climate change.

The ruling Monday following a first-of-its- kind trial in the U.S. adds to a small number of legal decisions around the world that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change.

State District Court Judge Kathy Seeley said the policy the state uses in evaluating requests for fossil fuel permits is unconstitutional because it does not allow agencies to evaluate greenhouse gas emissions.

The lead attorney for the State of Montana, Mark Stermitz (l), at the start of the nation's first youth climate change trial at Montana's First Judicial District Court on June 12 in Helena, Montana. Getty Images