Jacobson argued that Montana’s reliance on climate-damaging extraction is motivated by perceived “sunk costs” — continuing to support fossil fuels because they’ve already invested so much in the system — as well as by bad policy. “If policies were based on economics, there would be no more fossil fuel growth in Montana or in any country,” he said. His delivery, confident and conversational, made the steps required to resolve the climate crisis seem eminently doable. “The main barrier to energy transition is that we need collective willpower,” he said. “That requires individuals, state governments and national governments to work toward this goal.”
In response, the state has argued that nothing the judge can do will help the plaintiffs; that even were the courts to side with the plaintiffs, it would not help solve climate change, as Montana contributes only a small amount of CO2 emissions compared to global emissions, and that there are no local remedies available to resolve the plaintiffs’ hurt. Furthermore, they said the plaintiffs were attempting to circumvent the Montana Legislature, where their concerns ought to be heard and where environmentalists, for over a decade, have been attempting to do so with little success.
What to Know About the Groundbreaking Climate Change Lawsuit in Montana
Mother Jones, June 26
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2020, hinges on a section of the state constitution that affirms the right to a clean environment: “The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.” As the trial date neared, lawmakers repealed a 30-year-old pro–fossil fuel law; the state Attorney General Austin Knudsen followed up by seeking to dismiss the parts of Held that mention it. In the end, the law’s repeal did little to stop the case. The Montana Petroleum Executive Director went on record saying that the repeal “will not have any effect on energy policy moving forward.” And as the lawyers for the plaintiffs, who were all under 18 when the lawsuit was filed, pointed out, there are plenty of other fossil fuel friendly laws on the books, including one that bars climate change considerations in environmental assessments of industry projects. The youth plaintiffs are challenging those pieces of legislation in particular.
“The world is burning,” testified Claire Vlases, the 20-year-old plaintiff from Bozeman, Montana. “That sounds like a dystopian horror film, but it’s not a movie. It’s real life. That’s what us kids have to deal with.” The plaintiffs’ expert witness Anne Hedge agrees. In her testimony, the Montana Environmental Information Center co-director accused the state government of “running in the wrong direction to address the climate crisis.”