Montana Court Finds State Environmental Policy Unconstitutional

As we touched on last week, on August 14, the Montana First Judicial District Court, Lewis and Clark County, entered its Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law in Held v. State of Montana, et al. striking down certain provisions of the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), which restricted Montana from incorporating the impact of greenhouse gas emissions or other forms of climate change in environmental reviews (the MEPA Limitation). Plaintiffs were sixteen youths who, at the time of filing the initial complaint, ranged in ages from two through eighteen and, among other requests for relief, sought declarations of law concerning their constitutional rights in Montana to a clean environment and that Montana's “aggregate actions to implement a fossil fuel-based energy system . . . are unconstitutional.”