State files Supreme Court appeal asking to overturn climate change decision

The State of Montana filed its appeal of a district court judge’s decision in the Held v. Montana case with the Montana Supreme Court this week, arguing that the statute the judge struck down as unconstitutional could not solely be responsible for climate change and so the case never should have been decided in the first place.

The appeal brief, filed six months after Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley handed down her decision declaring the so-called “limitation” to the Montana Environmental Policy Act unconstitutional, argues that declaring the statute unconstitutional does not redress the plaintiffs’ injuries caused by climate change because climate change is a global problem and because MEPA carries no permitting authority.

The MEPA “limitation” has been in place since 2011 to say that environmental reviews could not include a review of impacts outside of Montana, but was amended by the 2023 Legislature in response to a judge’s ruling on a NorthWestern Energy plan in Laurel to expressly prohibit the state from evaluating greenhouse gas emissions or climate impacts to Montana or beyond the state’s borders.