Why a five-year-old’s climate victory in Montana should terrify Big Oil and Coal

The verdict will give the younger generation hope that there is still time for them to make a difference

Youth plaintiffs in the climate change lawsuit, Held vs. Montana, arrive at the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse, on June 20, 2023, in Helena, Mont., for the final day of the trial. A Montana judge on Monday, Aug. 14, sided with young environmental activists who said state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by permitting fossil fuel development without considering its effect on the climate. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record)

The legal victory in Montana today for 16 young people who claimed their environmental rights were violated by fossil fuel projects won’t stop Big Coal from dominating energy production in the West anytime soon. It won’t make the air cleaner or halt oil drilling.

But for the youth climate movement, and until now the legally undefeated fossil fuel industry in America, it was a seismic shock. Think Greta Thunberg with a law degree. Even Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his anti-climate cohorts will sweat this one.

For the first time, a judge held that the state violated its own constitution by denying its citizens “a clean and healthful environment” as mandated in the awarding of fossil fuel projects. Some of the 16 youngsters who brought the case, aged five to 22, testified in June that they had suffered emotional harm and damage to their family properties by the unhealthy air caused by the projects.

This was not the first case brought by the youth movement. The non-profit law firm Our Children’s Trust has brought cases in all 50 states, as a matter of fact. But this was the first one that scored, in part because Montana’s constitution has a provision for the right to a clean and healthy environment.

But for young people who are frustrated by the growing list of climate disasters – such as the Maui fires last week – and the government’s apparent inability to do anything about it, this was a major victory. At last, someone is listening. In this case a judge.

Many of us think of the youth climate movement in terms of raucous street protests; teenagers handcuffing themselves to government buildings, or throwing paint at art exhibits. Causing more distraction than anything else. Previous legal attempts had all fallen short.

Now, with legal precedent, this rightful frustration can hit governments and their fossil-fuel backers in the courts, and possibly balance sheets. A federal case brought almost a decade ago by Our Children’s Trust and delayed is reportedly back on track for trial. More cases are expected.

What was striking about this particular case was the complete lack of any sort of defense by the state government whatsoever. Its defense basically was that Montana’s coal industry, with the largest reserves in the country, was still only responsible for a small part of the global greenhouse gas emissions that are overheating the Earth this summer.

Looking across the country at some of the other red states, long dependent on fossil fuels, it’s easy to find similar excuses. In Florida, which has taken the lead under DeSantis in trying to ban climate discussion in everything from education to state investment decisions, any sort of environmental action is labeled a “woke” attack on freedom.

Meanwhile, as politicians search for ways to limit climate action, disasters such as wildfires, heat domes and unprecedented rainfall and flooding, pile up around us.

The Montana verdict will likely be appealed, and lawyers will find new and better ways to argue in favor of fossil fuel projects. Energy security is the most common theme these days. As I said, the case won’t stop the drilling or clean the air overnight.

But the verdict will go down as a landmark one, in that it will give the younger generation hope that there is still time for them to make a difference. And it will put Big Oil and Big Coal on notice that the next generation of politicians won’t be so friendly.