New Montana Laws Spark Fresh Battle Over Major Climate Case

Youth Plaintiffs Push For Enforcement Of Held v. Montana

In 2024, the Montana Supreme Court backed up a big earlier ruling, saying state officials violated the constitutional rights of sixteen young Montanans.

Now, those same plaintiffs want the Supreme Court to actually enforce that Held v. Montana decision.

New Montana Laws Challenged By Climate Plaintiffs

Thirteen of the original sixteen filed a petition on Wednesday, December 10th, saying state lawmakers basically ignored the ruling by passing a bunch of new laws this year that go against it.

“These new policies mean the state is just going to keep acting in ways that increase greenhouse gases, which during the Held case were shown to disproportionately harm youth,” Rikki Held told The Guardian.

Rikki, who’s now 24, was the lead petitioner and the named plaintiff in the original case. “It means we’ll continue down a path we already know—and have proven—is detrimental.”

Montana Governor And State Agencies Named In Petition

The challenged laws were enacted during the Montana legislative session in 2025.

Here’s what the plaintiffs are taking issue with: One new law blocks the state from adopting air-quality standards that are stricter than what’s in the federal Clean Air Act.

Changes To Environmental Reviews Raise Concerns

Lawmakers also tweaked Montana’s Environmental Policy Act, listing only six climate-warming gases that the state has to track during environmental reviews of energy projects.

They even added language saying upstream and downstream emissions shouldn’t be considered in those reviews, even if agencies normally use that info to measure environmental impacts.

And on top of that, state agencies are now barred from using any of that pollution data to deny or condition permits.

The state of Montana, Governor Greg Gianforte, and the Department of Environmental Quality are all named as defendants.

Source: The Gaurdian