A little over a month ago, I posted some information about youth-led efforts to propel climate action & climate justice forward.
[July 2, Youth Turn up the Heat]. It’s great to be able to report that they won the lawsuit to protect their — and everyone’s — right to a clean and healthy environment. The judge ruled that these rights are protected by the Montana constitution and also struck down MT laws pushing fossil-fuel development. Watch the video on Democracy Now (or read the transcript):
There’s a similar provision in Pennsylvania’s constitution, so I have to wonder why youth here in PA don’t launch a similar challenge to the state (possibly with help from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund [CELDF] or Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit the helped with the case in Montana).
Article I §27 says: “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
[See additional links in Comments below]
Hi Peter, this lawsuit hinged on the state’s effort to exclude climate change from consideration in permitting of oil and gas projects. So I guess my question ins what the legal basis for a lawsuit in PA would be, since I don’t think we have a similar law allowing the state to ignore climate impacts in its assessment of permit requests. Did you have an idea of what the legal challenge would be?
Regardless of any specific statutes, PA is still violating its constitution by kowtowing to the gas industry and thus permitting harm to the people.
I think the MT lawsuit was, at its core, not just about the statutes but about the state’s actions leading to harm to the plaintiffs. I think it would take a lawyer to figure out how to build the best case in PA.
Maybe that same outfit that did the MT case (Our Children’s Trust) or CELDF could help figure it out.
Two additional stories worth a look:
• Three Environmental Trends Illustrated by Montana Kids’ Climate Decision | National Law Review
• How Montana Youth Turned the Tables and Won an Unprecedented Climate Victory | In These Times