More than 40 Montana organizations this week petitioned the state’s Public Service Commission to consider climate impacts when issuing utility rulemakings.  

The organizations — including the Montana Wildlife Federation, Montana Environmental Information Center, the Montana chapter of the Sierra Club and Forward Montana, and represented by Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center — filed Feb. 28 to compel the Montana PSC to “include consideration of the economic, social and environmental implications its regulatory decisions have on the climate.” 

The groups cited August’s Held v. State of Montana ruling, which found that the Montana Constitution entitles residents to “a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life-support system.” The state district court also found that the constitution charges the government with taking “active steps to realize this right” and said that “Montana’s climate, environment and natural resources are unconstitutionally degraded and depleted due to the current atmospheric concentration of [greenhouse gases] and climate change.” 

Lander Busse, one of 16 youth plaintiffs in Held v. State of Montana, joined in signing the petition to the PSC. 

The Held case challenged a Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) requirement that forbade state agencies from contemplating climate change in decisions. The Montana Legislature has exempted the PSC from MEPA. However, the petitioners say that the regulators nevertheless have a clear “constitutional obligation to maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment for present and future generations.”  

In February, state Attorney General Austin Knudsen appealed the ruling to the Montana Supreme Court, contending that Montana cannot remedy the harm to the plaintiffs because the state is not solely responsible for GHG emissions.  

The appeal came a month after the Supreme Court declined to stay the ruling, saying state regulators must consider climate change in their permitting decisions pending an appeal.   

The Held plaintiffs have until mid-March to respond to the state’s appeal brief. 

The environmental groups said the PSC makes decisions concerning Montana gas and electric utilities “that can either promote or discourage continued utility investment in fossil fuel infrastructure,” the chief cause of climate change. 

“Thus, the PSC has the most consequential role of any decision-making body in the state in determining Montana’s impact on the climate,” they wrote in a Feb. 28 press release. 

The groups said Montanans need greater protection from “profit-seeking and environmentally destructive utility decisions that could saddle them with higher utility bills and increase harm to the climate.” They said if PSC refuses to factor the economic and environmental impacts from climate change into utility oversight, customers will pay more for electricity in the long run and be forced to “endure further unaffordable and unconstitutional effects of a changing climate.”  

“After this summer’s historic ruling in the Held v. State of Montana youth climate trial, it is clear that all state agencies must act affirmatively to preserve and protect Montanans’ constitutional right to a healthy climate,” wrote Nick Fitzmaurice, an energy transition engineer with Montana Environmental Information Center. “Burning fossil fuels for energy is the primary driver of our changing climate which is harming our environment and economy. As Montana’s regulator of monopoly utilities, the Public Service Commission is uniquely positioned to stifle climate impacts in the state and promote more affordable clean energy. It is the commission’s constitutional mandate to fully consider climate impacts in its regulation of Montana utilities.”  

The PSC declined to comment.