Major Win for Youth Climate Activists in Montana Supreme Court [Video]

The Montana Supreme Court upheld a landmark victory on Wednesday, affirming a lower court’s decision that the energy policies of the state violated youth activists’ constitutional rights to a clean environment.

The ruling in Held v. Montana last August invalidated a law stopping regulators from taking into consideration the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions when issuing permits for new fossil fuel projects, reported The Guardian.

The six-to-one decision was the first state supreme court decision of its kind in the United States.

“This ruling is a victory not just for us, but for every young person whose future is threatened by climate change,” said 23-year-old Rikki Held, the lawsuit’s named plaintiff, on Wednesday, as The New York Times reported. 

Many of the 16 youth plaintiffs in the case testified that they had witnessed extreme weather in Montana, a state that has big investments in gas, oil and coal.

The young …