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Explain It to Me

The kids suing their state for climate change

Explain It to Me

Vox Media Podcast Network

Education, Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.47.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Do Montanans have a constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment? According to the state constitution they do. And a group of young people are using that language to sue the state over its energy policies. The case is called Held v. Montana, and the plaintiffs want to prove the state’s energy policies directly harm the Montana environment. In today’s episode of The Weeds, we’ll dig into the case with Amanda Eggert (@amandaleggert), environmental reporter at the Montana Free Press, and also hear from a plaintiff about why she decided to join the lawsuit. You can read more reporting from Amanda on the Montana legislature, state energy policy, and the environment at MontanaFreePress.org We reached out to the Montana attorney general’s office for comment. Here is the full statement below: “Following the legislative session, there are no existing laws or policies for the district court to rule on. A show trial on laws that do not exist, as the district court seems intent on holding, would be a colossal waste of taxpayer resources. This same lawsuit has been thrown out of federal court and courts in a dozen other states — and it should be dismissed here in Montana as well.” —Emily Flower, spokeswoman for Attorney General Austin Knudsen “This entire lawsuit is a meritless publicity stunt to increase fundraising for their political activism at the expense of Montana taxpayers. Our Children’s Trust is a special-interest group that is exploiting well-intentioned Montana kids — including a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old — to achieve its goal of shutting down responsible energy development in our state. Unable to implement their policies through the normal processes of representative government, these out-of-state climate activists are trying to use liberal courts to impose their authoritarian climate agenda on Montanans.” —Kyler Nerison, communications director for Attorney General Austin Knudsen Credits: Jonquilyn Hill, host Sofi LaLonde, producer Cristian Ayala, engineer A.M. Hall, editorial director of talk podcasts Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm sure a lot of people think their states are special, but I'm very partial to my own.

0:10.4

That's Grace Gibson Snyder.

0:13.0

What I always say about Montana is you can always get too high, no matter where you are

0:18.6

within 10 minutes driving.

0:20.6

Usually way less.

0:22.9

Grace is 19 years old and as you can hear, she loves her state and all the natural beauty

0:28.6

it offers.

0:30.4

My hometown, Missoula, has a river that runs right through it and I spend time in the

0:37.2

summers boating it, floating it, waiting in it.

0:41.2

My family has hunted and fished.

0:44.5

We have little haunts all over the state where my grandfather, for example, went backpacking

0:49.8

in the same area for 40 years every single year.

0:54.7

Underlying everyone's life in Montana is an appreciation for and maybe even more importantly

1:02.0

it dependents upon the natural environment.

1:05.2

So many people subsist upon agriculture and ranching and so there is this super deep generational

1:14.4

cultural connection to the outdoors, to adapt in an intensity that I haven't yet found

1:20.6

anywhere else.

1:23.6

But Grace's home state is changing.

1:27.4

Climate change is threatening her family's connection to the outdoors and even though

1:31.4

she's just 19, Grace has decided to do something about it.

1:36.2

She's a plaintiff in Held v Montana, a landmark climate change lawsuit.

1:41.4

The suit relies on an unusual legal strategy, using language in the state's constitution

...

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