Overview
- Thirteen of the original sixteen Held v. Montana plaintiffs filed a motion Wednesday asking the state Supreme Court to take the case directly rather than send it to a district court.
- The challenge targets three 2025 statutes — HB 285 revising MEPA as procedural, SB 211 defining greenhouse gas review rules, and HB 291 barring state or local air standards stricter than federal levels.
- One contested provision forbids agencies from using upstream or downstream emissions analyses to condition or deny permits.
- The filing argues the new laws defy the trial court’s 2023 decision, affirmed in 2024, that restrictions on considering climate impacts in reviews violate Montana’s constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.
- Republican leaders and the attorney general’s office defended the statutes as streamlining reviews and criticized the plaintiffs’ courtroom strategy, while related federal litigation was dismissed in October and is now on appeal to the Ninth Circuit.