Viewpoint: State officials refuse to address climate change
Anne Hedges
If the role of elected officials is to serve the people, Montana officials have missed the memo. Instead, many are bowing to an industry that seeks to enrich shareholders at the cost of everyday Montanans and our climate.
Gov. Gianforte held an invite-only energy meeting last week, but his guest list failed to include anyone who represents the working class or job-creating renewable energy businesses.
Instead, Montana’s monopoly utility NorthWestern Energy groused about not being allowed to raise electric bills – again. NorthWestern leadership wants to follow in the footsteps of the defunct Montana Power Company and deregulate, leaving Montanans without a state oversight commission to protect consumers.
Montanans have been down the deregulation road before: giant corporations get rich and leave the little guy with unaffordable bills. NorthWestern Energy seems determined to socialize the costs of its energy system while privatizing the profits, all while putting our climate at greater risk.
Two days later, 16 youth across Montana won a lawsuit against the state – for good reason. The state refuses to consider how a changing climate causes hotter summers, drier rivers, and unprecedented wildfires that lead to serious public health impacts and damages to agriculture, outdoor recreation, and small and large businesses. Our health, our businesses, and our wallets are at the mercy of corporations who fill their pockets while Montanans suffer the consequences of self-serving executives and shareholders.
Legislative leaders immediately alleged that the Montana Supreme Court had no right to reach the common-sense and Constitutionally-based conclusion that a healthy climate is part of our environment. These misguided leaders and our billionaire governor ignore the law and the reality of what people on the ground are experiencing.
Importantly, they also ignore the Montana Attorney General’s inept defense strategy in the District Court. In the youth case, the lower court judge heard from a wealth of state and national experts who discussed the harm that a changing climate causes to human health and economic well-being, as well as from the impacted youth themselves.
The state, in turn, was unable or unwilling to put up a defense. As an expert witness who gave my testimony to the defense a year before the trial, I expected a rigorous cross-examination. They could have asked me a million questions. Instead, the state asked a couple of softball questions. I was stunned. I’ve been asked tougher questions by toddlers.
Courts must rely on the facts provided by the parties in a case. Attorney General Austin Knudsen was responsible for showing that the youth plaintiffs were wrong, but he didn’t give the court a single shred of usable expert testimony. The state called only one expert to the stand who, when asked about his economic analysis, had to admit that he didn’t know where his numbers came from. The district court was obliged to ignore his testimony.
Which all begs the question: was the court supposed to hand a victory to the state when it hadn’t even bothered to provide credible evidence in its defense? The logical conclusion is there is no credible evidence that climate change isn’t harming Montana’s economy, public health, and our way of life. The court could not manufacture evidence, even if that’s what legislators, the Governor, and Attorney General are now saying it should have done.
Our Attorney General ignores the law; our billionaire Governor seeks to enrich other wealthy people who profit from an outdated and expensive energy system; and most of our legislative leaders ignore the possibility of a clean energy economic engine that drives investments and jobs across the state. No wonder electric rates have risen dramatically under their watch and Montana now has the fourth highest energy costs in the nation.
Montanans deserve leaders who protect present and future generations, even for those of us who aren’t billionaires.
Anne Hedges is the Policy and Legislative Director for the Montana Environmental Information Center.