It’s turned into a warm December in Montana. At her family ranch in Broadus, Rikki Held watches rain fall at a time when she expects snow, and worries about her cows.
"With things like rain and warm temperatures, when that freezes it can cause ice a cow could slip on," she says.
The consequences of climate change have come to define Held’s life, despite her best efforts. She’s the lead plaintiff in the Held v. Montana case, where she and her co-plaintiffs sued the state for failing to act on climate change, and won last December.
"It was wonderful because the court systems, they listened to us youth and heard our stories and listened to our experts, and we got all those findings of facts and conclusions into the court system."
Now she’s the lead plaintiff once more, asking the Montana Supreme Court to overturn new laws passed this year. The laws weakened the state’s ability to regulate planet warming emissions, and excluded some fossil fuel development projects from environmental review.
So Held and 12 other young Montanans filed a petition for original jurisdiction, which allows a case to bypass lower courts.
Nate Bellinger is an attorney with Our Children’s Trust, the law firm representing the young people.
"Held also established that these are issues of statewide importance, and there's a sense of urgency here."
It took five years for the original case to go to trial, Held says they can’t waste any more time addressing a warming world.
"We're already experiencing the impacts, and obviously the decisions made now are going to affect us a long way down the line, especially for young people and future generations."
It is ultimately up to the state Supreme Court to decide whether it will hear the petition or not. This kind of filing is on an expedited timeline, so the Court will likely decide in the next few weeks.
