Between a first-of-its-kind climate trial drawing international attention and the Montana Legislature convening for its biennial 90-day session, 2023 was a big year for news on Montana’s environment beat. Read on for a summary of some of the biggest stories that influenced — and are continuing to shape — Montana’s water, wildlife and energy landscape.

YOUNG MONTANANS WIN CLIMATE LAWSUIT, CITING STATE CONSTITUTION’S ‘CLEAN AND HEALTHFUL ENVIRONMENT’ GUARANTEE 

Sixteen young Montanans drew international attention when they asked a district court judge in Helena to reform Montana’s energy policies during a first-of-its-kind trial foregrounding climate claims. In Held v. Montana, the plaintiffs described harms they’ve suffered as a result of Earth’s warming climate, arguing that the Montana constitutions guarantee to a “clean and healthful environment” is threatened. 

For its part, the state argued that Montana’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is globally insignificant, and that authority to revise the state’s energy permitting system properly belongs with other branches of government.

In a sweeping 103-page opinion, Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley sided with the plaintiffs, writing that their “injuries will grow increasingly severe and irreversible without science-based actions to address climate change.” She directed the state to strike a recently passed law barring state agencies from including greenhouse gas emissions in their environmental reviews. 

The state appealed the order to the Montana Supreme Court, which will be wading through both parties’ legal filings in the new year.

MORE THAN 400,000 POUNDS OF ASPHALT ENTER YELLOWSTONE RIVER AFTER TRAIN DERAILMENT

A train derailment released hundreds of thousands of pounds of once-molten asphalt into the Yellowstone River on June 24, spurring a months-long cleanup effort. Nearly three months after the derailment, DEQ issued a do-not-consume advisory for fish caught downstream of the derailment, citing elevated levels of hydrocarbons in the fish tissue it sampled.

COLSTRIP’S ROLLERCOASTER YEAR

The future of the state’s largest coal-fired power plant garnered several headlines this year, starting with NorthWestern Energy’s January announcement that it will acquire a larger ownership stake in the plant from Avista, which is facing a 2025 deadline to end its interest in the plant. Colstrip’s boosters said the agreement would increase the likelihood that the plant will remain operational into the 2030s.

December, however, brought a ruling from the Montana Supreme Court that the DEQ had unlawfully permitted an expansion of the mine that supplies Colstrip’s power plant with coal. The state’s high court vacated a permit that Westmoreland Mining had secured to access an additional 12 million tons of coal, finding that state regulators didn’t properly assess the expansion’s potential to degrade nearby surface waters.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK EYES BISON MANAGEMENT REFORM

An especially snowy winter drove a substantial number of bison out of Yellowstone National Park during the first few months of 2023. Outside the park boundaries the bison encountered a ready supply of eager hunters. The intersection of the herd’s mass exodus and an increasing number of tribes asserting treaty hunting rights resulted in the death of nearly 1,100 bison, a record. 

In August, the park released a document outlining three broad strategies for bison management. That document asserted that the management-motivating risk of bison-to-livestock brucellosis transmission has been overstated, and that the time for a new approach has come. The park is expected to select its preferred alternative for bison management in 2024, a decision that will almost certainly refocus the spotlight on a perennial source of tension between federal and state wildlife agencies.

NORTHWESTERN ENERGY RAISES RATES, MOVES FORWARD WITH NEW GAS PLANT

The utility-regulating Public Service Commission in October gave Montana’s largest utility a green light to raise customers’ electricity rates substantially, approving a rate hike described by detractors as “historic.” Weeks after authorizing NorthWestern to change its rate structure, the PSC allowed a motion for reconsideration to advance, meaning commissioners could still walk back their earlier decision.

In other NorthWestern news, construction on a new gas plant the utility is building near Laurel continued to move forward this year despite its entanglement in legal proceedings. A Yellowstone County District Court Judge in April revoked the plant’s permit, arguing that the state was wrong to not weigh greenhouse gas emissions in its environmental review process. The Legislature’s passage of a bill aimed specifically at that ruling spurred the judge to reinstate the DEQ permit in question, allowing construction to continue once more.

Late last month, the youth climate plaintiffs asked the Montana Supreme Court to invalidate, or at least suspend, the gas plant’s permit until their case is decided by the justices.

FEDS EXPLORE REMOVAL OF ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROTECTIONS FOR GRIZZLIES 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in February announced that it’s taking a closer look at removing federal protections for Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and Yellowstone area grizzly bears. The agency’s announcement was welcomed by Gov. Greg Gianforte and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which has long argued that Montana’s grizzly population is in good shape and that the state is well-positioned to assume management of the controversial carnivores. Environmentalists counter that state management will prove disastrous for grizzlies, given how politically motivated carnivore management has proven to be in Montana.

USFWS’ announcement came weeks after FWP released its plan for managing grizzlies in the event of a delisting. Though it was released for public comment more than a year ago, FWP still hasn’t finalized that plan. Stay tuned in 2024 for updates on that front.

DROUGHT DROPS FLATHEAD LAKE LEVELS; POPULAR SOUTHWEST MONTANA ANGLING DESTINATIONS SEE SHARP DECLINE IN TROUT POPULATIONS

Though last winter supplied most of the state with enough snow to pull out of a rather serious drought, temperature and precipitation trends didn’t favor that outcome in northwestern Montana. Lakes, rivers and streams in that corner of the state remained well below average all summer long, inviting scrutiny on management of the dam at the lower end of Flathead Lake.

In the southwestern corner of the state, record low trout counts on the Big Hole River prompted anglers to push for more research into conditions that could be contributing to a sharp decline in rainbow and brown trout numbers. Preliminary data from a research push, which has both publicly and privately funded components, is anticipated next year.

TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS TURN UP THE HEAT ON TRANSBOUNDARY COAL-MINING POLLUTION

Tribal governments on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border intensified their calls for tighter regulation of a coal-mining operation that’s adding an unparalleled amount of selenium and nitrogen to border-spanning waterways. 

For more than a decade, members of the Ktunaxa Nation Council including the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have called on Canada’s government to refer the issue to the International Joint Commission, all to no avail. Tribal governments want the IJC, which adjudicates issues pertaining to shared waterways, to bring more transparency and oversight to waterborne pollution. 

After a yearlong diplomatic stalemate, there was progress when eight stakeholder governments met in Cranbrook, British Columbia, on Nov. 9 for a first-of-its-kind meeting. The CSKT and other members of the council are hoping that 2024 will bring more clarity to the future of the Elk River, Kootenai River and Lake Koocanusa. Should that happen, I’ll look forward to covering it. 

The post Covering the environment-and-energy beat in 2023 appeared first on Montana Free Press.