Latest news with #Earthworks
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Montana Supreme Court: When the public's right to know is vindicated, attorneys fees should follow
The entrance to the Montana Supreme Court (Photo by Eric Seidle/ For the Daily Montanan). In a sprawling, 61-page decision that had about as many opinions attached to it as members of Montana's highest court, a majority of justices said that the State of Montana, specifically the governor's office, should pay attorneys fees in a public documents fight between the office and groups wanting more information about a mining executive. However, the particular details before the court were not whether a former mining executive should be permitted to lead a mining company after his former company was found to be a 'bad actor' by state law. Instead, the Montana Supreme Court weighed in on when the government should pay attorneys fees in the public records dispute. In a fractured mix of majority, concurring and dissenting opinions, at least four justices agreed that Lewis and Clark District Judge Christopher Abbott should have given attorneys fees to the Montana Environmental Information Center and Earthworks, which had sued Gov. Greg Gianforte for documents related to Phillips S. Baker, Jr., and permitting documents related to both Hecla Mining and the Montanore mine. The MEIC argued that the state had not enforced its 'bad actor' provision against Baker, the Hecla CEO, because of his leadership in a company that went went bankrupt, while leaving millions of dollars of mining mess to be taken care of in perpetuity by the state. MEIC and Earthworks, which won the public documents fight against the governor, also asked for attorneys fees because they brought the lawsuit under the Montana Constitution's right-to-know provisions. In the state, judges have discretion to award attorneys fees when private groups or individuals are successful in vindicating constitutional rights, like obtaining public documents. Previously, the Montana State Supreme Court had been reluctant to recommend a checklist of conditions that have to be met in order to award attorneys fees, instead relying on the judgment of district or trial court judges. However, a majority of the court decided to take up the issue, saying that more guidance was necessary for judges, something a minority, including Chief Justice Cory Swanson, balked at. The dissenting opinions centered on the idea that judges should still have latitude to decide on a case-by-case basis, and that if the Legislature wanted to mandate attorneys fees, it should be done in law. Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote the majority opinion, with James Jeremiah Shea, Katherine Bidegaray and Ingrid Gustafson concurring. Justices Jim Rice and Beth Baker, along with Swanson were in the minority. The majority pointed out in the case that the governor's office had employed a 'novel' legal theory that Abbott debunked, but even so, 'the court found the governor's office shirked its clear legal duty to MEIC's request.' 'When a party succeeds in litigation based on a right to know request, it has performed a public service in ensuring that Montana's government is appropriately transparent and accountable to the people,' the majority opinion said. The justices reasoned that if constitutionally protected rights are meaningful, then litigation — or the ability to take the government to court — must be accessible. 'The result of the district court's order — that MEIC prevailed and undeniably performed a public service, yet it is denied attorney's fees — is dissonant with the foundational purposes of Article II, Section 9, and actively disincentivizes citizens from enforcing that right,' the majority opinion said. 'For citizens to be able to enforce the provision against the government, litigation must be accessible; for litigation to be accessible, there should be a basic presumption towards awarding attorney's fees when the party seeking to enforce the right to know has prevailed on its merits.' The majority shifted the blame back to the Montana Supreme Court, saying the state's provisions for awarding attorneys fees had created a 'vacuum of necessary guidance,' and the majority wanted to more fully develop the advice. Abbott had determined that because Gianforte had not acted in bad faith, and because attorneys fees would essentially be borne by Montana taxpayers, he decided not to award attorneys fees. However, the court said the calculus Abbott used — whether there was evidence of bad faith — shouldn't be the deciding factor in the right-to-know cases. 'When a plaintiff prevails on the merits of a right to know dispute, it means that, whether in good faith or bad faith, the government pushed back against the constitutional presumption and, in doing so, violated a fundamental right,' the opinion said. 'But because we have previously neglected to suggest a presumption — or even a preference — for awarding fees in this context, even plaintiffs with an exceptionally strong case and an egregious violation must carefully consider whether it is worth the risk of winning the documents but losing fees.' The court's opinion also said it was taking up the matter because it's essential for courts and citizens to understand fundamental or Constitutional rights. 'We seek to provide basic guidance that works to encourage and strengthen the people's exercise of a fundamental constitutional right. This presumption does not eliminate judicial discretion, but rather structures it to reflect the constitutional emphasis on transparency,' the ruling said. 'This presumption is not a novelty imagined at the whims of this court; it is part of the fabric of the right to know which has been errantly lost to an unboundedly deferential standard that allows for results fundamentally at odds with the Constitution.' Leaders from both Earthworks and MEIC cheered the decision, saying the decision was a win for residents who want to keep tabs on government officials. 'Montana's Constitution guarantees the public the right to know what government is up to. Justice only works when every person has the ability to oversee their government,' said Anne Hedges, executive director with MEIC. 'This decision will ensure the public can continue to access government documents and will prevent abuse when the government officials refuse to comply with the constitution.' MEIC Earthworks right to know decision
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Colorado residents now have a way to ‘see' the toxic emissions they live with
Two working oil pump jacks in Colorado in 2023. (Getty Images) This story originally appeared in Capital & Main. A tour of oil and gas sites encroaching on Denver's eastern suburbs fell on a fitting day, with air so polluted that state health officials warned the elderly and children to stay inside. Participants were eager to see where these toxic gases come from. The group stood on the shoulder of a noisy frontage road with a panoramic view of operations that encompass the fossil fuel production lifecycle — the oil storage tanks, a compressor station and a drilling rig spread out on arid grasslands and emitting pollutants including nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. The gases react when heated by sunlight to create ground-level ozone. Inhaling the pollutant can exacerbate and contribute to the development of lung diseases such as asthma, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Methane, a colorless, odorless, heat-trapping molecule with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere, can also leach from equipment on the sites about eight miles south of Denver International Airport. These gases are invisible to the naked eye. Not today. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Pollutants spewing out of tanks and other equipment on the sites materialized for the half-dozen tour participants in the lens of an optical gas imaging camera perched on a heavy-duty tripod nestled in the road's shoulder amid broken glass and litter. Technology inside the device reveals planet-warming hydrocarbons that are absorbing infrared radiation. The bright-blue plume streams out of oilfield equipment into the air against a multicolored landscape. 'Oh, wow,' public health graduate student Natalie Hawley said, as she pulled the brim of her baseball hat low over the viewfinder to block the vicious June sun. 'I had no idea these sites are allowed to pollute as much as they do.' Hawley is among dozens of people who have joined Andrew Klooster, a thermographer at Earthworks, and organizers with 350 Colorado — both environmental nonprofits — on emissions tours at fossil fuel sites since early 2023. Earthworks purchased what's known as an OGI camera a decade ago with the intent of partnering with residents to watchdog the expanding extraction activities in Colorado. Earthworks and 350 Colorado teamed up to offer the field trips to alert and educate communities about the health and environmental impacts of oil and gas operations, which continue to grow in the state. The number of active wells in the nation's fourth-largest oil producing state grew to 46,591 as of Feb. 24, a 25% hike since 2009. The increase in production was fueled by a drilling technique known as fracking, which forces sand and chemicals down a pipe to free fossil fuels trapped miles underground in shale formations. As drilling rigs bristled near the expanding suburbs in the Denver metropolitan area, Earthworks' mission to empower residents to hold energy companies accountable for the pollution they produce became ever more relevant. It's an opportunity 'to educate people to be better advocates,' Klooster said. 'The air permitting world — what is permissible and what isn't, and what is a compliance issue — it's way too complicated for the individual person to parse.' Emissions from oil and gas sites comprise about 36% of the 253 tons per day of volatile organic compounds released in the region's atmosphere, according to estimates from the Regional Air Quality Council. After another backslide on ozone pollution, the stakes are high for Colorado's air in 2025 As the quality of air most Coloradans breathe has deteriorated over the last 15 years, a haze began obscuring the view from Denver of the towering Rocky Mountains in the summer. The worsening smog prompted officials to dub May 31 to Aug. 31 'ozone season.' The region's air is now so bad that state regulators issued air quality alerts for half of the days in that period in 2024. With Colorado's population growing in tandem with operations in some of the nation's most profitable oil and gas fields, traffic and the energy industry have become the main drivers of the nine-county area's failure to meet federal air quality standards for the last two decades. For the group standing alongside the frontage road on that hot, smoggy summer day, Klooster explained how he filed a complaint with state air quality regulators about one site visible on the horizon that he visited the day before the tour. 'There was a ton of emissions coming off of that drilling rig yesterday for about a half an hour while I was filming it and I couldn't identify the exact source,' he said, adding there are limitations to what his $100,000 camera can document. It cannot help him identify which chemical compounds are being emitted, or how much of them is venting into the atmosphere, he added. However, he can use the videos as evidence to prompt state regulators to investigate. Documenting where the emissions came from on the drilling rig site was made more difficult because various types of equipment were used on the site on a temporary basis, the thermographer told tour participants. Klooster taught those on the tour how to file similar complaints with the state's Energy and Carbon Management Commission and the Department of Public Health and Environment when they suspect toxic pollutants are leaking from faulty equipment on fossil fuel sites. Registering concerns with the right agency means understanding who regulates what and who is responsible for enforcing the rules. These nuances include this unsettling fact: Energy companies are permitted to vent pollutants from oil and gas sites for safety reasons. These teaching moments are already garnering results: Residents who live on the Rocky Mountains' Western Slope filed complaints with the health department's Air Pollution Control Division regarding possible air quality compliance issues in September. The Grand Valley Citizens Alliance used videos from Klooster's optical gas imaging camera as evidence after the group visited numerous oil and gas facilities in Garfield County, roughly 150 miles west of Denver. The effort ultimately prompted the state to ask the operator of the Williams Parachute Creek gas plant to investigate. The firm worked with the manufacturer of equipment that burns off excess gas, known as a flare, to fix a leak that had led to emissions documented by Klooster as far back as 2021, the Earthworks thermographer wrote on his blog in October. 'We can report that on a subsequent survey, the flare appeared to be operating more efficiently than it has on any of our previous observations,' he wrote. Yet only 35% to 40% of the complaints he files with the state result in an operator making a fix, Klooster said. Energy companies are required by Colorado law to conduct leak detection and repair inspections at their facilities. State and municipal inspectors also pay periodic visits to monitor equipment for leaks. At the end of the emissions tour, Earthworks and 350 Colorado staff told participants how they can comment on planned oil and gas projects in Denver-area communities, as well as on industry-related bills proposed at the state Legislature. This additional information has prompted some tourgoers to volunteer long term, said Bobbie Mooney, a coordinator with 350 Colorado. 'Several participants have been joining in committee meetings and writing comments and producing communications projects for us,' she said. Klooster said he hopes the events will help catalyze a nationwide movement of neighborhood groups seeking to hold oil and gas companies accountable for pollution created by equipment used on drilling and fracking sites. 'I've started thinking of it as a potential model,' he said, 'that we could translate to other places.' A few days after the tour, state regulators informed Klooster that they had resolved the complaint he filed with the Air Pollution Control Division with video evidence of toxic gases flowing out of equipment near a drilling rig. The company, Civitas Resources, said it sent an inspector to the site three days after Klooster filed his report and that 'the drilling rig had completed its operation and started to break down and be removed from the facility. At this point no emissions were observed.' Copyright 2025 Capital & Main SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
