Letter asks governor to veto bills that weaken environmental protections

Dear Governor Gianforte:

We are gathered at Salish Kootenai College to celebrate Earth Day, and to follow the teachings of tribal elders: to take care of all we have been given, our lands and waters and air, the plants and animals, and to ensure they are healthy and abundant for all the generations to come.

We are therefore writing to urge you to veto six bills now before you that would weaken protections for our environment at the very moment when our natural systems are more imperiled than ever before in human history.

The bills we are asking you to veto are:

• HB 285, repealing the language at the heart of MEPA, and SB 221, radically weakening MEPA's consideration of greenhouse gases and climate;

• HB 291, prohibiting Montana from having stronger air quality standards than the federal standards, and HB664, eliminating defensible water quality standards in Montana; and

• HB 623 and HB 696, which would pave the way for nuclear waste storage and uranium processing facilities in Montana; we ask that at the very least, you only sign them after restoring the requirement of local approval prior to any uranium activity.

There are no good reasons for enactment of these bills. The economic arguments in favor of them have been repeatedly debunked. They would be destructive of the Montana we love – the Montana that is honored in the very first lines of our Constitution's preamble, which offers thanks to God for the quiet beauty of our state and the grandeur of our mountains.

Article 2, Section 3 enumerates our "inalienable rights." The very first one is our "right to a clean and healthful environment."

And in Article IX, the Constitution spells out how legislators must make real that promised right, saying, "The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment for present and future generations," "the legislature shall provide for the administration and enforcement of this duty," and "the legislature shall provide adequate remedies for the protection of the environmental life support system from degradation and provide adequate remedies to prevent unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources."

When the legislature adopted the Montana Environmental Policy Act, it explicitly recognized that it was fulfilling those Constitutional requirements. In its statement of Intent and Purpose, the Act stated, "The legislature, mindful of its constitutional obligations under Article Il, section 3, and Article IX of the Montana constitution, has enacted the Montana Environmental Policy Act."

HB 285 strikes those lines, bluntly declaring the intent of its supporters to undermine rather than uphold the Constitution. For all of us, for Montana, and for your own honor, please veto this terrible bill and the other five that also stand against the Constitution you swore to uphold when you took your oath of office.

We close by urging you to sign into law one bill now on your desk: HB 477, which would phase out styrofoam food containers in Montana over the course of several years.

Please choose to protect rather than destroy what we Montanans love and cherish. Please choose to protect rather than destroy the well-being of the generations to come.

Of the 35 signatories, the following 29 agreed to include their names in the submission of this letter to the press; they are listed here in alphabetical order:

– David Atkins, Sarah Bigsam, Janet Camel, Jasmine Courville, Mary Jane Charlo, Michael Durglo, Susan T. Evans, Michael Hudson, Kristen Jordan, Becky Knapp, Christine Layeux, Nalani Linsebigler, Kristina Mays, Maureen I. McCarthy, Tom McDonald, Ian I. McRyhew, David Merrill, Antoine Paul, Sadie Peone-Stops, Patrick Racine, Rosalee L. Roberson, Joshua Rosenau, Melanie Sandoval, Kenneth Shourds, Thompson Smith, Ashley Stivers, Leslie Trahan, Malia Vanderburg, Martin Zobel