'Clean and healthful' provision under review

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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana lawmakers may ask voters to consider changing the Montana Constitution's “clean and healthful environment” provision.

The declaration in the Constitution has long been a sore point for extractive industry interests and others who say it gets in the way of development.

A Republican lawmaker says the provision needs to be changed to guarantee a “clean, healthful, and economically productive environment.”

Opponents argued the phrase will lead to lengthy court battles weighing one person's clean environment right against another's right to make money out of it.

It could be hard to get the required 100 votes out of the 150 legislators to put the question to voters. Even if all Republicans voted for it, the measure would fall short by four votes.

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