Subhead:“The question is not whether climate change is real,” Justice R.S. Smith wrote in the decision, emphasizing that balancing environmental concerns with electricity reliability, affordability, and energy security involves competing interests that must be weighed by elected governments, not judges.# A Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by environmental advocacy groups and private citizens seeking to block the province’s plan to extend the life of coal-fired power plants, ruling that courts are not the proper forum for deciding environmental or energy policy. In a January 12 decision, Justice R.S. Smith struck the entire application filed by Citizens for Public Justice, the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, and several individual applicants, Kiké Dueck, a minor represented by litigation guardian Kris Dueck, along with Sherry Olson and Matthew Wiens, who asked the court to overturn the Saskatchewan government’s coal decision. The application targeted a June 18, 2025, letter from Crown Investments Minister Jeremy Harrison to SaskPower employees announcing the government’s decision to life-extend two coal-powered generating stations. The province says the move is necessary to maintain reliable and affordable electricity while Saskatchewan transitions toward nuclear baseload power through small modular reactors. The applicants argued the decision increased greenhouse gas emissions and should be quashed through judicial review, claiming it was unreasonable, unlawful, and contrary to climate obligations. Justice Smith rejected those arguments outright.