Federal judge casts doubt on Trump's drilling plans across the U.S. because they ignore climate

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The ruling temporarily halts drilling on 300,000 acres of leases in Wyoming.



A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the Interior Department violated federal law by failing to take into account the climate impact of its oil and gas leasing out west.

The decision by U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Rudolph Contreras marks the first time the Trump administration has been held to account for the climate impact of its energy-dominance agenda, and it could have sweeping implications for the president’s plan to boost fossil fuel production across the country. Contreras concluded that Interior’s Bureau of Land Management “did not sufficiently consider climate change” when making decisions to auction off federal land in Wyoming to oil and gas drilling. The judge temporarily blocked drilling on roughly 300,000 acres of land in the state.

The initial ruling in the case brought by two advocacy groups, WildEarth Guardians and Physicians for Social Responsibility, has implications for oil and gas drilling on federal land throughout the west. In the decision, Contreras faulted the agency’s environmental assessments as inadequate because it did not detail how individual drilling projects contributed to the nation’s overall carbon output. Since greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change, the judge wrote, these analyses did not provide policymakers and the public with a sufficient understanding of drilling’s impact, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

“Given the national, cumulative nature of climate change, considering each individual drilling project in a vacuum deprives the agency and the public of the context necessary to evaluate oil and gas drilling on federal land before irretrievably committing to that drilling,” he wrote.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/03/20/federal-judge-casts-doubt-trumps-drilling-plans-across-us-because-they-ignore-climate-change/?utm_term=.9aa8512b2ab6

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Full title: Federal judge casts doubt on Trump’s drilling plans across the U.S. because they ignore climate change

[turbinetree]

1. Maybe they should have also ruled on the SAGE GROUSE habitat being decimated

also..............

https://earthjustice.org/cases/2018/saving-the-sage-grouse

[BumRushDaShow]

2. That might end up being covered by the ruling per the OP article

it could have sweeping implications for the president’s plan to boost fossil fuel production across the country

If other cases are still being developed and/or haven't been heard yet, they could cite this ruling to request a similar order.

[turbinetree]

3. I really do hope so, that bird is in trouble.......................

[Bayard]

4. Finally!

Accountability!

[Judi Lynn]

5. AP: US judge blocks oil, gas drilling over climate change

US judge blocks oil, gas drilling over climate change
Matthew Brown and Mead Gruver, Associated Press
Updated 5:29 pm CDT, Wednesday, March 20, 2019

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A judge blocked oil and gas drilling across almost 500 square miles (1,295 sq. kilometers) in Wyoming and said the U.S. government must consider climate change impacts more broadly as it leases huge swaths of public land for energy exploration.

The order marks the latest in a string of court rulings over the past decade — including one last month in Montana — that have faulted the U.S. for inadequate consideration of greenhouse gas emissions when approving oil, gas and coal projects on federal land.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington appeared to go a step further than other judges in his order issued late Tuesday.

Previous rulings focused on individual lease sales or permits. But Contreras said that when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management auctions public lands for oil and gas leasing, officials must consider emissions from past, present and foreseeable future oil and gas leases nationwide.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/US-Judge-blocks-oil-gas-drilling-over-climate-13703271.php