Opponents to Oil Drilling Win ‘Holy Grail’ Decision
WASHINGTON—Supporters of American energy exploration and development are alarmed at an activist judge’s ruling last week that environmentalists claim provides their movement with the “Holy Grail” ruling they need to cripple the nation’s oil and natural gas industries. Two left-wing nonprofit organizations, Santa Fe, New Mexico-based WildEarth Guardians and Washington-based Physicians for Social Responsibility, brought a lawsuit to halt energy projects in Western states. They succeeded in winning a temporary injunction March 19, blocking drilling projects on more than 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming.
If the ruling remains in place, the Trump administration’s energy agenda that depends on increasing fossil-fuel production to reduce reliance on foreign energy could be in trouble. WildEarth Guardians climate program director Jeremy Nichols reportedly described the court ruling as “the Holy Grail ruling we’ve been after, especially with oil and gas … [because] it calls into question the legality of oil and gas leasing that’s happening everywhere.”
In a case known as WildEarth Guardians v. Zinke, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “did not sufficiently consider climate change” when authorizing oil and gas leasing on federal land in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Contreras was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed in March 2012. He’s also a member of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The BLM “summarized the potential on-the-ground impacts of climate change in the state, the region, and across the country” but failed “to provide the information necessary for the public and agency decision makers to understand the degree to which the leasing decisions at issue would contribute to those impacts,” Contreras wrote in the court’s memorandum opinion. Specifically, the BLM “did not adequately quantify the climate change impacts of oil and gas leasing.” Because the Bureau did not take a “hard look” at greenhouse gas emissions related to the Wyoming leases, this means the environmental assessments that found no significant impact on the environment regarding those leases didn’t comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Bureau must do the assessments properly ''' The court ordered the BLM to reconsider the nine Wyoming leases at issue and enjoined the Bureau from issuing new drilling permits on the affected land until the court order is complied with.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opponents-to-oil-drilling-win-holy-grail-decision_2851484.html
WILDEARTH GUARDIANS, et al., v. ZINKE, et al., WESTERN ENERGY ALLIANCE, et al., Defendant-Intervenors
https://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/Opinion_Westwide_3-19-2019.pdf
Federal Oil, Natural Gas Leasing in Jeopardy After Wyoming Ruling
https://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles
/117786-federal-oil-natural-gas-leasing-in-jeopardy-after-wyoming-ruling
US Judge blocks oil, gas drilling over climate worries
https://www.localnews8.com/news/us-judge-blocks-oil-gas-drilling-over-climate-worries/1061402254