[Vision2020] Lewiston Tribune 3-21-19 "Judge blocks drilling over climate change"

Thu Mar 21 19:14:44 PDT 2019

Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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https://lmtribune.com/northwest/judge-blocks-drilling-over-climate-change/article_21637193-a231-5ab9-9efc-06bb62ff6da1.html

Judge blocks drilling over climate change Ruling affects 500 square miles
of Wyoming; faults feds for not evaluating greenhouse gas emissions
sufficiently

   - By MATTHEW BROWN Of The Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. — A judge blocked oil and gas drilling across almost 500
square miles 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.

“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,”
Contreras wrote.

The ruling coincides with an aggressive push by President Donald Trump’s
administration to open more public lands to energy development.

It came in a lawsuit that challenged leases issued in Wyoming, Utah and
Colorado in 2015 and 2016, during President Barack Obama’s administration.

Only the leases in Wyoming were immediately addressed in Contreras’ ruling.
It blocks federal officials from issuing drilling permits until they
conduct a new environmental review looking more closely at greenhouse gas
emissions.

The case was brought by two advocacy groups, WildEarth Guardians and
Physicians for Social Responsibility.

WildEarth Guardians climate program director Jeremy Nichols predicted the
ruling would have much bigger implications than a halt to drilling in some
areas of Wyoming, assuming the government does what Contreras has asked.

“This is the Holy Grail ruling we’ve been after, especially with oil and
gas,” Nichols said. “It calls into question the legality of oil and gas
leasing that’s happening everywhere.”

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon criticized the ruling, saying carbon emissions
shouldn’t be reduced at the expense of workers who provide reliable and
affordable energy.

“Bringing our country to its knees is not the way to thwart climate change.
We need solutions, not grandstanding,” said Gordon, a Republican.

Federal officials were reviewing the court ruling to determine its
implications and had no further comment, BLM spokeswoman Kristen Lenhardt
said.

Emissions from extracting and burning fossil fuels from federal land
generates the equivalent of 1.4 billion tons annually of the greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide, according to a November report from the U.S. Geological
Survey. That’s equivalent to almost one-quarter of total U.S. carbon
dioxide emissions.

Companies paid more than $6.5 billion to produce oil, gas and coal from
federal lands and waters in 2017, according to the most recent government
figures. The money is split between the federal government and states where
the extraction occurs.

Kathleen Sgamma with the Western Energy Alliance, which lobbies on behalf
of the oil industry, said the BLM already was analyzing emissions
appropriately under rules set up during the Obama administration.

Following previous court rulings over climate change, the BLM has gone back
and reconsidered the effects of fossil fuels and then re-affirmed its
approvals of projects.