The Latest Fad in Enviro Lawsuits: Climate Change
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula suspended 61 oil and gas leases on BLM land in Montana the other day, because the BLM failed to review the lease sales for climate change.
Climate change cited as Mont. leases suspended
By MATTHEW BROWN, AP, Washington Post, March 18, 2010 [here]
BILLINGS, Mont. — A federal judge has approved a first-of-its-kind settlement requiring the government to suspend 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana so it can gauge how oil field activities contribute to climate change.
At issue are the greenhouse gases emitted by drilling machinery and industry practices such as venting natural gas directly into the atmosphere.
Environmentalists - who sued when the Montana leases were sold in 2008 - argued the industry has allowed too much waste and uses inefficient technologies that could easily be updated.
Under the deal approved Thursday by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, the Bureau of Land Management will suspend the 61 leases in Montana within 90 days. They will have to go through a new round of environmental reviews before the suspensions can be lifted.
“We view this as a very big deal, if a modest first step, in the BLM addressing climate change in oil and gas development,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Erik Schlenker-Goodrich. “It’s quite a dirty process, but there are ways to clean it up.”
Plaintiffs in the case were the Montana Environmental Information Center, the Oil and Gas Accountability Project and Wild Earth Guardians.
A parallel lawsuit challenging 70,000 acres of federal lands leased in New Mexico remains pending.
Judge Molloy is the same guy who threw out wolf delisting, by the way. And WildEarth Guardians is one of the most litigious eco-extremists groups ever. Between 2000 and 2009, Forest Guardians (now known as WildEarth Guardians) filed at least 180 lawsuits in the federal district courts and at least 61 appeals in the federal appellate courts [here].
Put activist eco-judges and sue-happy EAJA hogs together with “climate change” and the entire US economy will soon be shut down by “rulings” from the loony bench. The specter of government gone insane looms in the offing.
It may come as a surprise to you sports fans that there has been no climate change over the last 50 years, and indeed none since the Industrial Revolution got into full swing. An interesting post at Watts Up With That [here] provides colorful graphs, based on data from the National Climate Data Center and other official reputable info sources, that show:
* No significant trend in droughts since 1900
* No significant trend in wet weather since 1900
* Increasing trends in corn yields since 1979
* Decreasing number of strong tornadoes since 1950
* No significant trend in hurricanes or cyclonic activity since 1979
Last month Arctic sea ice has reached its greatest extent since accurate satellite measurements have been made [here], and Antarctic sea ice has been increasing since 1979 [here].
There has been no trend in snowpack in major watersheds over the last 75 years [here]. The rate of sea level increase has decreased over the last 100 years [here]. Lower troposphere temperatures show no significant trend over the last 30 years [here].
Indeed, ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica yield strong evidence that the Earth has been cooling for the last 6,000 to 9,000 years [here].
There is strong evidence that there has been no global warming for the last 15 years (to the chagrin of the Alarmists). There may have been slight warming (1 to 2 degrees F) globally since the end of the Little Ice Age (darned hard to measure), but nowhere has the climate changed. The climate wherever you live is the same climate that it has been during your entire lifetime. If you live in the tropics, it’s still tropical. If you live in temperate climes, it’s still temperate. If you live in a Mediterranean climate, it’s still Mediterranean. Etc. You cannot deny that fact if you are at all honest with yourself.
Despite the fact that the planet’s climates haven’t changed, the propaganda (sponsored media lies) to the effect that the climate is changing has perverted science and now our American justice system. If you think the Endangered Species Act is a drag on good environmental stewardship and the economy, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait until the climate change lawsuits proliferate.
They won’t be limited to oil and gas drilling. Everything, and I mean everything that people (and governments) do, from brushing your teeth to walking the dog is going to be illegal, or at least subject to a lawsuit based on the absurd notion that whatever it is, it will change the climate.
The other shoe has dropped, the fat is in the fire, the barn door is open, and the horse is long gone. Your taxes are going up, as is the cost of everything, the lawyers and bankers are getting richer quicker, and the social system is malfunctioning big time. We are sliding down that slippery slope, and there is no way to stop the runaway train.
We have been duped, but worse than that — we’re screwed. Mark my words.
by Paul G.
So, oil, gas, coal, and wood have become “re-sueable” resources? Have to wonder if the issue is a function of lawyers needing work, or a judge needing to retire?
Your last line sums it up nicely-we are screwed.