Court nixes Trump rule limiting state authority to block pipelines

The Hill ^ | 22 October 2021 | RACHEL FRAZIN

[blueplum]

A federal court on Thursday nixed a Trump-era rule that limited state and tribal authority to block projects that could impact their waters, including pipelines.

California Federal Judge William Alsup vacated the rule and sent it back to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for further proceedings.

The Clinton appointee's move came after the agency asked the court to remand the issue back to the EPA amid litigation filed by states and environmental groups...

...The now-vacated rule had limited states’ authorities to block projects by giving them a strict one-year time limit to do so before the federal government could decide a state had waived its veto power.

It... excluded other considerations such as air quality or “energy policy.” ...The Trump administration argued at the time that it was seeking to “curb abuses of the Clean Water Act that have held our nation’s energy infrastructure projects hostage.”...

[blueplum]

so energy policy is back to the whims and politics of a few states in spite of US treaties and subject to the back and forth of elections. Lovely.

[DesertRhino]

If only the founding fathers would have included some kind of clause giving the Federal Government authority over -actual- interstate commerce.

[Ymani Cricket]

Clinton appointee's

That says everything you need to know

[nathanbedford]

This decision by a lower court is inevitably subject to review in higher courts where the decision will come at a time when people might be shivering in their homes and impoverished at the gas station.

The Supreme Court in recent times has become obsessively concerned with its public image and its survival as an institution. If this decision is properly publicized by the Republican right, the courts will be under the heaviest pressure to come to a rational conclusion for a change.

The public pressure might yield the right result in one case but it will further install a regrettable tendency to politicize the court.

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

I haven’t seen the Republican Party fight back on a damn thing lately, CRICKETS!! Evidently the hatred of Trump outweighs the utter destruction of the country, the demographics of the country was already past the point of no return NOW the republic is finished NEVER to return!!

[nathanbedford]

I certainly won't argue with your description of the Republican Party and its fecklessness but I am old enough to recall the gas lines of the 70s and the political impact that had. It is possible that the court will feel the heat-or the lack of it in our homes.

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

Boy do I remember the gas lines of the 70’s, the generations of today are in for a very rude awakening!! You may be correct everyone today is so used to having everything at their fingertips the struggles they went through at the stores for Covid was bad enough, but to have it continue will not go over well at all!! I have found though that the general public has been far more passive over mandates ect. than I ever expected!! It was shocking for me to see the French fighting back more than Americans have!!

[Candor7]

So much for the Interstate Commerce rule.

[nathanbedford]

Your gender selection make you a far more knowledgeable about this following proposition than I am but I believe that when mama bears understand that the Biden administration represents a threat to their cubs their wroth will be irresistible.

In other words, when white suburban women were convinced that Donald Trump and his policies that ignored global warming represented a long-term threat to their children, they voted to contain global warming so long as it did not actually immediately cost them or their children anything. But when Democrat solutions to global warming means the children will not be warm in their homes or cannot be transported to their schools, white suburban mothers will vote to protect their children.

If we apply this principle across the board, for example to Covid where masks and vaccinations of five-year-olds are likely to backfire on Democrats, we might see mothers on the March.

When shelves are bare and mothers cannot get the right foods to feed their children or presents to charm them at Christmas, these mama bears will be furious.

I specifically point to mothers because these are a voting block that the Democrats have conned by making them fear that Donald Trump was a walking threat. This voting block, to the degree that elections were honest, turned the tide around Philadelphia, Atlanta, Madison etc.

Switch the threat and they will switch their votes.

[No_Mas_Obama]

LOL once the energy apocalypse is in full swing this winter the pipelines will be built. If we’re lucky, the corrupt judges, politicians and election officials will be used as chain-gang labor to build them (tho I suspect we’re still a couple of years away from that wonderful day).

[SunkenCiv]

The Clinton appointee's move...

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

GREAT analysis of the mama bears, I never had children so it is hard for me to understand this fierce protection, however reversing that protection onto the opposition just may be the key!!

[Western Phil]

The problem I see is that they are TValcoholics.

[falcon99]

And John Roberts still holds to the idiotic idea that there are no Democrat or Republican judges and that judges don’t rule according to their politics.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree with your thoughts there.

Railroads, highways,... there’s some other situations where
to get anything done, there has to be a way to stop states
from objecting to some things.

Many states benefit from an oil pipeline, and I dare say it’s
probably a lot higher number than some folks realize.

Upping our supplies of oil reduces the prices considerably
in close to all states.

We only have to look at pricing today, to see how badly
anti-oil policy can affect our citizens and the nation.

Cold winter’s coming. Will be interesting to watch how the
natural gas and oil edicts are going to impact a whole lot
of people.