Posted on 01/28/2022 8:59:25 AM PST by texas booster
A federal judge invalidated the results of an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday saying the Biden administration failed to properly account for the auction's climate change impact.
The decision has cast uncertainty over the future of the U.S. federal offshore drilling program, which has been a big source of public revenue for decades but also drawn the ire of activists concerned about its impact on the environment and contribution to global warming.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 15% of existing U.S. oil production and 5% of dry natural gas output, according to the Energy Information Administration.
In the decision, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the United States District Court of the District of Columbia ruled to vacate the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's Lease Sale 257, which offered about 80 million offshore acres (37.4 million hectares) in the Gulf of Mexico in an auction last November.
...
Thursday's decision came after the environmental group Earthjustice challenged the sale on behalf of four other green groups, arguing U.S. President Joe Biden's Interior Department was relying on a years-old environmental analysis that did not accurately consider greenhouse gas emissions that would result from development of the blocks.
Contreras agreed, faulting the administration for excluding foreign consumption from its greenhouse gas emissions analysis and for ignoring the latest science about the role of oil and gas development on global warming.
The Interior Department, which oversees federal oil and gas development, said it was reviewing the decision.
(Excerpt) Read more at oedigital.com ...
"We are pleased that the court invalidated Interior’s illegal lease sale," said Brettny Hardy, Earthjustice’s senior attorney, in a statement. "We simply cannot continue to make investments in the fossil fuel industry to the peril of our communities and increasingly warming planet."
The decision is not the first time a court has cited faulty environmental analyses in blocking oil and gas development on federal lands. In August, a federal judge reversed the government's approval of a $6 billion ConocoPhillips development in Alaska, a decision that was cited in Contreras' ruling.
Activists at work. Find a friendly judge, exceed authority. In this case, Contreras again
The use the case to get another friendly judge to overrule yet another administrative action.
But it is not like this administration is trying to defend it's own positions.
Climate Cretins.
An illegal action.
Solution?
Shut off all energy delivery to Blue States.
Judge Rudolph Contreras and dabbler in climatology? I would have been more pleased if he had commented on the NOT climate crisis. No comments from the office of the exterior? CLIMAGEDDON!!!!
Judgislators. Why have either?
Wanna bet Biden didn’t do the paperwork because he wanted the judge to 86’ it without taking the hit for killing it himself?
Note to judges: You do not make “climate” policy.
Judge Rudolph Contreras remains an existential threat to “our democracy”.
The Judge has no such authority, and his excuse is without foundation in science.
You forgot to account for the money these enviro groups receive from Uncle Sugar to sustain their lawsuits against Uncle Sugar.
I’ll bet the judge followed the law scrupulously. I also don’t trust Biden’s administration to do the work required to actually guarantee the sale. Rather I bet they screwed it up on purpose.
Calculate the Climate Change Impact?
OK, better get a Scientific study before becoming pregnant.
How much CO2 will that baby exhale over it’s life?
Oops, too much; terminate pregnancy.
For the life of me, I cannot understand how these completely ignorant tools are allowed to destroy this nation over their idiotic, moronic, ignorant, idiocy of climate change and renewables.
If there was a better, cheaper, cleaner way to produce energy we would have companies doing it.
We are literally ruled ... by children.
“Rudolph Contreras is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He joined the court in 2012 after a nomination from President Barack Obama (D).[1][2]
Contreras is the presiding judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts on May 19, 2016.[3] Contreras became presiding judge of the court on May 19, 2021.[4”
If he narrowly followed the Law in this case, it was only because it allowed him to further his agenda.
-PJ
I Still don’t trust the Biden administration.
I think that was Judge Emmett Sullivan wasnt it?
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