A conservative-leaning court just issued a surprise ruling on climate change and coal mining [View all]

[Rhiannon12866]

In a rebuke to Trump, the federal court said greenhouse gas emissions need to be considered in lease approvals.

Late last week, a federal court knocked down plans to expand coal mining in the Western US, adding to a growing body of rulings against the Trump administration’s efforts to push climate change off the agenda.

The surprising decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which has jurisdiction in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming, told the Bureau of Land Management to redo its math on greenhouse gas emissions from coal leases and sent the approval of these leases back to a lower court.

Under the National Environmental Policy Act, federal agencies have to consider how a given proposal both affects climate change and is affected by climate change.

The 10th Circuit is the highest court to rule on climate change accounting so far, and its opinion undercuts President Donald Trump’s efforts to resuscitate the dying US coal industry.

“It’s reaffirming what a lot of people already knew: Government has to take a hard look at what their environmental impacts are,” said Sam Kalen, a law professor at the University of Wyoming. “Cases like this are sending signal that regardless of what the administration wants to do, the law says you have to take a look at these issues.”


Much more: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/19/16332952/court-ruling-coal-climate-change



Coal mining in the Powder River Basin, the largest mining region in the United States Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images