Federal Judge Rules Against Trump Arctic & Atlantic Ocean Drilling Plan
It’s been a tough week for alleged president Trump and his minions this week. Three different federal judges have ruled against the maladministration’s effort to subvert the rule of law and give aid and comfort to the fossil fuel companies.
First a federal judge in Washington, DC blocked hundreds of planned drilling operations on 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming. The judge ruled that the Trumpies failed to properly assess the future environment impacts that would result from the drilling.
Next, another federal judge ruled the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service illegally approved two gas drilling plans in western Colorado. The judge said officials did not adequately analyze wildlife and climate impacts in their plans, according to a report in the Washington Post.
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The week ended with an adverse ruling by federal judge Sharon Gleason that put the triple whammy on the nefarious oil company shills in the this malodorous administration by ruling Trump’s executive order revoking a ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and the Atlantic oceans is illegal. The court’s order protects 128 million acres of federal waters from despoilment by fossil fuel interests.
“President Trump’s lawlessness is catching up with him,” Erik Grafe, lead attorney for Earthjustice, said in a statement Friday. “The judge’s ruling today shows that the president can not just trample on the constitution to do the bidding of his cronies in the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our oceans, wildlife, and climate.”
All three decisions will undoubtedly be appealed to federal appeals courts and from there to the US Supreme Court, where reactionaries have managed to install two stalwart corporate defenders since the orange haired madman took office. It was back in the 70s that George Carlin said, “The USA is nothing more than an oil company with an army.” Now the oil companies control the courts as well, so the successes notched by environmentalists this week may not survive the appeals process.
Trump’s rollbacks of Obama-era conservation policies have suffered nearly two dozen setbacks in federal court, largely on procedural grounds, the Washington Post reports. It also notes the road ahead for these cases could have many twists and turns as politically motivated judges get a chance to repay the monied interests who paid to get them on the bench in the first place.
Trump and his co-conspirators refuse to govern in the best interests of the people of the United States, which means the courts are all that stand between the citizens and the unrelenting greed of oil industry. That is a very thin defensive bulwark to rely on in what may be the most important era in history for the environment.
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