Courts slap down climate policies – again
February 27th, 2024
Last week, there were more victories for the rule of law over the rule of climate bureaucrats and activists when the judiciary reversed a lower court ruling on a federal coal moratorium and rejected a bogus class-action lawsuit on emissions.
These were encouraging steps, but the larger threat from extra-legal climate actions by the Biden administration very much remains.
First, the ninth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a district court ruling in 2022 that upheld the Obama administration’s initial moratorium by the Department of the Interior on new leases for coal mining on federally owned lands. The Trump administration had rescinded the moratorium and was sued by (so-called) environmental groups. The federal district court reinstated the moratorium even though the Biden administration reversed Trump’s recission on the initial action – except, the Appeals Court ruled, the Biden order technically failed to rescind the Trump Interior Department’s restoration of coal leases.
https://www.cfact.org/2024/02/27/courts-slap-down-climate-policies-again/
