The environmental group WildEarth Guardians is reporting that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has sided with the Guardians in their lawsuit against Trump’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in its hasty awarding of massive coal leases to two of the largest coal companies, Peabody and Arch Coal.
The leases were for two billion tons of coal situated on public lands in the Wyoming Powder River Basin. Guardians observed that:
When burned, this coal stood to unleash more than 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon pollution. That’s equal to the amount of climate pollution released by nearly 1,000 coal-fired power plants.
Neither was this a ruling on a technicality. The court blasted the BLM, labeling their actions “irrational”, which might as well have been addressed to the maniac in the White House who is hellbent on killing us all.
This is a critical win for the planet. It slaps down the asinine energy policy of the Trump administration at a critical time when renewable energy is rapidly expanding at home and all across the globe. It shows the world that the United States can still be a viable ally in the race to control emissions in time to prevent the worst outcomes due to Global Warming.