“Untethered to evidence.” Sounds about par for the course for the relentless efforts of this Administration to allow the disastrous accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere to proceed by curtailing or repealing the Federal regulations established to slow its process:
A U.S. District Court judge has blocked the Interior Department from suspending an Obama-era rule meant to prevent planet-warming methane from escaping during oil and natural gas operations.
The ruling marks the latest setback for the Trump administration as it seeks to roll back regulations aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change. It illustrates the challenge President Donald Trump faces in defending his deregulation agenda against a torrent of lawsuits after swiftly moving last year to wipe out much of his predecessor's environmental legacy.
Methane is a gas which has been shown to contribute to global warming to an exponentially higher rate than its cousin, carbon dioxide:
While CO2 persists in the atmosphere for centuries, or even millennia, methane warms the planet on steroids for a decade or two before decaying to CO2.
In those short decades, methane warms the planet by 86 times as much as CO2, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Trump’s Department of the Interior (Specifically its Bureau of Land Management or BLM) , which now serves not to protect our lands or environment but solely as a rubber stamp for the mining, shale gas drilling and oil industry, sought to suspend the Obama-era Rule which was put in place to prevent leakage of methane from fracking operations:
The rule in question is meant to reduce leaking, venting and flaring of methane from drilling activity on federal land. Natural gas is primarily composed of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide, but remains in the atmosphere for less time.
Earlier this month, Interior announced its final plan for the rule, which would rescind all of its key elements.
The Administration’s argument for repealing the Rule appears to have been limited to the fact that oil and shale drilling companies wanted it repealed to increase their profit margins. There was apparently no competent evidence provided to the Court worth considering, as the Trump-infested Interior Department now employs attorneys who apparently argue cases in Federal Court using little more than industry-authored right-wing screeds and crank videos as “scientific evidence,” while their main focus is to increase the profits of those same energy companies at the expense of the public. The Judge’s opinion reflects the resistance in the Judiciary to this tactic:
“Weighed against the likely environmental injury, which cannot be undone, the financial costs of compliance are not as significant as the increased gas emissions, public health harms, and pollution,” U.S. District Judge William Orrick III said in a ruling late Thursday.
Federal Judges are accustomed to reasoned scientific arguments being made to support the Executive’s positions on the environment, particularly with regard to their own Rules which they are supposed to be enforcing. With this Administration, there are no reasoned scientific arguments—just ideology in pursuit of profits:
In his decision Thursday, Judge William Orrick said the plaintiffs were likely to prevail in the case on the merits because the BLM's reasoning was "untethered to evidence."
“Untethered to evidence” is about as harsh a condemnation of one’s legal position as can be imagined. And, again, it is a good description as any of this Administration’s actions on the environment.