Lawyers Ramp Up Challenges to Trump Oil Drilling Push, Citing Climate

"In Wyoming, a judge put oil leases on hold over a failure to consider the climate risks of greenhouse gases. More challenges are planned in the Arctic."

"The government's pell-mell race to open up new areas for oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters is running into legal obstacles mounted by conservationists and climate advocates.

Through litigation and procedural maneuvers, opponents of fossil fuel expansion are hoping to overturn key elements of the no-holds-barred oil and gas boom that President Donald Trump and his cabinet have pressed for from the moment they took office.

One victory came this week, when a federal judge ruled that oil leases in Wyoming dating from the Obama years could not be completed without a full-blown environmental impact statement that takes into account the cumulative harms to the climate from emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of oil."

Sabrina Shankman reports for InsideClimate News March 22, 2019.

Source: InsideClimate News, 03/25/2019