Supreme Court *unanimously* cuts environmental lawfare that cripples U.S. energy production

As should have been obvious for years, communists want to cripple U.S. energy production--because abundant energy is critical to productivity and a thriving economy

The Chinese communist party knows this, which is why they've been opening two new coal-fired powerplants per WEEK for the last 8 years.  But of course you nevah heard dat, eh?

Say, why dat be, eh?  Becuz duh Lying Mainstream Media din' want yew t'know.  Period.

If you don't understand all of the above you're obviously too dumb to grasp anything, so...have a nice day!

Now if we're clear on that...

In Utah, a company discovered a new oil field.  But as should be obvious to any rational adult, oil is only useful if it can be sold to a refiner--which means you have to get it from where you found it to a buyer.

In this case the company considered building a pipeline to carry oil from their field to the nearest existing pipeline.  But pipelines are staggeringly expensive.  With enough daily production they become economically viable, but below that it's less costly to use rail.

So the company filed for permission to build a short 88-mile rail line to link their field to the nearest existing pipeline.

Obeying the "National Environmental Policy Act" (NEPA) they paid for an "environmental impact statement" ("EIS") fo' dis proposed radical project.

The EIS ran 3,600 pages.

The project was reviewed by all the bureaucrats in the massive fed gruberment, and was approved in 2020.

If you're an adult, you won't be surprised to learn that AFTER the rail project was approved, communists disguised as "environmental activists" sued to block it.

And now, five years later, because of this lawsuit not a mile of track has been laid.

The case finally reached the Supreme Court, and yesterday the court unanimously ruled in favor of the project, setting a precedent that could make it a tiny bit easier to build things in the United States.

Of course anyone wanting to build anything will still have to jump thru every hoop constructed by NEPA, to show that the project won't harm any heretofore unknown tortoise or smelt or butterfly--and fair enough.

Now keep in mind that the case at hand was an application for permission to build an 88-mile railroad to link an oilfield in Utah to an existing pipeline, enabling the people who discovered the field to sell the oil to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

In 2020 the group applied to the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB--one of the infinite federal governing boards you never knew existed) for permission to build.  That board reviewed the 3,600-page "environmental impact statement" (EIS) required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and approved the project.

But before construction could begin, several "environmental groups sued to block the approval.  And the grounds for that suit may surprise ya.

The groups claimed the STB failed to consider the downstream environmental effects of the project, such as increased drilling in Utah and refining on the Gulf Coast.

Predictably, the totally leftist DC Court of Appeals agreed with the groups and "vacated the approval."

Yesterday the Supreme Court overturned the DC appeals court's ruling.

The majority opinion ruled that NEPA doesn't require an approving agency to evaluate "potential downstream environmental impacts" of a proposed project.

For example, bribem's handlers ordered all federal agencies to consider every project's impact on "climate change" (formerly known as Globull Worming)—which would obviously result in rejecting any project that produced more oil or natural gas, since burning either produces CO2, which the Warmies claim is fatally warming the planet.

The Trump administration rescinded that order--but you can expect a federal judge to block that recission shortly.

Since congress passed NEPA in 1969, that law has been used by environmental groups to block any project the Dems didn't like--meaning every project that would increase oil or gas production.

Not surprisingly, projects that have already received the required permits often end up costing much more than forecast--which reduces the number of groups willing to take on the uncertain-but-always-higher cost of big projects.

So finally, a win for common sense.  Unless you're a Democrat.

Source.

https://reason.com/2025/05/29/supreme-court-unanimously-agrees-to-curb-environmental-red-tape-that-slows-down-construction-projects/