On Thursday, the US Supreme Court issued a unanimous 8-0 decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, which limits the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act and restricts federal agencies from considering indirect environmental effects, such as downstream greenhouse gas emissions, when evaluating infrastructure projects.
The decision could accelerate energy and transportation developments nationwide, with profound implications for Alaska, which has been targeted under Democrat administrations.
Alaska had joined 22 other states in an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to limit NEPA’s reach. Alaska argued that expansive interpretation hinder state sovereignty and economic development.
“The Supreme Court made the right call in this case. The courts should not create new law or policy. The courts should simply decide if something is constitutional or not,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
The ruling says NEPA can only require agencies to assess the environmental impacts directly related to the project under their jurisdiction. For example, an agency that is weighing the permits for an industrial access road to a drilling pad does not need to evaluate the broader environmental consequences of the drilling itself, just the road.
The case was brought to the court after a lower court had blocked an 88-mile railway in Utah, which was being built to transport crude oil. The lower court demanded the consideration of environmental impacts of the oil itself.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, said NEPA is a procedural statute meant to inform agency decisions, not to serve as a tool for courts to impose additional requirements.
This will help defeat the Earth Justice lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of 3 fictional ‘native’ communities (combined population = 0) alleging threats to nonexistent sustenance activities resultant from any mining project not owned by aforementioned ‘native’ drifting #TribesThatBribe
This will help defeat the Earth Justice lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of 3 fictional ‘native’ communities (combined population = 0) alleging threats to nonexistent sustenance activities resultant from any mining project not owned by aforementioned ‘native’ grifting #TribesThatBribe
So one wonders how this court judgement will affect the Trilogy Metals or Pebble projects. Agreeably, to the extent that the EPA has extended government over-reach, how far back to sane EPA policies will this agency return with examining & making judgements of Environmental Impact Statements? Hitherto it has appeared that if anything could, might, possibly affect one iota of environmental facyors directly or indirectly, mining project permits were denied: erase wealth creation, de-incentify ANY extraction of anything on US soil?
U.S. Supreme Court rejects Pebble Mine, climate and water cases. Army Corp. of Engineers denied permits for Pebble when Trump was President in his first term.
Where have you been Fred?
Trilogy Metals also foreigner owned is still in limbo.
Living in NZ for last thirty years. Your reply stated why: democracy failure.
we don’t live in a ‘democracy’
About freaking time. Since the 1970s the enviro-nazis have successfully found ways to twist statute to impede progress. Nice to finally see some sense on these issues from the Supremes.
Don’t worry folks, there still will not be a foreign owned pebble mine, Trump and I do not like the exploitation of Alaska’s resources to foreigners when U.S. gets squat and especially open pit mining on BB salmon spawning grounds of which salmon is our resource to, go Trump.
NAK is up almost 250% in the last year, seems like someone might know something you don’t.
Wrong! Pebble will do great things for Alaska and the American economy and help preserve our National Security interests!
Definitely good news. Hallelujah and Amen!!
Yet another unanimous decision by SCOTUS. While most in the media will tell us that the courts are biased, and there certainly political biases in the courts, the majority of cases decided by SCOTUS are unanimous decisions.
The ruling is common sense, this will also impact green infrastructure projects where lawsuits try to tie environmental impacts from mining when building a solar panel, wind panel, or battery
3rd Generation Alaskan how do feel about foreign companies on the North Slope? Oh it is to late, the entire history of the North Slope has had foreign investors. Buy the way who is leading the propose natural gas pipeline project?
Alaska CANNOT afford to turn down investors. Scrutinize the investors for sure, but there are not enough risk takers in the USA to keep Alaska’s resource development on the right track.
Now lets shorten the public comment period. Originally it took time to disperse permit information, by newspapers, magazines mailing lists ect. Then people had to write out their comments and mail them in. Thirty days was deemed adequate. Over time we began to see extensions of the comment period, first another 30 days, them some times another 30 days “because there have been so few comments”. Unless you are a company with a staff on standby, or a contractor waiting for a contract, not a big deal. Later in the process, there was usually additional delays for public comments. But today people can get the information quickly, and can respond likewise via the internet. Fifteen days should be plenty of time for anyone serious about providing comments, and cut months if not years from the permitting process.