{"id":344977,"date":"2024-10-02T16:06:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T14:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=344977"},"modified":"2024-10-02T16:06:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T14:06:16","slug":"state-courts-should-not-be-writing-us-climate-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=344977","title":{"rendered":"State Courts Should Not Be Writing US Climate Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judges shouldn\u2019t write laws that anti-fossil fuel factions can\u2019t get Congress and People to enact<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Driessen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earth\u2019s climate has changed numerous times<\/a> over the past half-billion years. But activists claim any recent or future changes result from fossil fuel use and agricultural practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those activities<\/a> raise still minuscule levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (0.04, 0.0002 and 0.00003 percent of the atmosphere, respectively), allegedly altering climate and weather. Water vapor, Earth\u2019s complex and chaotic climate system, and powerful solar and cosmic forces that combined to bring the Carboniferous Period (coal age), ice ages, a Little Ice Age<\/a>, warm periods, and fluctuations in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are supposedly no longer relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN, US and EU climate activists, politicians and bureaucrats then blame fossil fuels for heat waves<\/a>, cold spells<\/a>, hurricanes<\/a>, wildfires<\/a>, floods<\/a>, droughts<\/a> and even abusive husbands<\/a>. Kamala Harris says manmade climate change<\/a> forced millions of illegal migrants to cross our borders since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite all this, the climate consortium has failed to get enforceable, workable international treaties that compel all countries<\/em> to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It\u2019s failed to get the US Congress to enact national<\/em> legislation \u2013 or make a convincing, robustly debated case that reducing a few GHGs can stabilize planetary temperatures<\/a> and climate conditions that have never been stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the consortium employs other devious strategies: regulating fossil fuel technologies and agricultural practices<\/a> into oblivion; ignoring the 63% of global GHGs<\/a> that come from China, India and a hundred other developing countries; and censoring and silencing experts<\/a> and talk show hosts<\/a> who present inconvenient facts<\/a>, data and analyses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate activists are also filing lawsuits in state courts against eight US oil companies whose products together account for a tiny fraction of the 11% of global GHGs<\/a> emitted by the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly three dozen<\/a> ultra-progressive jurisdictions want friendly in-state judges to decide complicated issues that arise from and affect every family, business, city, state and country on Earth. Instead of scientific and legislative debates and processes, they want one judge punishing energy companies for causing \u201cdangerous climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The litigants claim they\u2019re trying to save our planet from climate cataclysms. Their real goal is reducing our driving, flying, household heating and cooling, red meat consumption, living standards<\/a> and free speech rights, even if doing so has minimal or no effect on emissions or the climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They want to avoid higher-profile federal courts that would more likely examine their far-fetched claims from national, international, scientific and economic perspectives. They\u2019re worried that the US Supreme Court may decide<\/a> whether far-left cities or states can circumvent legislative processes and instead use state courts to impose radical environmental and social agendas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing ethical, legal or constitutional about this crony forum-shopping and backroom dealing. That\u2019s another reason the plaintiffs panicked<\/a> about the Supremes\u2019 potential intervention, and argue that state judges can competently litigate the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure judicial \u201ccompetence,\u201d the Environmental Law Institute launched a parallel effort, the Climate Judiciary Project<\/a> (CJP), to ensure that judges receive an \u201cauthoritative, objective and trusted education on climate science, the impacts of climate change, and the ways climate science is arising in the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, as Humpty Dumpty would have told Alice<\/a>, when the CJP uses a word (like authoritative, objective, trusted, science or justice), it means just what they choose it to mean, neither more nor less, because the ultimate question is who is to be master<\/em> \u2013 activist litigators and judges, or We the People and our elected representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raising even more questions, the CJP is funded by the same outfits<\/a> that finance these climate lawsuits. The JPB Foundation gave $1 million<\/a> to the CJP and $1.15 million to the far-left Tides Foundation\u2019s Collective Action Fund, which pays the Sher Edling<\/a> law firm to file lawsuits like these. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation donated $500,000 to the CJP<\/a> and $150,000 to the Action Fund<\/a>. And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The left knows their political ploy will tumble if the highest court in the land reviews the cases. That would be bad for them but good for our system of checks and balances, for common sense, and especially for reliable, affordable energy, jobs, healthcare and modern living standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 80% of our energy still comes from oil, gas and coal. Wind and solar are notoriously unreliable, require expensive backup power, and need a dozen times more<\/a> raw materials per unit of electricity than natural gas generators. They cannot provide petrochemical products, including clothing, cosmetics, fertilizers, paints, plastics, pharmaceuticals and wind turbine blades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRenewable\u201d energy is not clean, green, renewable or sustainable. Manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles and grid backup involves mining for numerous metals and minerals, in energy-intensive processes that destroy habitats, pollute air and water, and injure and poison miners and their families<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of that mining occurs in countries with corrupt governments and desperately poor families, like Congo<\/a> and Myanmar<\/a> where child and slave labor<\/a> are pervasive. Ships haul the materials<\/a> to China, the world\u2019s largest polluter<\/a>, which monopolizes<\/a> the global battery production market and uses more coal, slave labor<\/a> and pollution-intensive processes to produce \u201cclean, green\u201d energy products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EVs get marketed as \u201czero emission\u201d vehicles, because there is no exhaust \u2013 and people don\u2019t know this sordid history or that the electricity charging their batteries comes mostly from coal- or gas-fired power plants. And battery fires are furious and toxic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wind turbines also depend on<\/a> oil, gas and coal for the metals and minerals in their towers and generators, fiberglass-and-epoxy blades and concrete-and-rebar bases. Solar panels blanketing hundreds of square miles of former cropland and wildlife habitat cause similar impacts. Sea-based wind turbines harm and kill wildlife<\/a>, including endangered whales; land-based turbines kill millions of birds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pleadings and briefs in lawsuits brought in carefully chosen liberal state courts can ignore inconvenient facts like these, often preventing judges and juries from considering them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can target a few American oil companies for alleged climate cataclysms, while ignoring all other oil and coal companies worldwide, and countries that emit 89% of greenhouse gases<\/a>. The state court lawsuits essentially and preposterously assert that production and refining processes used and products sold by these few oil companies are causing climate changes unprecedented in Earth and human history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent Supreme Court decisions<\/a> reveal why climate alarmists and rent-seekers<\/a> are alarmed that the Court might intervene. West Virginia v. EPA held that, in the absence of clear legislative authority, government agencies cannot unilaterally issue regulations that have \u201cmajor\u201d economic or political significance<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo reversed the \u201cChevron deference\u201d rule. Silent or ambiguous statutory texts no longer give administrative agencies unfettered power to interpret laws in ways that let them increase control over people\u2019s lives and livelihoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liberal state court decisions in these climate cases would have monumental consequences \u2013 for our environment, economy, lives and nation \u2013 despite Congress never having given any agency or court any such authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court should definitely intervene here \u2013 to ensure that these complex scientific, economic and political issues are fully studied, debated, vetted and voted on \u2013 not relegated to biased courtrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org<\/a>) and author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate and human rights issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earth\u2019s climate has\u00a0changed numerous times\u00a0over the past half-billion years. But activists claim any recent or future changes result from fossil fuel use and agricultural practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":344979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818608,691818056,691825931,691819241,691819094],"class_list":{"0":"post-344977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-activists","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-climate-judiciary-project-cjp","11":"tag-climate-laws","12":"tag-renewable-green-energy","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0iStock_000071434881_Full.webp?fit=4800%2C3123&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1rK9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":267870,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267870","url_meta":{"origin":344977,"position":0},"title":"Guardian: Climate Activists can Overcome Greed by Shouting Louder","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Climate activists have already tried changing the words multiple times, and have failed utterly.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate activists\"","block_context":{"text":"climate activists","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-activists"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00GW-vs-Reality-1536x1004-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00GW-vs-Reality-1536x1004-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00GW-vs-Reality-1536x1004-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C784&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00GW-vs-Reality-1536x1004-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C784&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00GW-vs-Reality-1536x1004-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C784&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":331585,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=331585","url_meta":{"origin":344977,"position":1},"title":"Thanks for Publishing the Truth, New York Post, Climate Activists Don\u2019t Care If People Die","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Post published an article by noted researcher Bjorn Lomborg, Ph.D., in which he argues climate activists not only don\u2019t care about people\u2019s well-being, they, in fact, support policies that result in unnecessary deaths. 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