Supreme Court refuses to block young people’s climate lawsuit against U.S. government

The Supreme Court on Friday night refused to halt a novel lawsuit filed by young Americans that attempts to force the federal government to take action on climate change, turning down a request from the Trump administration to stop it before trial.

Willamette University student Arabella Wood, right,
rallies with others in Eugene, Ore., on Oct. 29, 2018,
to support a climate change lawsuit brought by 21
young people against the federal government in 2015.
On Nov. 2, the U.S. Supreme Court refused a federal
government request to disallow the lawsuit.

The suit, filed in 2015 by 21 young people who argue that the failure of government leaders to combat climate change violates their constitutional right to a clean environment, is before a federal judge in Oregon. It had been delayed while the Supreme Court considered the emergency request from the government.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch would have stopped the suit. The other justices did not indicate how they voted on the government’s request.

Read The Washington Post story by Robert Barnes and Brady Dennis - “Supreme Court refuses to block young people’s climate lawsuit against U.S. government.”

Coal’s days are numbered, top government adviser says

The federal government's top energy adviser Kerry Schott says the plunging cost of renewables will force Australia's remaining coal plants to close even earlier than planned, as mining giant BHP renewed calls for a price on carbon to urgently slash national emissions.

Respected energy chief Kerry Schott.CREDIT:

The Morrison government's failure to produce an emissions reduction plan for the electricity sector and general inaction on climate change have been credited with helping to drive a massive negative swing in the Wentworth byelection, which is expected to cost it the seat and force it into minority government.

The nation's energy ministers are due to meet in Sydney on Friday to discuss the Morrison government's bid to lower prices and improve reliability. Efforts to cut greenhouse gas emitted by electricity generators are not on the agenda.

Read the story from The Age - “Coal’s days are numbered, top government adviser says.”

Frydenberg takes the low road: It’s a weak NEG or nothing

The Coalition government is ramping up the pressure on the Labor states, seeking to paint the National Energy Guarantee as the middle path and the one and only policy option, despite its desperate attempts to shift the discussion to meet the demands of its own right wing.

Energy minister Josh Frydenberg - "Nice
words, but the cynicism is breathtaking".

Energy minister Josh Frydenberg used a National Press Club appearance on Wednesday to try and force the states to agree on the as yet ill-defined NEG, arguing that economics and engineering should triumph over ideology, and there was a need for a market based solution.

Nice words, but the cynicism is breathtaking.

Ideology? This, from a man who has spent much of the past 18 months demonising renewables, arguing in the face of all evidence to the contrary from the CSIRO and the network owners that high levels of renewables is reckless.

Read the story Giles Parkinson story from RenewEconomy - “Frydenberg takes the low road: It’s a weak NEG or nothing.”

Trump EPA Sued Over Refusal to Release Heartland Institute Communications.

Two environmental groups filed suit Thursday to force the Environmental Protection Agency to disclose its correspondence with the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank that has led a years-long campaign to discredit climate science.

The lawsuit suggests that contact between the EPA
under Scott Pruitt and the Heartland Institute is more
extensive than previously known.

The complaint by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) suggests that contact between the EPA and Heartland has been far more extensive than previously known. An EPA Freedom of Information Act official told EDF last year that an agency search had yielded "between 200 to 600 records" of such correspondence, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Virginia.

"EPA's efforts to promote climate change deniers and undermine peer-reviewed science behind closed doors is not only a failure of its mission, it is illegal," said Kym Hunter, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center. "The public has a clear and protected right to know what the EPA is doing and with whom they are communicating, including those pushing a climate-denier agenda.”

Read the Inside Climate News story - “Trump EPA Sued Over Refusal to Release Heartland Institute Communications.”