Radical Enviro Groups Suffer Big Court Defeat re Cove Point LNG

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Gavel-falling.jpgAnti-drilling zealots attempting to stop the Cove Point, Maryland LNG (liquefied natural gas) from going online have failed in court, again. And they failed big time. MDN reported in April that a group of Big Green groups, including the Sierra Club, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, EarthReports Inc. and Earthjustice colluded together to sue in federal appeals court to try and stop the project (see Green Groups Ask DC Judge to Stop Construction at Cove Point LNG). On Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the groups. The argument they raised (and keep raising) is that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not take into account so-called cumulative effects in permissioning such a facility. That is, because there is an export facility, that means there will be more drilling and fracking, and that means more air pollution, etc. The court rejected that claim and said in their decision (full copy below) that FERC is not required to consider such cumulative affects. Indeed, FERC's charter prohibits them from considering such effects. This is a crushing defeat for Big Green--people and corporations who seek to profit from uneconomical solar and wind projects by unfairly crushing the competition (natgas)...

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