Twelve years ago, on this day, June 27th, 2013,
U.S. District Court judge ruled against the expansion of Arch Coal’s West Elk mine in Colorado for failure of federal regulators to consider the social cost of carbon [3] in their environmental review.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/30/3454764/court-blocks-arch-mine-coal-expansion/
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 398.8ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that one of the favoured tools for liberal opponents of climate change is the court system. And sometimes there are, it seems, some “victories”. Often reversed, but well, what are you gonna do?
What I think we can learn from this. “They make the laws to chain us well”…
What happened next. The courts get stacked with dickhead judges, cases get dismissed and the emissions climb….
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day: