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Daily Caller

Unanimous Supreme Court Ruling Inspires Hope For Future Energy Project Permitting

Published

3 weeks ago

5 minute read

 

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

It comes as a surprise to many Americans when they learn that the vast majority of decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court are decided unanimously. Far too often, these unanimous decisions receive scant attention in the press due to their lack of controversy.

Such is the case with a key 8-0 decision the Court published May 29 that could help Congress and the Trump administration meet their goals to streamline permitting for energy projects in the United States. The decision narrows the scope of application of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law whose environmental review provisions have been systematically used – and often abused – by climate alarm groups and plaintiff lawyers for decades to impede the progress of major projects of all kinds.

The case at hand involves the Uinta Basin Railway Project, which will transport oil produced in Utah’s Unita Basin and connect it to the national railway network so it can reach national markets. Because the rail line would parallel the Colorado River for roughly 100 miles, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in 2023 that the project’s developers would have to conduct a second, expanded environmental impact study under NEPA to try to assess nebulous potential impacts to air quality – often taking place thousands of miles away – or from a possible oil spill, rescinding a key permit that had been issued in 2021 by federal regulators.

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It is key to note that that permit was issued by the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) along with a 3,600-page environmental impact statement to comply with NEPA. In the conduct of the environmental review, the Wall Street Journal wrote that STB and the company assessed “the railway’s potential effects on local water resources, air quality, protected species, recreation, local economies, the Ute Indian tribe and much more.”

But for the plaintiffs and the D.C. Circuit Court, 3,600 pages of thorough scientific analysis just weren’t enough. They filed suit, complaining that the study didn’t try to assess potential impacts that might happen on dozens of other rail lines hundreds of miles distant, or, even more absurd, assess potential pollution in “environmental justice communities” as far away as the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.

You really can’t make this stuff up.

If delay was the goal, the plaintiffs got a win, halting progress for four years. That is a sadly typical outcome for cases involving energy-related projects such as this one.

In their unanimous opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the justices state, “The goal of the law is to inform agency decisionmaking, not to paralyze it.”

As I’ve written in previous stories, the vast majority of delays in permitting processes stem from provisions contained in major federal statutes designed to protect the environment and endangered species. In addition to NEPA, these laws include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. Among them all, none has been more broadly abused and misinterpreted by activist courts than NEPA.

In its analysis of the decision, the Institute for Energy Research says, in part, that the “decision means that agencies can approve projects like pipelines, railways, and dams and not be mandated to consider distant environmental effects of the projects, such as increased greenhouse gas emissions, that had stopped or delayed fossil fuel projects from moving forward, particularly during the Biden administration.” But, the author cautions, “the Uinta Basin Railway project could still face additional legal and regulatory hurdles within Colorado,” despite the ruling.

The good news is that even the liberal justices on the Supreme Court appear to be developing a growing awareness of just how absurd some of the claims made in lawsuits like this case really are. The unanimous nature of this decision inspires some sense of hope that the Trump administration can succeed in some of its efforts to reform the system and put an end to some of the most unjustified delays.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

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‘I Know How These People Operate’: Fmr CIA Officer Calls BS On FBI’s New Epstein Intel

Daily Caller

‘I Know How These People Operate’: Fmr CIA Officer Calls BS On FBI’s New Epstein Intel

Published on July 8, 2025

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou said Monday on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” he doesn’t believe anything about the new intelligence from the FBI on deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein adds up.

A report released by Axios Sunday said that, based on a two-page memo, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI concluded that there had been no “client list” left by Epstein, despite ongoing public doubt. Discussing the new intelligence, Fox’s Jesse Watters asked Kiriakou if he believed the information from officials “adds up.”

“No, I don’t think this adds up,” Kiriakou said. “You’ve hit it on the head, and so has Barry. I think you’re both exactly right on this. We really don’t know anything because the FBI doesn’t want us to know anything. I’m not blaming the FBI Director Kash Patel or the Deputy Director Dan Bongino.”

In 2019, Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking, only to be found dead in his New York Metropolitan Correctional Center cell a month later. Officials said the deceased pedophile hanged himself in the cell. Speculations grew online due to the circumstances of his death.

WATCH:

During his 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump vowed to release all Epstein’s files, with Patel also vowing to release as many files as he could. However, in May, Patel and Bongino told Fox News they remained firm that Epstein committed suicide, with Bongino flatly saying Epstein “killed himself.”

“I think that that layer beneath them, that’s part of what we like to call the deep state, has taken this bull by the horns, and they’ve probably destroyed information,” Kiriakou added. “Look at what the CIA did in 1975 after Congress ordered that it release all of its files related to an operation called MKUltra. The director of the CIA went back to headquarters and ordered  everything to be destroyed, and, in the end, only about 20% of the documents survived.”

“We’re still learning about the FBI’s operations against Martin Luther King 50, 55 years after the fact, so now we’re supposed to believe that everybody’s telling the truth, that there were no files, there were no dossiers?” Kiriakou asked. “I’m sorry. I just don’t buy it because I know how these people operate.”

Despite the newly released memo from the DOJ and FBI, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in February that she had personally reviewed Epstein’s list.

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Daily Caller

Blackouts Coming If America Continues With Biden-Era Green Frenzy, Trump Admin Warns

Published on July 8, 2025

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Audrey Streb

The Department of Energy (DOE) released a new report Monday warning of impending blackouts if the United States continues to shutter power plants without adequately replacing retiring capacity.

DOE warned in its Monday report that blackouts could increase by 100% by 2030 if the U.S. continues to retire power plants without sufficient replacements, and that the electricity grid is not prepared to meet the demand of power-hungry data centers in the years to come without more reliable generation coming online quickly. The report specifically highlighted wind and solar, two resources pushed by Biden, as responsible for eroding grid stability and advised that dispatchable generation from sources like coal, oil, gas and nuclear are necessary to meet the anticipated U.S. power demand.

“This report affirms what we already know: The United States cannot afford to continue down the unstable and dangerous path of energy subtraction previous leaders pursued, forcing the closure of baseload power sources like coal and natural gas,” DOE Secretary Chris Wright said. “In the coming years, America’s reindustrialization and the AI race will require a significantly larger supply of around-the-clock, reliable, and uninterrupted power. President Trump’s administration is committed to advancing a strategy of energy addition, and supporting all forms of energy that are affordable, reliable, and secure. If we are going to keep the lights on, win the AI race, and keep electricity prices from skyrocketing, the United States must unleash American energy.”

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All regional grid systems across the U.S. are expected to lose reliability in the coming years without the addition of more reliable power, according to the DOE’s report. The U.S. will need an additional 100 gigawatts of new peak hour supply by 2030, with data centers projected to require as much as half of this electricity, the report estimates; for reference, one gigawatt is enough to power up to one million homes.

President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day back in the Oval Office and signed an executive order on April 8 ordering DOE to review and identify at-risk regions of the electrical grid, which the report released Monday does. In contrast, former President Joe Biden cracked down on conventional power sources like coal with stringent regulations while unleashing a gusher of subsidies for green energy developments.

Electricity demand is projected to hit a record high in the next several years, surging 25% by 2030, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data and a recent ICF International report. Demand was essentially static for the last several years, and skyrocketing U.S. power demand presents an “urgent need” for electricity resources, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a major grid watchdog.

Wright has also issued several emergency orders to major grid operators since April. New Orleans experienced blackouts just two days after Wright issued an emergency order on May 23 to the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the regional grid operator covering the New Orleans area.

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