If confirmed, Jackson likely will have at least one high-profile environmental case waiting to welcome her to the high court this fall.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson poses for a portrait. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

By ALEX GUILLÉN

02/25/2022 10:49 AM EST

Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s expected nominee to the Supreme Court, had an early encounter with federal environmental policy.

As a Miami high school student in 1987, she “grilled” then-Interior Secretary Donald Hodel about the risk posed by offshore oil drilling to Florida’s reefs, the Miami Herald reported at the time. “Oil and water don’t mix,” she said.

Thirty years later, however, as a judge in a D.C. court, Jackson threw out environmentalists’ lawsuit over the risks of offshore drilling.

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Green groups had sought to force the Interior Department to finish a post-Deepwater Horizon review of its practice of issuing offshore oil and gas drilling permits without first carrying out a site-specific environmental review. In her 2017 ruling, Jackson agreed Interior had an “ongoing obligation” to review its procedures, but ruled that department policy “does not mandate that an agency complete its ongoing review… much less demand that an agency publicly announce its decision to decline to revise its existing rules.”

Jackson’s ruling illustrates that she “comes to cases with an open mind and will rule based on the record and the law,” said Kristen Monsell, the Center for Biological Diversity attorney who argued the case.

“I obviously did disagree with the analysis and conclusion, but she did give us a fair hearing,” Monsell added.

Environmentalists are expected to coalesce behind Jackson as a replacement for Justice Stephen Breyer, as protecting his seat on the Supreme Court has become critical for liberal activists across the board.

If confirmed, Jackson would join a court that tilts decidedly to the right. Absent the departure of a conservative member, that could mean Jackson should expect to spend much of her time penning dissents, including for environmental cases.

Jackson clerked for Breyer — who will retire at the end of the court’s current term this summer and was known for seeking compromise solutions that could win votes from the court’s conservative wing — in the 1999-2000 term.

“If someone were to fill in exactly where Breyer is, she would be right there,” said Steph Tai, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jackson’s ruling against the environmentalists in the offshore drilling case “illustrated her ability to set aside her personal preferences to actually stick by the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, which, honestly, allows a lot of deference to agencies,” Tai added.

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Jackson, 51, is best known for her experience in criminal law. She worked as a federal public defender in Washington, D.C., from 2005 to 2007, and from 2010 through 2014 she served as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a judicial agency that creates sentencing policies.

Jackson was confirmed as a district judge in 2013 by a voice vote. But her 2021 confirmation to the D.C. Circuit — widely seen as positioning her for the Supreme Court — was far more contentious. She ultimately garnered support from just three Republicans: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. (She also enjoyed public backing from former Speaker Paul Ryan, to whom she is related by marriage.)

Jackson likely will have at least one high-profile environmental case waiting to welcome her to the high court this fall, should she be confirmed.

The Supreme Court in January agreed to take up an appeal questioning whether lower courts have applied the proper test for determining which wetlands are federally protected waters. That case appears to be headed for argument near the beginning of the court’s term in October.

However, Jackson’s replacement of Breyer probably wouldn’t shift the dynamics of that case. The six conservative justices likely have enough votes to rule without needing the support of the court’s diminished liberal wing.

In many of her environmental rulings during her eight years in district court, Jackson relied on facts unique to the case or statutory limitations.

“She’s very fact-based, she’s very multiple-factor-based,” said Tai. “And to the extent that the multiple factors come out against the environmentalists, she’s fine with ruling that way.”

One of her highest profile rulings involved environmentalists’ challenge to the Trump administration’s waiver of key environmental laws in constructing the Mexican border wall. In 2019, Jackson ruled that a 1996 law blocked judicial review of the groups’ challenge, and thus prevented her from weighing in on their claims that the administration had overstepped its authority.

Early in her time as a judge, Jackson ruled against environmentalists challenging the Enbridge-owned Flanagan South Pipeline, which carries oil sands crude oil from Illinois to Oklahoma mostly across privately-owned land. The green groups argued the federal government should have conducted an environmental review of the entire pipeline, but Jackson ruled they were wrong.

“The Federal Defendants have permitting authority over only small segments of this private pipeline project and none of the defendant agencies, alone or in combination, have authority to oversee or control the vast portions of the FS Pipeline that traverse private land,” she wrote in 2014. The D.C. Circuit later affirmed her ruling.

In 2018, Jackson tossed out an Obama-era designation that established critical habitat for the Riverside fairy shrimp, an endangered species found only in a small part of California’s San Diego County. The Fish and Wildlife Service had named 56 acres of a developer’s property as critical habitat because it was adjacent to the small pools the shrimp occupy. “There is nothing about the [Endangered Species Act’s] use of ‘occupied,’ or the plain meaning of that term, or, quite frankly, common sense, that permits this result,” Jackson ruled.

And in 2015, Jackson rejected a lawsuit over a planning rule that industry challengers argued placed environmental interests over competing logging and grazing interests, concluding they lacked standing.

Jackson has sometimes ruled in favor of environmental interests.

In 2018, after environmental groups sued EPA over long-overdue updates to nine air pollution standards, Jackson rejected the Trump administration’s request for seven years to finish the rulemakings. Environmentalists asked for a two-year deadline, but Jackson called that timeline “impossibly compressed” and instead imposed a three-and-a-half year deadline. (Several of those deadlines have since been pushed back into 2022.)

Also that year, Jackson green-lighted a $160 million lawsuit brought by Guam against the Navy over Superfund clean-up costs of an old dump. She was reversed by the D.C. Circuit — but the Supreme Court reversed again on appeal in 2021, allowing Guam’s lawsuit to proceed to trial, as Jackson had initially ruled.

Jackson also briefly oversaw challenges to the Trump Transportation Department’s rule that prohibited California and other states from setting more stringent greenhouse gas standards for vehicles. That case never advanced very far, and the Biden administration has since repealed that regulation.

Since joining the D.C. Circuit last year, Jackson’s participation in energy and environmental cases has skyrocketed — but her short time on the appellate bench means she’s signed her name to few rulings.

In January, Jackson heard environmentalists’ challenge to the Trump administration’s environmental review that underpinned two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico in 2018. Jackson and Judge Robert Wilkins expressed concerns about the environmental impact statement. She specifically went after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for not addressing the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s planned changes to the well control rule, which tightened standards for the equipment used to drill and produce oil and gas from underwater wells.

“I’m concerned about the suggestion that the agency doesn’t have to take that into account, if it relies on those rules, when it’s putting together an EIS,” Jackson said during oral arguments. The court has not yet ruled in that case, but Wilkins indicated he was inclined to vacate the leases.

Also in January, Jackson joined a ruling that found the Trump administration had not provided “clear and convincing evidence” to justify the increased stringency of an energy efficiency rule for boilers used in commercial or multifamily buildings. DOE has until April to provide a fuller explanation for the standard; if it does not, the regulation will be vacated.

Jackson sat on a panel in November that heard a tribal challenge to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing of a South Dakota uranium mine. That panel has not yet ruled, but during arguments, Jackson seemed disinclined to second guess the licensing board. “Ordinarily, we give deference to an agency in its determination of fact, particularly after a lengthy evidentiary hearing,” she said.

In her short time on the D.C. Circuit, Jackson has heard seven different FERC lawsuits. Only two have led to rulings so far — including one issued on Thursday, unusual timing for an opinion release that stirred speculation that Jackson was trying to clear her docket before a nomination announcement.

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Polar bear family   –   Copyright  © Dmytro Cherkasov/polarbearsinternational.org

By Doloresz Katanich  •  Updated: 27/02/2022 – 08:12

27 February is International Polar Bear Day, created to draw attention to the many threats the iconic species is facing.

The event was created by NGO Polar Bears International in 2011, to raise awareness of female polar bears and their cubs, which are currently denning across the Arctic.

The polar bear is labelled vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s red list, which estimated that there are 20-25,000 bears in 5 countries. It is very hard to get exact data about the population because of the severity of the circumstances.

• Climate change is bringing polar bears dangerously close to humans
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• Saving polar bears through images and ecotourism

Protecting the most vulnerable of them is crucial in order to secure the future of the species, which is already threatened by global warming and habitat loss. The disappearing sea ice means that the bears’ hunting and denning territory is rapidly disappearing.

The latest study published in Nature Climate Change in 2020 projects that if there is no change in greenhouse gas emission levels, all but a few populations will be wiped out by the year 2100.

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Protecting the cubs is key to protecting the species

Keeping mother and cubs safe, while also addressing a warming climate, is a critical part of polar bear conservation. A stable, uninterrupted denning process is essential to the survival of polar bears.

Right now, scientists from Polar Bears International and partner organisations are in Svalbard, Norway, conducting research and working on locating and monitoring dens in order to protect them from human activities.

“It can really disturb the mothers and if they are disturbed too much, or at the wrong period of time the mum may actually leave the den and leave the small cubs behind,” says scientist at Polar Bears International, Dr. Thea Bechshoft.

“Studies have shown that polar bear cub mortality can be incredibly high, upwards of 50 to 75 per cent.”

Geopolitical tensions could have an impact on global warming

The ongoing war in Ukraine could have a huge impact on worldwide efforts to mitigate climate change and global warming, warns the scientist.

“This war may create a shift in energy use that could either go towards more fossil fuels or it could go towards a quicker, greener transition. Time will tell, ” says Bechshoft.

Watch the video to learn more about saving polar bears.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/02/27/international-polar-bear-day-is-a-reminder-of-the-ecological-impact-of-war

• HELENA DORE Chronicle Staff Writer
• Feb 24, 2022
•  https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/bison-trapping-operations-begin-in-yellowstone-national-park/article_6ce7aae7-6f43-557e-8221-4e17a0085f4c.html

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HELENA DORE Chronicle Staff Writer

Yellowstone National Park announced Tuesday that bison trapping has begun near the park’s northern border, meaning efforts to cull the population through shipment to slaughter are underway.

Trapping at the Stephens Creek administrative area began late last week, according to the park. Bison are captured at the corrals near Gardiner as they migrate beyond the park’s boundaries in search of food.

Park officials did not confirm how many bison have been trapped at Stephens Creek so far this year. After bison are trapped, those animals that aren’t enrolled in a quarantine program are slaughtered. Meat and hides are distributed to tribes.

Buffalo Field Campaign, a group that advocates for free-roaming wild bison on the landscape, wrote last Friday that their patrol witnessed the capturing of 23 adult bison at the Stephens Creek facility last Wednesday.

Another 11 adult bison were seen captured there on Thursday, according to the group.

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During an interagency meeting in Missoula last December, park biologists estimated that the Yellowstone bison population numbered at around 5,400 animals.

Officials who manage Yellowstone bison under the Interagency Bison Management Plan agreed to reduce the population by between 600 and 900 animals last year.

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Bison aren’t tolerated much in Montana due to the risks that brucellosis pose to the livestock industry, so the population must be culled annually to keep numbers steady in the park.

Shipment to slaughter is one of three methods that bison managers use to cull Yellowstone’s population. Animals are also removed through tribal and state hunting and the Bison Conservation Transfer Program — a brucellosis quarantine program meant to produce disease-free animals that can be released elsewhere.

Last winter, there was no trapping of bison at Stephens Creek because the animals’ annual migration did not occur ahead of calving season. Migrations are influenced by multiple factors, but cycling between low and high temperatures likely delayed the one last year.