{"id":44340,"date":"2015-07-17T12:35:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T16:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=44340"},"modified":"2015-07-17T12:35:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T16:35:03","slug":"10th-circuit-court-rules-against-coal-advocates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/10th-circuit-court-rules-against-coal-advocates\/","title":{"rendered":"10th Circuit Court Rules Against Coal Advocates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, formerly called the American Tradition Institute — a nonprofit that advocates a \u201cfree-market approach\u201d to environmentalism. That means it represents, and is funded by, powerful interests who stand to lose billions if renewable energy is allowed to flourish. These are people who are perfectly willing to have billions of people dispossessed by rising sea levels, beset by a lack of clean drinking water, and sickened by air pollution just as long as their clients continue to make money by burning fossil fuels. Their parents must be very proud.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Back in 2011, E & E Legal brought suit against the state of Colorado to block a\u00a0clean energy standard that\u00a0requires utilities to get 30% of the electricity they sell to Colorado customers from renewable sources. The group argued that standard violated the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution.<\/p>\n

Wait. What? Yup; you see their clients make electricity by burning coal. Colorado used to get some of its power from those coal burning plants. Restricting the amount of coal-fired electricity coming into the state will decrease its clients’ profits and, gosh, how can it be legal for a government standard to take money out of corporate coffers? That has<\/em> to be unconstitutional, right?<\/p>\n

Fortunately,\u00a0US Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the opinion for the three-judge panel, went to law school and actually paid attention in his constitutional law class. He wrote,\u00a0\u201cTo be sure, fossil fuel producers like [E&E Legal]\u2019s member will be hurt. But as far as we know, all fossil fuel producers in the area served by the grid will be hurt equally and all renewable energy producers in the area will be helped equally. If there\u2019s any disproportionate adverse effect felt by out-of-state producers or any disproportionate advantage enjoyed by in-state producers, it hasn\u2019t been explained to this court.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also found the plaintiffs’ contention that the clean energy standard might raise the cost of electricity for Colorado residents to be laughable. He noted voters had given\u00a0the initiative \u201coverwhelming support.\u201d He wrote, \u201cThat\u2019s a cost they are apparently happy to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Think Progress<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0Colorado is a national leader in clean energy, due in part to the state\u2019s ambitious renewable energy standard. It\u00a0is home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the federal government\u2019s primary research facility for renewable energy and energy efficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a good day for renewable energy in Colorado and our efforts to clean our air and combat climate change,\u201d says Carrie Curtiss, deputy director of Conservation Colorado. \u201cIt is time for the climate deniers and dirty energy lobby to end their frivolous lawsuits and recognize that clean, renewable energy is here to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amen to that.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published at<\/em> Solar Love<\/a>. Reprinted with permission<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stinging rebuke to coal advocates in a decision that supports the Colorado Clean Power Initiative of 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[40843,7589,40844,40845,40963],"spectra_custom_meta":{"_edit_lock":["1437150801:184"],"_edit_last":["184"],"icopyright_hide_toolbar":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":["10th circuit court"],"_yoast_wpseo_linkdex":["85"],"_wpas_done_all":["1"],"icopyright_registered_content":["yes"],"omc_review_enable":["0"],"omc_user_ratings_visibility":["0"],"omc_review_type":["stars"],"omc_criteria_display":["n"],"omc_featured_post":["0"],"omc_comment_type":["wp"],"_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":["The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stinging rebuke to coal advocates in a decision that supports the Colorado Clean Power Initiative of 2011."],"dsq_thread_id":["3943901994"],"_oembed_ddd2f76ed38acfc4de1814d6b5fbe283":["{{unknown}}"],"_oembed_c4c2611c1b252195e4cb38dcf7ba6926":["