Supreme Court pinging environmental wacko sonar case

Washington Post:

The Supreme Court today took up the dispute over whether the Navy's use of sonar off San Diego is harming whales, running into obstacles similar to the ones that have long divided environmentalists and the military.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer pronounced himself "frustrated" by the long-standing debate over the Naval training exercises, which environmental advocates contend can kill whales and other marine mammals and devastate their habitat. The Navy says the exercises train sonar operators to detect enemy submarines and are vital to national security in a time of war.

Pointing out that he is an expert on neither whales nor the military, Breyer told an environmental lawyer during oral arguments that a compromise should have been worked out with the Navy. "You're asking us to figure it out," Breyer said before adding, to laughter in the courtroom: "The whole point of the armed forces is to hurt the environment . . . on a bombing mission, do they have to prepare an environmental impact statement?"

The comments from Breyer, a member of the court's liberal wing, indicated that the decision in Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council might not fall along the usual ideological lines. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, an appointee of President Bush's, sharply questioned both sides, calling a key part of the Navy's argument "odd" but also saying that environmentalists are being "very unfair" to the Navy because the service is trying not to harm the environment.

Conservative Justice Samuel A. Alito questioned whether a lower court judge who halted the use of sonar during the exercises -- but then allowed it with environmentally friendly modifications -- is "an expert on anti-submarine warfare.

"Isn't there something incredibly odd about a single district judge making a determination . . . on something the Navy has decided?" he asked.

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It is not odd when you consider the underlying agenda of the environmental wacko movement. They want to halt all energy production in the US and they want to disarm the military. The put critters ahead of humans and human activity. They want to destroy the US in the name of saving the planet.

Congress needs to repeal those acts which give these nuts the right to sue to stop the government and businesses from pursuing their normal activities. It would reduce the price of energy and the cost of government and would do no real harm to the environment.