Supreme Court shuts out environmentalists

WASHINGTON, July 4 (UPI) -- The latest U.S. Supreme Court term was the worst one ever for environmentalists, advocates say.

The court considered five environment-related suits in the term that ended this week and environmentalists lost each time, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper said the suits involved the use of sonar that threatened whales off California; liability for toxic spills; limiting challenges to U.S. Forest Service regulations; dumping in lakes; and allowing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take costs into consideration when determining how much marine life can be killed by power plants.

"The court does seem to be bringing more common sense back to environmental law," said Robin Conrad, a lawyer with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"The real test will come when the Obama administration tries to implement new legislation, like the climate change legislation, assuming it passes" the Senate, Richard Lazarus, a director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, told the Times.

The court, under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., has shown it doesn't have the same kind of receptivity to environmental causes as has been the case for much of the last 40 years, observers say.