The agency’s proposed rule would loosen limits on #EthyleneOxide #emissions from around 90 commercial sterilization facilities across the country. Roughly 2.3 million people live within two miles of these facilities in what are often #LowIncome neighborhoods or #CommunitiesOfColor, according to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group.

#Trump #EPA #law #EnvironmentalLaw #GeographicInequality #regulations #health #PublicHealth #safety

The move revived a long-running debate about the paradoxical effects of #EthyleneOxide on #PublicHealth. While it plays a crucial role in sterilizing lifesaving medical devices like pacemakers & syringes, long-term exposure can cause #leukemia & other types of #cancer among people who #work in or #live near medical sterilization facilities.

#Trump #EPA #law #EnvironmentalLaw #regulations #health #safety

#States have not been deterred. #Hawaii filed its lawsuit almost immediately after the #DOJ suit. And #Michigan recently filed a federal #antitrust lawsuit against 4 #oil companies & the American Petroleum Institute [#API], the oil industry’s main trade group.
The petition before #SCOTUS in the #Boulder case hinges on the question of whether #federal law “precludes #state-law claims seeking relief for injuries allegedly caused” by #GreenhouseGas #emissions.

#law #EnvironmentalLaw #ClimateChange

The companies asked #SCOTUS to step in then, but [when there was a more balanced court] the justices declined. (The Supreme Court had also declined to hear several similar petitions over the years.)

But that changed amid a vigorous push by the #oil industry & the #Trump admin to shut down #climate lawsuits nationwide. They argue that the specter of billions of dollars in damages could destroy the US #energy sector🎻.

#law #EnvironmentalLaw #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

Some have been dismissed, while others have been allowed to advance in the courts. None have made it to trial yet.

In #Colorado, as they have elsewhere, the companies tried to move the matter to #FederalCourt, arguing that the complex issue of global #GreenhouseGas #emissions must be addressed under #federal, not #state, #law. A federal judge denied that request in 2019, & the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision.

#SCOTUS #law #EnvironmentalLaw #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

#SCOTUS announced Monday that it had agreed to hear a major #climate lawsuit in which the #oil industry is claiming it shouldn’t be sued in #state courts over its role in #GlobalWarming. The outcome could have wide bearing on dozens of other lawsuits around the country.

The court said it would hear arguments on a petition by #ExxonMobil & #Suncor, a Canadian #energy giant, in a lawsuit brought by the city & county of #Boulder, Colorado.

#law #EnvironmentalLaw #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis