#environmental-litigation

#environmental-litigation

The 2009 "endangerment finding" came about as a result of a prolonged legal battle that ended in a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, Massachusetts v. EPA, where it was determined that greenhouse gases qualify as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The ruling directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine whether they pose a danger to public health and welfare and it did so, based on overwhelming scientific consensus that six greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare by fueling climate change.

During his first stint as president, Trump was heavily influenced by the Westlands Water District, a huge agricultural water agency in the San Joaquin Valley that sought more irrigation water for itself and other farm interests. That relationship led to an extremely controversial contract that guaranteed Westlands as much as 1 million acre-feet of water each year from the federal Central Valley Project, solidifying the district's supply situation.

A French court on Thursday ruled oil and gas giant TotalEnergies had engaged in "misleading commercial practices" by overstating its climate pledges, in what activists said was the first such ruling worldwide against a major oil company for climate misinformation. The case could set a legal precedent for corporate environmental advertising, which is starting to face tighter regulations in the European Union.