A Plan Made to Shield Big Tobacco From Facts Is Now E.P.A. Policy
Nearly a quarter century ago, a team of tobacco industry consultants outlined a plan to create “explicit procedural hurdles” for the Environmental Protection Agency to clear before it could use science to address the health impacts of smoking. President Trump’s E.P.A. has now embedded parts of that strategy into federal environmental policy. On Tuesday Andrew […]
Walmart Accused in U.S. Lawsuit of Fueling Opioid Crisis
The U.S. government accused Walmart Inc. of fueling a nationwide opioid crisis by ignoring warnings from its own pharmacists that the chain wasn’t properly set up to screen painkiller prescriptions in violation of federal regulations. The complaint filed Tuesday in Delaware comes two months after the world’s largest retailer filed its own case in Texas […]
Sacklers Face Furious Questions in Rare Testimony on Opioid Epidemic
Members of Congress on Thursday hurled withering comments and furious questions at two members of the billionaire Sackler family that owns Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, seeking to use a rare public appearance to extract admissions of personal responsibility for the deadly opioid epidemic as well as details about $10 billion that records show […]
The Sacklers’ Last Poison Pill
The opioid crisis remains one of America’s deadliest public health disasters. Victims demand answers about how it happened and who was responsible. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform seemed poised to address a facet of the crisis with a hearing this coming Tuesday on the role of Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler […]
St. Landry Parish, Cankton, sue oil companies over possible aquifer contamination
The St. Landry Parish government and the village of Cankton are suing more than 25 companies, including Chevron, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, over alleged groundwater contamination from a former 80-acre oilfield waste disposal site about 15 miles from Lafayette. Lafayette attorney William Goodell, representing the parish and village, alleges the former Cankton Tank Farm/MAR Services […]
E.P.A.’s Final Deregulatory Rush Runs Into Open Staff Resistance
President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency was rushing to complete one of its last regulatory priorities, aiming to obstruct the creation of air- and water-pollution controls far into the future, when a senior career scientist moved to hobble it. Thomas Sinks directed the E.P.A.’s science advisory office and later managed the agency’s rules and data around […]
Special Report: U.S. air monitors routinely miss pollution – even refinery explosions
When explosions ripped through a Philadelphia oil refinery last year, the shock waves knocked Felicia Menna’s front door frame out of place. Then came the black smoke. “My throat was closing shut,” recalled Menna, who lives about a mile away. “My nostrils felt like they were on fire.” She went to an emergency room, where […]
Scientists link record-breaking hurricane season to climate crisis
Paddling in a canoe through the flood waters left by Hurricane Eta in his rural village near the north coast of Honduras, Adán Herrera took stock of the damage. “Compared with Hurricane Mitch, this caused more damage because the water rose so fast,” said Herrera, 33, a subsistence farmer who is living on top of […]
Judge delays crucial permit for Formosa plastics plant
[BY DAVID MITCHELL] A state district judge sent critical air permits for a $9.4 billion Formosa Plastics complex back to state environmental regulators so they can take a closer look at the St. James Parish facility’s emissions impacts on Black residents living nearby. Nineteenth Judicial District Judge Trudy White issued the finding during a hearing […]
Bankruptcy judge OKs federal settlement with Purdue Pharma
[By GEOFF MULVIHILL] Proposed settlements between the federal government and OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and its owners cleared a major legal hurdle Tuesday when a bankruptcy judge said they could move ahead. Last month, the company agreed to an $8.3 billion civil settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice related to claims about its role […]