November was a really big month for climate lawsuits. Earlier in the month, the folks who

had been petitioning the EPA to use the toxic substances control act or TASCA to regularly greenhouse

gas emissions filed a civil suit to compel them to do so. Here's longtime EPA scientist Don Viviani

on why. I could never understand when I was at the agency why they would meet a petition to regulate

greenhouse gases under TASCA. It's maddening that with a petition they're unwilling to do their job.

TASCA is a chemical safety act. It's supposed to keep us safe from unsafe chemicals. CO2 and methane

are the two most unsafe chemicals that mankind has ever been presented with. We'll hear more from

Viviani as well as Dan Gelpern, the lead attorney on that case in a minute. But first, in other major

climate litigation news, the first ever climate rico case has now been filed. The Racketeer influenced

and corrupt organizations act was passed in the 1970s to give the government a way to deal with

organized crime. The Mafia. In the 80s, the Supreme Court upheld the use of the law in civil cases

as well, which can be brought against individuals, organizations, or corporations. If you listened to

our season on the Chevron Equator case, you might remember that Chevron successfully sued U.S.

Attorney Stephen Donziger under Rico. This time, the complaint flows the other way, alleging that

the global oil majors, their trade associations, and a network of dark money funded think tanks

and operatives were part of an organized conspiracy to mislead the public on climate change,

resulting in a multitude of damages. The plaintiffs in this case are 16 municipalities in the

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico that suffered tremendous damage when Hurricane Maria hit and are

staring down the barrel of more intense and more frequent hurricanes for the foreseeable future, as we saw

recently with Hurricane Fiona. I started following this case three years ago and went to Puerto Rico in

2019 with Attorney Melissa K. Sims. Sims is Senior Counsel for the plaintiffs law firm Milberg,

which also handled several of the opioid Rico cases. In fact, Sims originally went to Puerto Rico

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