Court turns down challenge to Amazon's San Bernardino airport hub

A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an environmental challenge to the FAA's approval of Amazon's new 600,000-square-foot cargo facility at southern California's San Bernardino International Airport. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a consolidated petition for review by California's attorney general and green groups including the Sierra Club, which alleged the FAA botched an environmental impact study underlying its approval of the now operating Eastgate Air Cargo Facility. The majority's ruling drew a fierce dissent from U.S. Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson, who wrote that the "case reeks of environmental racism," and questioned whether the outcome would have been different had the project been "sited anywhere near the wealthy enclave where the multibillionaire owner of Amazon resides." San Bernardino County, home to the facility, is "overwhelmingly" populated by people of color, Rawlinson wrote. In a concurrence, US Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay noted that none of the petitioners had claimed in the case that "racial animus" or discrimination helped guide the FAA's 2019 decision. Bumatay called his colleague's assertions "unfair to the employees of the FAA... who stand accused of condoning racist actions without a chance to defend themselves." <br/>