Volume 6, Issue 5

Washington, DC: 6-22-98

The one consistent trend that this editor has seen out of the Browner EPA is "Damn the facts. Full speed ahead." They've demonstrated it time and again and has been pointed out in this newsletter. One particularly odious area is environmental justice. Now EPA is trying to turn the environmental justice issue into a Title VI Civil Rights issue through quietly publishing new guidelines on their internet site (http://es.epa.gov/oeca/oej/titlvi.html). EPA has set out bureaucratic procedures that companies would have to go through to receive or renew permits for facilities located near minority communities. In an unusual move, the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has personally contacted President Clinton to express the dissatisfaction of member companies. One primary concern is that EPA does not have a clear definition of “disparate impact” which makes it nearly impossible to determine how the citing of a facility in a low income or minority neighborhood would have such an impact on local residents. An interesting development along the “damn the facts” trend is a revelation in the Detroit News that charged EPA with ignoring studies showing that whites, not minorities, are more likely to live near highly polluted areas. Hearings by the House Commerce Committee are rumored to be in the works as a result.

Back to Environmental Justice / Environmental Racism