Race, Class and the EPA's Environmental Justice Strategic Plan

In June 2005 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft Environmental Justice Strategic Plan (EJSP) which proposed eliminating race and class or explicitly identifying minority and low-income communities as central to its environmental justice (EJ) programs and decision-making. The EPA’s EJSP argument for dropping its focus on low-income and minority communities is that environmental justice should apply to all communities regardless of race and income. This is basically a reinterpretation of President Clinton’'s Executive order 12898, which mandated federal environmental justice efforts. The EPA’s decision was also made without proper notice and public input.

There are numerous examples such as Hurricane Katrina and the impact that it had on the neglected, minority low-income communities in Louisiana that demonstrate that race and class do matter with regards to environmental degradation and impact. The same problems exist in the Bay Area and elsewhere. A close look at the environmental health problems faced by the Midway Village community in Daly City and by West Oakland and North Richmond communities, to cite a few examples, expose the lack of public participation and the need for race and class criteria in decision-making processes.

An Associated Press report-released in December 2005- mapping census data with a little-known government study assigning risk scores for industrial air pollution in every square kilometer of the U.S. showed that blacks are 79% more likely than whites to live in polluted neighborhoods. During the Clinton administration, the EPA acknowledged "poor communities, frequently communities of color but not exclusively, suffer disproportionately. If you look at where our industrialized facilities tend to be located, they're not in the upper middle class neighborhoods." prompting President Clinton to issue Executive Order 12898. Now, more than a decade later, the AP study found, factory emissions still affect low-income and communities of color disproportionately.

Early critics of the EPA’s lack of action on environmental justice include the EPA Inspector General Nikki Tinsley, who issued a March 1, 2004 report with recommendations on how to address these deficiencies.

EPA’s June EJSP draft was received with much criticism from 76 US Senators and Representatives who signed a July 21, 2005 letter of concern as well as local and national organizations which also sent a July 27, 2005 letter of concern and recommendations to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. In response to this criticism, U.S. EPA Administrator Johnson released a November 4, 2005 memo to the agency, the regional offices and the inspector general reaffirming the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Commitment to Environmental Justice.

In response to the hundreds of comments they received, the U.S. EPA  has decided to drop the EJ Strategic Plan. Instead, it has opted to embed EJ concerns into the agency-wide Strategic Plan but it still plans to refrain from explicitly using race and class considerations claiming that this would make them subject to Supreme Court challenges.

Urban Habitat has been convening a Social Equity Caucus EPA committee to monitor that the final EPA Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2006-2011, both of which will guide the EPA’s decisions and actions on EJ over that time period, have clear and spelled out environmental justice commitments, strategies and targets for low-income and communities of color. The catch-all phrase “regardless of race, color, national origin, or income” should not be used by the EPA to sidestep its environmental justice obligations to communities disproportionately exposed to environmental harms and risks that threaten their health and lives.

^{See the pdf below for a U.S. EPA response to Congreswwoman Solis on her concerns regarding EJ and the following links for more information:
http://www.epa.gov/Compliance/resources/publications/data/planning/strategicplan/ej/index.html
http://www.eh.doe.gov/oepa/guidance/justice/eo12898.pdf
http://notes.sej.org/sej/tipsheet.nsf/0/50d5a132cd46c00e8625706000753d8f?OpenDocument http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/08/01/featherstone-ej/}