Resources for Environmental Justice: Law, Policy and Regulation

by Clifford Rechtschaffen and Eileen Gauna

If you are a professor using the book, a Teachers Manual is available from Carolina Academic Press at http://www.cap-press.com/. See the 2004 update to the Teachers Manual.

Chapter 1 - Overview of the Environmental Justice Movement

Dana Alston speaking at the First National People of Color Leadership Summit, Washington, D.C.
- by permission of the Environmental Justice Resource Center

Chapter 2 - Theories of Causation

Chapter 3 - The Evidence

Excerpt from Patrick C. McGinley: "From Pick and Shovel to Mountaintop Removal: Environmental Injustice in the Appalachian Coalfields," 34 Environmental Law 21 (2004). Read the excerpt. (Note: This is a pdf file.)

Excerpt from Robert García, Erica S. Flores, Sophia Mei-ling Chang, Elizabeth Pine: "Building Community and Diversifying Democracy from the Ground Up: Strategies from the Urban Park Movement." Read the excerpt. (Note: This is a pdf file.)

Clifford Rechtschaffen, "The Evidence of Environmental Justice," Envtl. L. News (Envtl. L. Section, Cal. State Bar) (Fall 2003.) Read the excerpt. (Note: This is a pdf file).

Chapter 4 - Risk Assessment
Excerpt from Catherine O'Neill: "Risk Avoidance, Cultural Discrimination, and Environmental Justice for Indigenous Peoples," 30 Ecology L. Quarterly (2003). Read the excerpt. (Note: This is a pdf file.)

The Center for Progressive Regulation has published a "white paper" outlining some of the major environmental justice issues arising in risk regulation. View this pdf at http://www.progressiveregulation.org/articles/EJ_505.pdf.

Chapter 5 - Dynamics of Federal Environmental Regulation

Chapter 6 - Standard Setting

Chapter 7 - Program Design and Innovation

Chapter 8 - Facility Permitting

Chapter 9 - Contaminated Facilities

Chapter 10 - Litigation Response

Chapter 11 - Enforcement of Environmental Pollution Laws as a Response

Chapter 12 - Planning, Environmental Review and Information Disclosure as a Response

Everyone has a basic right to continue to live in their communities. LOP's newest front of environmental justice is fighting displacement and wining protections for tenants against unfair evictions.
- by permission of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network

Chapter 13 - Constitutional Claims as a Response

Chapter 14 - Enforcement of the Civil Rights Act as a Response

Chapter 15 - Interagency Initiatives and Collaboration as a Response

Dr. Ben Chavis at the First National People of Color Leadership Summit, D.C., 1991
- by permission of the Environmental Justice Resource Center

In June, 2005, EPA released a draft plan for crafting a new environmental justice strategy for the agency. The draft plan, which consists of both a "Framework for Integrating Environmental Justice" and the "Environmental Justice Strategic Plan Outline," can be found at http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/reports/ej.html.

The plan has generated substantial controversy and opposition. A letter illustrative of some of the critical commentary about the plan was submitted by the National Black Environmental Justice Network. View the letter here. (Note: This is a pdf file.)

Chapter 16 - Native American Issues

A Native American Rally at the Capitol Steps
- by permission of the Environmental Justice Resource Center

International Environmental Justice
Excerpt from Carmen Gonalez: "Beyond Eco-Imperialism: An Environmental Justice Critique of Free Trade," 78 University of Denver Law Review 979 (2001). Read the excerpt. (Note: This is a pdf file.)

Energy and Natural Resources

In this article, Reassessing Racial and Social Economic Disparities in Environmental Justice, the authors explore the merits of distance-based approaches to measuring hazard proximity, demonstrating that traditional methods of conducting environmental inequality analyses fail to adequately control for the proximity between hazardous sites and nearby residential population.

In July, 2005, the Government Accountability Office issued a report finding that EPA paid little attention to environmental justice when drafting three significant clean air rules between 2000 and 2004. A pdf of the report, "EPA Should Devote More Attention to Environmental Justice When Developing Clean Air Rules," can be found at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05289.pdf.

The provocative essay, The Death of Environmentalism, published in 2004, has generated a response from environmental justice activists and academics titled The Soul of Environmentalism.

Environmental Justice for All: A Fifty-State Survey of Legislation, Policies, and Initiatives (2004).

League of United Latin American Citizens and Martha Keating, Clean Air Task Force: Air of Injustice: How Air Pollution Affects the Health of Hispanics and Latinos (2004).

National Environmental Policy Commission: Final Report to the Congressional Black Caucus Environmental Justice Braintrust (2003).

National Academy of Public Administration: Addressing Community Concerns: How Environmental Justice Relates to Land Use Planning and Zoning (2003).

National Academy of Public Administration: Models for Change: Efforts by Four States to Address Environmental Justice (2002).

Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice Status Report: Environmental Justice Collaborative Model: A Framework to Ensure Local Problem Solving (February 2002), EPA 300-R-02-001.

Environmental Law Institute Research Report: A Citizen's Guide to Using Environmental Laws to Secure Environmental Justice (2002).

In Who's Minding the Kids? Population, Public Schools, and Environmental Justice in Los Angeles, the author evaluates demographic distribution of potentially hazardous facilities and health risks associated with ambient air toxics exposures among public schoolchildren in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Environmental Law Institute Research Report: Opportunities for Advancing Environmental Justice: An Analysis of U.S. EPA Statutory Authorities (2001).

National Academy of Public Administration: Environmental Justice in EPA Permitting: Reducing Pollution in High Risk Communities is Integral to the Agency's Mission (2001).

Environmental Justice & Disaster Relief
In the Wake of the Storm, Environment, Disaster, and Race After Katrina. An excellent general resource about environmental justice is the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.

"Environmental Justice in the News," a periodic compilation and summary of selected environmental justice news items, can be found at http://www.abanet.org/irr/committees/environmental/news.html. (This is the website of the Environmental Justice Committee of the American Bar Association's Committee on Individual Rights & Responsibilities.)

Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is an environmental health and justice non-profit organization, promoting clean air, clean water and the development of toxin-free communities.

The Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice exists to bring together activists and grassroots organizations from across the Southwest, West and border states of Mexico. Our purpose is to develop and broaden collective regional strategies and perspectives on environmental degradation and other social, racial, generational, economic and gender injustices.

Established in 1990 within the United States, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) was formed by grassroots Indigenous peoples and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ). IEN's activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.

Asian Pacific Environmental Network seeks to empower low-income Asian Pacific Islander (API) communities to achieve environmental and social justice.

The National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN) is a national preventive health and environmental/economic justice network with affiliates in 33 states and the District of Columbia. NBEJN members include some of the nation's leading African American grassroots environmental justice activists, community organizers, researchers, lawyers, public health specialists, technical experts, and authors addressing the intersection of public health, environmental hazards, and economic development within Black communities.