Republican attorneys general have asked the Biden administration to stop regulating pollution via Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
What's happening?
Led by Florida's Ashley Moody, the petition is "an attempt to strip the [Environmental Protection Agency] of an avenue for tackling environmental justice," Grist reported. Twenty-two other AGs signed on, arguing the EPA's initiative "asks the states to engage in racial engineering."
They denied that the statute prevents discrimination and claimed it actually promotes it.
The letter is a response to the agency's commitment under President Joe Biden to use Title VI to ensure "the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of income, race, color, national origin, tribal affiliation, or disability, in agency decision-making."
Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal funding. At issue is whether the harm to underserved groups is intentional, or "disparate."
In 2020, a federal judge ruled the EPA had to reverse course after it did not lawfully handle civil rights complaints filed by community groups across the country. In one case, the government waited 25 years to address an allegation but did nothing even after finding for just the second time ever that discrimination had occurred.
Why is environmental justice important?
As the Associated Press laid out, Cancer Alley is among the sources of recent civil rights complaints. The area, along the Mississippi River in southeast Louisiana, is dominated by industrial companies that pollute the neighborhoods of predominantly Black residents with toxic chemicals.
An EPA investigation found evidence of discrimination, but a 2023 lawsuit by state AG Jeff Landry, who is now the governor, ended its negotiations with environmental and health regulators, per Grist. U.S. District Court Judge James Cain agreed that policies that weren't intentionally discriminatory were not covered by the act and said Louisiana and other states were "at the whim of the EPA and its overreaching mandates."
Lawyers told Grist that the government's interpretation of the law is vital to protect communities of color.
"I think it's a test for the EPA," Earthjustice Midwest office managing attorney Debbie Chizewer said about the petition. "The EPA needs to stand firm and show the importance of this tool."
Claire Glenn, staff attorney at the Climate Defense Project, said, "We're in an era where intentional discrimination is increasingly hard to prove, but discriminatory impacts are not going away."
What's being done about environmental justice?
Previous presidential administrations have fallen short of protecting us from the perils of pollution by, for example, not agreeing to a recommended global carbon dioxide monitoring project. But the Biden administration is working toward decarbonizing the energy sector and making renewable energy accessible, among other projects.
The AP reported that the AGs would sue the EPA if it did not change its stance.
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