Environmental Justice PolicyMaking Rollercoaster

As elections are approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to focus on a specific issue that has continually stunted the development of environmental health and safety: policymaking. Under President Clinton in 1994, he recognized that for nearly a decade minority and low-income populations were being taken advantage of as polluting industries were becoming increasingly common in this marginalized communities. As we learned in class, Clinton issued Executive Order 12898: Federal actions to address environmental justice in minority populations and low-income populations, in the hopes that federal agencies would implement Environmental Justice policies in their decision-making processes. However, under President George W. Bush, he failed to stress the importance of EJ and even "watered down the definition of Environmental Justice so much that it excluded minority and low-income populations."

Here is a report by the EPA Inspector General issued to address the current state of EJ and the importance of the EO: http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2004/03/20040301-2004-p-00007.pdf

So we have seen the emergence of Environmental Justice, the stressed importance of "equality", and yet a downturn has occurred as our previous president downplayed the importance of safety and health of our environment. Enter President Obama. Since he was elected president,  the White House has made significant strides in resurrecting EJ and bringing it to the forefront of policymaking.

The Following is an exert from the article "Environmental Justice Advances into Federal Policymaking":
Highlights of a few of the agency initiatives that will help improve outreach, participation, and planning for environmental justice:

- The Department of Labor is translating educational materials and hazard alerts into Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese to ensure that minority workers have access to information to avoid environmental hazards on the job.

- Through its Pueblo Project in Los Alamos, NM, the Department of Energy will enable four tribal governments to run pollution monitoring programs and provide technical input on the National Nuclear Security Administration's decisions.

- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention part of the Department of Health and Human Service, is using Health Impact Assessments to evaluate the potential impacts its policy or projects might have on disadvantaged communities.

The EPA has a complete listing of all agencies' policies, strategic plans, and implementation reports: http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/interagency/iwg-compendium.html

Complete Article "Environmental Justice Advances into Federal Policymaking" can be found here: http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11995