Courts continue to push back on EPA ‘policy’, now with Environmental Justice
In yet another example of a court repealing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy, on Aug. 22 a federal district court permanently blocked EPA from considering disparate environmental harms when enforcing the Civil Rights Act. Specifically, the court blocked EPA from enforcing its policy that would bar state action that would otherwise impose disparate impacts on disadvantaged communities – at the heart of Environmental Justice (EJ) precepts.
At the core of this landmark case is EPA’s “investigation into ‘Cancer Alley,’ a predominantly Black and low-income section of Louisiana that is a hub of petrochemical production and has disproportionately high cancer rates relative to the country at large.” Indeed, one of the facilities previously under review is an asphalt mix plant.
Coupled with the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron Doctrine and other regulatory agency policy, reported in NAPANOW, courts are increasingly skeptical of EPA’s ‘policy’ authority.
And at least for EJ, and this was implied even during NAPA’s involvement with the Michigan asphalt mix plant case, EPA’s authority to impose EJ (and other) ‘policy’, either directly at state government/agencies or through its regional offices, the court increasingly is telling EPA they have, and continue to, overstep their statutory authority.
