(NAME-MCE) FW: EJ Bill Goes to Congress

Wed Jan 30 13:07:43 EST 2008

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From: ccej [mailto:ccej at environmental-justice.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 4:02 PM
To: ccej
Subject: FW: EJ Bill Goes to Congress

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From: dawn simonsen [mailto:dawn.simonsen at environmental-justice.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:42 PM
To: ccej at environmental-justice.org
Subject: FW: EJ Bill Goes to Congress

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Subject: EJ Bill Goes to Congress

"...the bills require EPA to create a new interagency working group on
EJ issues, which would seek to develop criteria for identifying harms
stemming from federal actions; require federal agencies to develop
strategies to minimize potential harms their actions might cause to
"environmental justice communities;" create a new EJ ombudsman within
EPA to review the agency's EJ policies and actions; and give EPA's EJ
advisors broad new powers to consider socio-economic issues when
addressing environmental justice."

Risk Policy Report

January 29, 2008

Clinton Offers Broad Plan To Boost EPA's Environmental Justice Focus

LENGTH: 1236 words

Sen. Hillary Clinton
<http://w3.nexis.com/new/search/XMLCrossLinkSearch.do?bct=A&risb=21_T293
2708842&returnToId=20_T2932785204&csi=286472&A=0.011083902883080143&sour
ceCSI=9369&indexTerm=%23PE0009TJO%23&searchTerm=Hillary%20Clinton%20&ind
exType=P>  (D-NY) has introduced sweeping new legislation to boost EPA
and other federal agencies, environmental justice (EJ) policies -- an
issue that has been drawing attention at the agency as it moves to
identify risk assessment tools and practices that will improve its
ability to protect public health and the environment in minority and
poor communities.

The legislation, endorsed by Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA), a prominent House
Democratic leader on EJ and civil rights issues, and several
environmental justice groups, comes amidst a heated Democratic primary
campaign where Clinton has clashed with her main Democratic rival, Sen.
Barack Obama
<http://w3.nexis.com/new/search/XMLCrossLinkSearch.do?bct=A&risb=21_T293
2708842&returnToId=20_T2932785204&csi=286472&A=0.011083902883080143&sour
ceCSI=9369&indexTerm=%23PE0009TJP%23&searchTerm=Sen.%20Barack%20Obama%20
&indexType=P>  (IL), over the candidates' records on race and civil
rights.

However, an environmentalist who supports the legislation downplayed
suggestions that its introduction was timed to quell tensions on the
campaign trail, saying it was drafted after months of discussion.
Neither Clinton nor Obama's spokespeople returned calls seeking comment.

EPA has recently been stepping up its focus on community-based risk
assessments (CBRAs), which factor in poverty and other social issues
that make exposed populations more vulnerable to adverse effects from
environmental contaminants. The emerging focus is prompted in part by
the view that research efforts to help EPA characterize and quantify
community-level risk could help the agency better understand and address
EJ issues, particularly those efforts that seek to understand how
socioeconomic status affects environmental impacts on human health (Risk
Policy Report, Oct. 23, p7).

EPA's pesticide office is also addressing EJ issues, holding a pilot
session for a new EJ training program late last year. The office hopes
to expand the pilot this year, with the goal of ensuring that EJ and
sensitive subpopulation concerns are more clearly characterized in the
program's risk assessments (Risk Policy Report, Nov. 27, p10).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced Clinton's bill, S.
2549 Jan. 23, while Solis introduced her companion measure, H.R. 5132.
The bills seek to ensure that the development and implementation of
federal policies do not result in minorities and other groups facing a
"disproportionate burden of high and adverse human health or
environmental effects." The House bill is available on InsideEPA.com.

Among other things, the bills require EPA to create a new interagency
working group on EJ issues, which would seek to develop criteria for
identifying harms stemming from federal actions; require federal
agencies to develop strategies to minimize potential harms their actions
might cause to "environmental justice communities;" create a new EJ
ombudsman within EPA to review the agency's EJ policies and actions; and
give EPA's EJ advisors broad new powers to consider socio-economic
issues when addressing environmental justice.

The bills appear to be a departure from a previous EJ bill, HR 1103,
introduced by Solis earlier this year. H.R. 1103 would codify President
Clinton's executive order 12898, which generally requires federal
agencies to consider EJ concerns from low-income and minority
communities in their decisions but did not provide an enforcement
mechanism to require the agencies to act.

Solis' earlier bill sought to address this shortfall by opening the door
to a first-time private litigation right in the event agencies did not
address EJ concerns, a measure which drew strong criticism from
Republicans and industry representatives.

However, the bills introduced Jan. 23 by Clinton and Solis appear to
drop the enforcement approach contained in H.R. 1103, and instead
include a federal enforcement mechanism, overseen by the White House, to
require agencies to address EJ concerns. Specifically, the bills appear
to require agencies to develop and enforce strategies to minimize EJ
harms and allow agencies to petition top White House policy officials in
the event they may want an exemption from their EJ strategies.

A Democrat source says H.R. 1103 has seen opposition from some industry
officials, who have argued that a statutory requirement for EPA to
account for EJ concerns would "increase divisiveness" between business
leaders, the agency and EJ advocates. The source adds this opposition
could serve as an indication of how industry will respond to the new
bills.

Nevertheless, the legislation has some appeal among civil rights and
minority rights organizations, a key audience for Clinton following the
tension her campaign has faced concerning racial issues.

Clinton's floor statement, read by Reid, notes that the bills have the
support of groups like the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment,
the Lawyers Committee For Civil Rights Under Law and the Indigenous
Environmental Network. In addition, the bills have the backing of
Earthjustice, the Sierra Club and ReGenisis.

"In our country, we have communities -- predominantly racial and ethnic
minority communities -- in which the air is unsafe to breathe, the water
unfit to drink, the schools unsafe places to learn," Clinton's statement
says, noting several studies demonstrating that impoverished areas are
more likely to deal with contamination from industrial facilities, and
racial minorities are more likely to be exposed to harmful contaminants
than other segments of the population.

Clinton also blasted the EPA and the Bush administration for failing to
implement the executive order. "Because of their inaction on
environmental justice, too many minority and low-income Americans lack
equal access to protections that safeguard the health, well-being, and
potential children of families," Clinton added.

In addition to the new interagency working group and the new EPA
ombudsman, the bills also require more federal employees to be trained
in EJ policies. The environmentalist source notes this is significant
because federal officials often have little to no training in these
issues, and the EPA's regional offices sometimes have differing
interpretations of current requirements. The bills, the source says,
could lead to more uniform use of environmental justice considerations
in the agencies' decision making.

The legislation also provides funding to EPA grant programs for
communities to address pollution on a local level, funding for states
and tribes to develop and implement environmental justice policies and
funding to create a Web-based information clearinghouse designed to help
community groups find information about relevant environmental concerns.

One industry source with experience in EJ takes issue with the prospect
of creating a new EPA ombudsman, saying the position could detract from
the efforts of the agency's Office of Environmental Justice. The source
notes that the office's current director, Charles Lee, has brought "new
energy" to the position and in addition to having ties to grassroots
organizations, Lee is also "highly regarded in the business community."

The source says the ombudsman or any other EJ "czar" could prove to be
an "outsider without particular expertise" in environmental justice
issues who may interfere with the office's work, or give unwarranted
criticism. Rather than create this position, the source says a better
approach would be to ensure that environmental justice programs get more
funding.

However, the Democrat source say the ombudsman would be a much needed
"overseer" for the agency's EJ efforts. -- Stefan Cornibert