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Rush to Judgment: An Empirical Analysis of Environmental Equity in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Enforcement Actions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Mark Atlas
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Abstract

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In 1992, the National Law Journal (NLJ) published a study claiming that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discriminated against minorities in its civil judicial enforcement actions by penalizing environmental law violators in minority areas far less than in white areas. NLJ claimed that this differential showed a lack of commitment to protecting the environment and public health in minority areas. This article augments, reexamines, and analyzes in a more sophisticated manner the available data. My empirical analyses demonstrate the unreliability of NLJ's methods and conclusions and indicate that minorities have not been discriminated against in these enforcement actions.

Type
Forum on Environmental Equity Research
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , 2001 , pp. 633 - 682
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Nikia Fuller and Colleen Cunningham in gathering data used in this research, as well as the comments of several reviewers.

References

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