Environmental Justice? Not in the New EPA Playbook, but Not Dead Yet
Following my Sunday ritual from the last 50 years, I recently sat down and read the Chicago Tribune. After reading about spring training (sorry, I’m a White Sox, not a Cubs fan), I clicked to the “real” news. I think the Trib’s front-page article provides a good example of what we’re likely to see over the next couple of years, as the Federal government further dismantles Environmental Justice and climate-based programs, and likely cuts back on environmental enforcement efforts. While the story gets into typical city-related politics, it also discusses how community-specific, non-profit Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) like Neighbors for Environmental Justice in McKinley Park (Neighbors For Environmental Justice) may step in to help collect and report data to support EJ efforts.
The story also reminded me of recent statements and policies from regional and national-level NGOs, indicating that they have been taking actions to bolster their resources to address expected environmental cutbacks under the Trump Administration. As an example, the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center has said they will be stepping up on “offense” and “defense” and expanding staff and legal firepower to address the new Trump Administration policies in the Midwest (Five Ways ELPC Will Protect the Midwest Under the Trump Administration – YouTube). National-level NGOs like the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have also put out information about how they will be stepping up. For example, NRDC’s website states: “NRDC is ready. During Trump’s first term, we sued the administration an average of once every 10 days for four years – and we’ve won victories in nearly 90 percent of resolved cases. We’re ready to use our full legal muscle again — but it’s going to take more than that to stop the administration’s environmental attacks.”
There is talk of Federalism and moving enforcement responsibilities to the States, but I’ve been in the environmental consulting business for almost 40 years, and this approach rarely results in the same focus and level of enforcement as Federal programs. The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter if you are for or against scaling back Federal programs. The reality is that NGOs are going to work toward filling the void left by the disappearance of Federal Environmental Justice programs. And his is likely to lead to a big increase in environmental lawsuits. As they say in NASCAR: “Gentleman, start your engines.”
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