A federal court ruling effectively prevents the Environmental Protection Agency from pursuing civil rights claims in one of the nation’s most polluted regions.
Louisiana climate activists are grappling with the repercussions of a federal court ruling that prevents the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from investigating civil rights claims in a heavily polluted part of the state, reports Victoria St. Martin for Inside Climate News.
“The ruling, issued earlier this month by the U.S. District Court in Western Louisiana, dealt a blow to the EPA’s use of the “disparate impact” provision of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars racial discrimination by people and organizations that receive federal funding.” The ruling makes permanent an injunction against using the disparate impact clause.
According to St. Martin, vice president of Earthjustice Patrice Simms said the ruling could have a ‘chilling effect’ on environmental justice movements around the country. “Debbie Chizewer, the managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Chicago office, said after the ruling that attorneys will be ‘considering all the strategies available to us’ to protect the health and continue the fight of community members.”
EPA Drops More Civil Rights Investigations
A lawsuit that halted an investigation in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ is having a chilling impact on other environmental justice cases.
Judge Halts EPA Action in ‘Cancer Alley’ Civil Rights Case
EPA investigations into violations of the Civil Rights Act in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” were ruled as “federal overreach.”
EPA Launches Environmental Justice Grant Program
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San Diego to Rescind Multi-Unit ADU Rule
The city wants to close a loophole that allowed developers to build apartment buildings on single-family lots as ADUs.
Electric Vehicles for All? Study Finds Disparities in Access and Incentives
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research