Quite appropriately, your pages are filled these days with news and analysis of so- called "environmental justice" - EJ, for short. The matter needs extensive discussion, so that its real motivation becomes known.
EJ is the new tactic by which the Clinton administration and the activist (some say "extremist") environmental groups seek to superimpose Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on top of the various federal and state environmental laws.
Never mind that the Congress never intended any such thing. Never mind that the Environmental Council of he States has resolved overwhelming against it. Never mind that the National Council of Mayors has just resolved unanimously against it. And never mind that some years ago the EPA itself rejected the concept as illegal.
Quite recently, the powerful U.S. House Committee un Appropriations went equally far. It voted to prohibit EPA from spending any fiscal year 1999 funds for implementation of the new "Interim Guidance"on EJ.
In so doing, the committee sharply rejected this extra-length restructuring of the existing federal-state environmental regulatory system - - condemning changes which would constitute an enormous power grab by EPA headquarters and by the Department of Justice, at the expense of all 50 state regulatory agencies and of the various EPA regional headquarters, as well.
The motivation is readily apparent. Now that petrochemical plants are able to meet the tough environmental standards properly placed on them, the "zero discharge" Greenpeace, LEAN and Tulane Environmental Law Center radicals must concoct new ways to drive this formerly "polluting" but now increasingly clean industry out of the state and the nation
The racialist (blame everything on race) EJ tactic is simple.
If a proposed new plant or plant expansion might have a statistically uneven or "disparate" impact on a nearby minority or low-income population, kill it.
Even where there are no actual harmful impacts or where the community approves of the facility - as in the Shintech case! - endless delays in the politically correct name of EJ (added to the years required for normal environmental permitting) will drive most applicants away. Mission accomplished!
As the EJ story unfolds, two more new labels will merit attention on your pages.
First, the "ER" label which identifies the enviro-racialists who seek to co-opt the largely blue-collar black community into the largely white-collar environmental movement - by using "race" to distract these good people from the socio-economic justice which increasingly clean manufacturing plants could provide.
Second, the "LJM" label which identifies the thousands of Louisiana Jobs for Mexico which will result from the activities of the ER radicals -- all in the seductive name of EJ of course.
James E Guirard Jr.
8034 Jefferson Highway
Baton Rouge
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