Greenwire reports:
U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said today that she plans to use her agency’s focus on climate change as an opportunity to bring the environmental justice effort to the forefront.
McCarthy spoke this morning, via webcast, at a conference of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The panel is tasked with providing recommendations to EPA on how to best help low-income and minority communities that are disproportionately burdened with environmental risks.
Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson had declared environmental justice a priority, tasking officials with creating a plan that integrates environmental justice considerations into every agency action. But today, McCarthy brought that vision further, pledging to “build it as a core structure of all the work we do.”
Like a doctor who stops people from getting any treatment because of the risks of treatments. Except such a doctor might still have good intentions. The EPA as a political tool has only a delusion of good intention.
Geheime — Check.
Staatspolizei — Check. Check.
Environ Mental? Check Mate.
Whenever I hear people going on about “environmental justice”, I think of the effects of the Superfund law. It has made it virtually impossible to build on “brownfield” sites (those that previously had industrial facilities), because if there is any groundwater pollution there, the burden of proof is on you to provide you did not cause it. Even if you are willing to accept the risk, your bank may not be, because if you default, they could be left with the liability.
This has meant that there is virtually no commercial development in old industrial cities, where “people of color” live. All of the new commercial and industrial development is on “greenfield” sites (not previously developed), where white people live. This has proved devastating to the economic prospects of minorities in the US.
Let’s see what attributes of your final suggestion already apply:
Geheime — Check.
Staatspolizei — Check. Check.
Environmental? Maybe.
So rename it the “Environmental Justice Agency”. Then in a few more years the “Environmental Vengeance Agency”, and finally the “Environmental Geheime Staatspolizei.”