President Orders Justice


I e

resources or biological systems of the
planet." The new facility is scheduled to
be completed in 1996.

President Orders Justice
Responding to charges that the poor and
minority communities face a dispropor-
tionate risk from environmental pollution,
President Clinton signed an executive
order on Feburary 12 mandating that fed-
eral agencies identify and eliminate racial
inequities from their environmental poli-
cies.

The order comes after more than a
decade of environmental activism from
grassroots organizations led by people of
color. The order will have a significant
impact on environmental health issues that
disproportantely affect low income and
minority communites such as lead poison-
ing, air pollution, exposure to pesticides,
and water pollution.

"All Americans have a right to be pro-
tected from pollution-not just those who
can afford to live in the cleanest and safest
communities," Clinton declared after sign-
ing the order. "Today we direct federal
agencies to make environmental justice a
part of all that they do."

The order directs federal agencies to
examine their programs for adverse health
or environmental effects in low-income
and minority communites, consider health
hazards and environmental risk facing poor
and minorities when conducting research,
ensure that disadvantaged communities
have access to public information on
health and the environment, and conduct
all environmental activities in a manner
that does not discriminate against the poor
and minorities.

Those involved in the struggle against
environmental discrimination called the
order an important step toward eliminat-

ing environmental racism. "This order says
that at the highest level of government,
environmental justice is being taken seri-
ously," said Robert Bullard, author of
Dumping in Dixie, a study of environmen-
tal racism in the south. "This will make
federal agencies protect everyone equally.
No longer will environmental protection
be excluded from civil rights."

Charles Lee of the United Church of
Christ's Commission on Racial Justice
agrees. "This order touches on the key
points we in the environmental justice
movement want to deal with and sets a
clear direction for federal agencies to fol-
low."

The order is not a law that can be con-
tested in the courts but a set of instructions
from the president to the head of federal
agencies directing them to carry out certain
actions. Federal agencies have one year to
implement an environmental strategy that
identifies and addresses environmental
inequities in their policies, programs, and
activities.

The presidential order came during a
four-day conference held in Arlington,
Virginia, on research needs and environ-
mental justice. The conference was co-
sponsored by NIEHS, EPA, the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the
National Institute of Occupational Safety
and Health and several other federal agen-
cies. Nearly 500 people attended the event
including EPA administrator Carol
Browner, Ben Chavis, executive director of
the NAACP, Senator Paul Wellstone (D-
Minnesota), civil rights activist Dick
Gregory, and representatives from six cabi-
net-level departments. The conference
marked the first collaboration between
community groups and governmental
agencies in addressing the problem of envi-
ronmental racism.

David Satcher

_ Kenneth Olden Mildred McClain

Phyllis Glazer

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0

~~~~~~Benjamin Chavis

Rose Marie Augustine

Congressional Scorecard
"The sorry truth is that today's Congress
would not enact many of the landmark
environmental laws of the late '60s and
early '70s that turned the tide against pol-
lution," said Jim Maddy, president of the
League of Conservation Voters, in an
introduction to the group's National
Environmental Scorecard of the first session
of the 103rd Congress. The scorecard,
which rates the actions of the nation's rep-
resentatives on environmental legislation,
states that this year's scores reflect a sharp
polarization between Republican and
Democratic parties on environmental
issues, often framed within the context of
a debate over property rights.

According to a January 1994 poll by
Environment Opinion Study, Republicans
are just as likely to consider themselves
environmentalists as Democrats; however,
scores in the LCV report reflect that they
often fail, more so than Democrats, to cast
environmentally positive votes. The score-
card states that although strong initiatives
were put forth under the leadership of the
Clinton administration, these proposals
came up against strong opposition from
Republican leadership. Rank-and-file
Republican politicians were often forced
to choose between falling in line with
party leadership (often allied with pro-
business interests) or voting for environ-
mental progress. The scorecard notes,
however, that usually strong environmen-
talists in both parties, "faced with heavy
lobbying from home-state industries,
betrayed their best instincts and voted for
the status quo."

Although the nation's lawmakers were
rated on a wide range of environmental
legislation issues, the LCV scorecard
describes a prevailing theme throughout
much of the debates. The debate centers
around the movement, referred to by pro-

Volume 102, Number 4, April 1994 361