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The Limited Effects of Federal Environmental Justice Policy on State Enforcement
Author(s) -
Konisky David M.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2009.00324.x
Subject(s) - enforcement , state (computer science) , government (linguistics) , clean water act , business , clean air act , law enforcement , environmental justice , public administration , public economics , race (biology) , resource conservation and recovery act , political science , economics , law , air pollution , engineering , ecology , sociology , gender studies , linguistics , philosophy , algorithm , hazardous waste , computer science , water quality , biology , waste management
The federal government adopted several measures during the mid‐1990s to address concerns about race‐based and class‐based disparities in environmental protection. This article examines whether these measures affected the pattern of state enforcement of three federal pollution control laws. Using differences‐in‐differences models to estimate the effects of the federal policy adoption, I find evidence of increases in state enforcement of the Clean Air Act in large African‐American communities, but declines in enforcement in communities with large poor and Hispanic populations. Similarly, there is evidence that state enforcement of the Clean Water Act decreased in poor and African‐American communities, but there were no real changes in enforcement of facilities regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Collectively, the analysis suggests that the federal policy had minimal positive effects on state regulatory enforcement.