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Measuring the Relationship between State Environmental Justice Action and Air Pollution Inequality, 1990–2009
Author(s) -
Bullock Clair,
Ard Kerry,
Saalman Grace
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/ropr.12292
Subject(s) - environmental justice , inequality , economic justice , executive order , air pollution , order (exchange) , government (linguistics) , state (computer science) , pollution , political science , public economics , action (physics) , environmental policy , economics , development economics , public administration , natural resource economics , law , finance , mathematical analysis , ecology , linguistics , chemistry , philosophy , physics , mathematics , organic chemistry , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , biology
Over 20 years have passed since Executive Order 12898 put environmental justice (EJ) issues on the policy agenda. Since this time, EJ has technically remained a policy priority at all levels of government. However, despite this apparent commitment to EJ, research has shown over the decades after the passage of the Executive Order, we still see persistent trends in inequality of air pollution exposure by race. This begs the question: are EJ policies actually working to create environmentally just outcomes? This article seeks to evaluate this question by examining the impact of state EJ policies on disproportionate exposure to air pollution, with the goal of understanding what types of state actions, if any, are associated with decreases in pollution inequality.