Federal Judge Permanently Blocks EPA’s Title VI ‘Environmental Justice’ Rules In Louisiana

A federal judge in Louisiana has issued a permanent injunction barring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) from enforcing disparate-impact requirements under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act within the state.
“Louisiana has given industrial polluters open license to poison Black and brown communities for generations, only to now have one court give it a permanent free pass to abandon its responsibilities,” Earthjustice Vice President for Healthy Communities Patrice Simms, said in a statement. “Louisiana’s residents, its environmental justice communities, deserve the same Title VI protections as the rest of the nation.”
“Activities that would be perfectly lawful under environmental law are thus now threatened because EPA believes those activities occur proximate to the ‘wrong’ racial groups,” then Attorney General Jeff Landry wrote in the original May 24, 2023, complaint. “EPA does not bother to deny that it would be unconcerned if the exact same emissions occurred in areas with differing racial demographics. But EPA has nonetheless arrogated to itself the authority to decide whether otherwise-lawful emissions are affecting the ‘right’ racial groups.”
Asked for comment on the ruling, an EPA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that both the Justice Department and EPA “remain committed to enforcing civil rights law, consistent with the court’s order.”
“In practice, ‘environmental justice’ asks the States to engage in racial engineering in deciding whether to, for example, issue environmental permits, rather than relying on the effect on the environment and other appropriate factors,” Moody wrote in the petition.