Environmental Justice

February 15, 2019

This pair of bills is simply not necessary as agencies who are charged with the evaluating of projects already take into account an environmental impact analysis, which includes socio-economic factors similar to those prescribed by the bill. The definitions of the terms “equity analysis,” “environmental justice,” and “precautionary approach” are so vague as to be unenforceable and potentially violate the substantive and procedural due process rights of those who are purported to be regulated by them.

The bill also creates a task force, which is proposed to be lopsided in its membership in terms of agencies and environmental groups and is not representative of the business community, who will be most impacted. This task force would be tasked with rulemaking that agencies would be mandated to adopt, a process that is not in compliance with the Administrative Procedures Act, requiring agencies themselves to propose rules and then amend them based upon input received from stakeholders.

We have signed in and testified against this legislation. Help us by contacting your legislator and telling them to “red tag” this legislation.