Chamber Hails Environmental Justice Decision

ppeals Court Denies Citizen Groups Authority to Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce hailed a U.S. Court of Appeals decision this week that citizens groups have no federal right to directly enforce EPA's environmental justice regulations in a federal court.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

"The Third Circuit rightfully recognizes that a federal court's authority is to interpret the law and not to make the law, " said Robin Conrad, senior vice president of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the public policy legal arm of the U.S. Chamber. "Federal agencies don't create federal rights. Private rights of action flow from statutes, not regulations."

The court's decision yesterday in New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection v. South Camden Citizens in Action overturned a case in which the issuance of an air quality permit was enjoined for creating an unintentionally adverse racial impact on the local community. In dissolving the injunction issued against the Camden, New Jersey slag grinding operation, the appeals court ruled that Congress never intended disparate impact regulations issued under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be enforced by private parties.

The Supreme Court issued a similar ruling last year in Alexander v. Sandoval, which the citizens groups tried to circumvent in this case by filing suit under the "section 1983" civil rights statute used to enforce violations of independently-created federal rights. The Third Circuit blocked that end-run by ruling that federal regulations alone do not create enforceable rights that are not already found an underlying statute.

The Appeals Court decision, by barring private actions based on environmental justice principles, ensures that environmental permits will be considered and approved based exclusively on environmental concerns, according to the Chamber. Environmental justice advocates, when successful, are responsible for preventing business development in the poorest areas of the country and for denying jobs to the poorest Americans.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

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