{"id":973,"date":"2020-09-20T13:14:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T13:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.law.fordham.edu\/elr\/?p=973"},"modified":"2020-09-20T13:14:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T13:14:00","slug":"imitation-is-flattery-new-york-should-implement-californias-attorney-generals-environmental-justice-bureau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/?p=973","title":{"rendered":"Imitation is Flattery: New York Should Implement California\u2019s Attorney General\u2019s Environmental Justice Bureau"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

eds note: we mourn the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and will contribute to the discussion of the woman and her legacy in short order.\u00a0 RIP.<\/p>\n

by Sarah Walsh, Fordham Environmental Law Review, Class of 2022<\/p>\n

New York State\u2019s Department of Environmental Conservation <\/span>defines<\/span><\/a> environmental justice as \u201cthe fair and meaningful treatment of all people, regardless of race, income, national origin or color, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.\u201d Environmental Law isn\u2019t only about saving polar bears and pandas, it must address the disproportionate impacts climate change is having on minority and low-income communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New York City is facing numerous environmental justice issues, ranging from <\/span>unequal access to city parks<\/span><\/a> to <\/span>overcrowded neighborhoods forced to live with environmental hazards<\/span><\/a> (contributing to increased vulnerability to COVID-19). However, after doing a quick google search for environmental justice organizations in the city, I learned that while <\/span>New York City<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>New York State<\/span><\/a> are starting to take <\/span>steps towards prioritizing environmental justice,<\/span><\/a> there is not yet one central, organized, powerful organization that will help those suffering these disproportionate effects be heard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the most part, it seems that there are many small non-profits and grassroots organizations that have some sort of environmental justice component, like <\/span>Make The Road NY<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>NYC Environmental Justice Alliance<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Therefore New York should look to the California Attorney General\u2019s recently implemented Environmental<\/a><\/span> Justice Bureau<\/span> as a supplement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s office is powerful, well-known, and politically accountable.\u00a0 Besides designating resources and powerful voices to environmental justice, creating a bureau can also emphasize the importance of the issue. New York can, and should, follow California\u2019s example. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

eds note: we mourn the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and will contribute to the discussion of the woman and her legacy in short order.\u00a0 RIP. by Sarah Walsh, Fordham Environmental Law Review, Class<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,51,34,43,44,63,52,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air","category-civil-rights","category-climate-change","category-environmental-justice","category-natural-resources","category-public-lands","category-state-and-local","category-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}