PULLMAN, Wash — Washington State University just released a study that examined how enforcement actions against polluters are often determined by certain factors.
It specifically looked at the wealth in communities affected by climate crimes.
The paper was published in Nature Sustainability, a journal that publishes studies from research in sustainability in fields of natural, social and engineering.
It was co-authored by Erik Johnson, a professor in WSU’s Department of Sociology.
The study examined criminal charges and court cases brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Researchers reviewed violations from 2011 to 2020.
They found that enforcement actions were 24% higher in counties with higher-income residents. Enforcement was also higher, on average, in middle-class communities.
The research found that counties with better land quality saw an increase in enforcement actions. It also found that people of color and low-income residents were more often harmed by these violations.
“You might reasonably expect the government to use its most consequential enforcement mechanism in the counties that are the most polluted,” Johnson said. “But it turns out they use it in the wealthier counties more. The more educated and wealthy the county is, the more likely the government is to enforce environmental regulations.”
The researchers emphasized that the study does not make claims about the overall number of environmental crimes.
Environmental crimes are often underreported, and large industrial companies may have the resources to avoid prosecution through legal means.
“We’re trying to identify the geographic patterning, and offer some explanations for why that might be. For example, counties that are farther away from a criminal enforcement office have fewer criminal prosecutions. So these organizational and institutional factors may be driving some of these trends,” said lead author of the paper, Pierce Greenberg, assistant professor of sociology at Clemson University.
Johnson said he hopes the findings will prompt further examination of how enforcement actions align with the goals of environmental laws.
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