The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) was created to serve the public interest by shielding the environment from the byproducts of industrialization and development. The EPA exercises some discretion in its enforcement decisions, and this Study examines whether racial minority populations are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation and EPA enforcement. The results of this Study indicate that there is a negative relationship between the percentage of minority residents living in a congressional district and EPA enforcement severity, indicating that when controlling for economic, ideological, and political factors, the EPA systematically regulates high minority population areas less stringently than predominately white areas.
