Environmental Justice/Biodiversity

[Tom Chao <tchao@mail.arc.nasa.gov>]

  On the problems of technical assistance (ie science), a financial system (ie exchange--free market, regulatory agency, biodiversity [mitigation] banking) and involving people (ie, freedom; sovereignty; participatory, representative democracy) I think the recent Supreme Court Decision, Whitman v. American Trucking Assns, Inc., February 27, 2001 is relevant.  According to the majority opinion by Judge Scalia, the following quesions were posed: '(1) Whether Sec 109(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act delegates legislative power to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. (2) Whether the Administrator may consider the costs of implementation in setting national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) under Sec 109(b)(1).  (3) Whether the Court of Appeals had jurisdiction to review the EPA's interpretation of Part D of Title I of the CAA, 42 U.S.C. Sec 7501-7515, with respect to implementing the revised ozone NAAQS. (4) If so, whether the EPA's interpretation of that part was permissible.'

  The Court held the following:  '(1) The EPA may not consider implementation costs in setting primary and secondary NAAQS under Sec 109(b) of the CAA. (2) Section 109(b)(1) does not delegate legislative power to the EPA in contravention of Art I, Sec 1, of the Constitution. (3) The Court of Appeals had jurisdiction to review the EPA's interpretation of part D of Title I of the CAA, relating to the implementation of the revised ozone NAAQS. (4) The EPA's interpretation of that Part is unreasonable.'

   The question as to whether a mandate can be executed through the system would be one method to scientifically improve the PIP.  The administrators need to determine how they should apply 'environmental justice/biodiversity concepts and 'delegate  authority & allocate resources,'as with the problem of the new ambient air quality ozone and particulates level requirement. In other words, a scientific, problem-solving approach to analyzing this system would be to apply real-life conflicts & situations that are presently unsolvable, and attempting to find a mutual consensus pathway.  Putting through a national mandate would cause the laws to be uniformly convergent at the federal level, I think.  

  At the same time, there should  be empowerment of the local community and protection of labor rights, and cooperative agreements with the States and regional governments.  I think that the new science-based environmental law provides for 'virtual' corporations/government agencies & 'virtual' international corporations/government agencies that operate under 'EJ'/biodiversity concepts.