by Nancie G. Marzulla

About the author: Nancie G. Marzulla is the president and chief legal counsel of Defenders of Property Rights in Washington, D.C.

Claims that the poor and minorities are exposed to higher-than-average levels of pollution because they are more likely to live near industrial and waste disposal sites have sparked charges of “environmental racism.” These communities allegedly bear the brunt of industrial development while reaping few of its benefits. The Clinton administration has taken this misguided notion and built policy on it, but do not expect this to lead to greater environmental protection.

One of the first studies to allege a correlation among risk, race, and income was the government’s own Council of Environmental Quality’s 1971 Annual Report to the President. It stated that racial discrimination adversely affected...