IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/nceewp/348902.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Consideration of Environmental Justice in EPA's Regulatory Analyses: A Review and Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • DeAngeli, Emma
  • Morgenstern, Richard
  • Ünel, Burçin
  • Wolverton, Ann

Abstract

Increasingly, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducts environmental justice (EJ) assessments as part of its regulatory analyses for new rules. We inventory and evaluate the available EJ analyses for the EPA’s 68 economically significant final rules issued between 2012 and 2024. We find that three-quarters (53) of these rules include an EJ analysis, and 45 of these analyses are at least partially quantitative. The proportion of rules that include an EJ analysis increased from about 60 percent in 2012 to more than 90 percent within the past three years. While many of the quantitative EJ analyses examined only baseline issues, some of the more recent assessments have used more nuanced methods to assess differences in vulnerability, cumulative impacts, and climate risk. Three EJ analyses consider the incidence of costs across population groups. While recognizing the different budget, data, and modeling constraints across EPA program offices, we emphasize the need to consider EJ at the early stages of the analytical process. We also discuss important gaps in data and methods that are key to examining the underlying heterogeneity in concentrations and health risks, EJ impacts of regulatory options, regulatory costs, and net benefits across demographic groups.

Suggested Citation

  • DeAngeli, Emma & Morgenstern, Richard & Ünel, Burçin & Wolverton, Ann, 2024. "Consideration of Environmental Justice in EPA's Regulatory Analyses: A Review and Assessment," National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers 348902, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:nceewp:348902
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.348902
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/348902/files/2024-11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.348902?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lisa A. Robinson & James K. Hammitt & Richard J. Zeckhauser, 2016. "Attention to Distribution in U.S. Regulatory Analyses," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(2), pages 308-328.
    2. Ann Wolverton, 2023. "Environmental Justice Analysis for EPA Rulemakings: Opportunities and Challenges," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 346-353.
    3. Spencer Banzhaf & Lala Ma & Christopher Timmins, 2019. "Environmental Justice: The Economics of Race, Place, and Pollution," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 185-208, Winter.
    4. repec:reg:rpubli:98 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bakkensen, Laura A. & Ma, Lala & Muehlenbachs, Lucija & Benitez, Lina, 2024. "Cumulative impacts in environmental justice: Insights from economics and policy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    2. Morgenstern, Richard D. & Ünel, Burçin & Wolverton, Ann & DeAngeli, Emma, 2024. "Consideration of Environmental Justice in EPA’s Regulatory Analyses: A Review and Assessment," RFF Working Paper Series 24-22, Resources for the Future.
    3. Bakkensen, Laura A. & Ma, Lala, 2020. "Sorting over flood risk and implications for policy reform," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. Hausman, Catherine & Stolper, Samuel, 2021. "Inequality, information failures, and air pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Colby, Bonnie, 2023. "Teaching Water Resource Economics for Policy Analysis," Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 5(3), September.
    6. Vincent Cheruiyot Kirui1 & Dr. Paul Kipyegon Sang, 2020. "The Quest for Socioeconomic Development in Kenya: A Review of the Impact of Public Infrastructure on the Voyage," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(11), pages 145-158, November.
    7. Wang Chang & Yun Zhu & Che-Jen Lin & Saravanan Arunachalam & Shuxiao Wang & Jia Xing & Tingting Fang & Shicheng Long & Jinying Li & Geng Chen, 2022. "Environmental Justice Assessment of Fine Particles, Ozone, and Mercury over the Pearl River Delta Region, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-15, August.
    8. Liotta,Charlotte & Avner,Paolo & Viguié,Vincent & Selod,Harris & Hallegatte,Stephane, 2022. "Climate Policy and Inequality in Urban Areas : Beyond Incomes," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10185, The World Bank.
    9. Can Zou & Jun Tai & Li Chen & Yue Che, 2020. "An Environmental Justice Assessment of the Waste Treatment Facilities in Shanghai: Incorporating Counterfactual Decomposition into the Hedonic Price Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-12, April.
    10. Anne Christine Lusk & Xin Li & Qiming Liu, 2023. "If the Government Pays for Full Home-Charger Installation, Would Affordable-Housing and Middle-Income Residents Buy Electric Vehicles?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-26, March.
    11. Marc Fleurbaey & Rossi Abi-Rafeh, 2016. "The Use of Distributional Weights in Benefit–Cost Analysis: Insights from Welfare Economics," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(2), pages 286-307.
    12. H. Spencer Banzhaf & Kyle Mangum, 2019. "Capitalization as a Two-Part Tariff: The Role of Zoning," NBER Working Papers 25699, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Jerch, Rhiannon & Kahn, Matthew E. & Lin, Gary C., 2023. "Local public finance dynamics and hurricane shocks," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    14. Guimbeau, Amanda & Ji, Xinde James & Menon, Nidhiya, 2024. "Climate Shocks, Intimate Partner Violence, and the Protective Role of Climate-Resilience Projects," IZA Discussion Papers 17529, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. repec:osf:socarx:5tavs_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Eriksson,Mathilda & del Valle,Alejandro & De La Fuente,Alejandro, 2024. "Droughts Worsen Air Quality by Shifting Power Generation in Latin America and the Caribbean," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10760, The World Bank.
    17. Jamie Mullins & Corey White, 2019. "Does Access to Health Care Mitigate Environmental Damages?," Working Papers 1905, California Polytechnic State University, Department of Economics.
    18. Hammitt, James K. & Treich, Nicolas, 2021. "Fatality Risk Regulation," TSE Working Papers 21-1177, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    19. Bishop, Kelly C. & Kuminoff, Nicolai V. & Mathes, Sophie M. & Murphy, Alvin D., 2024. "The marginal cost of mortality risk reduction: Evidence from housing markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    20. Nicolli, Francesco & Gilli, Marianna & Vona, Francesco, 2025. "Inequality and climate change: Two problems, one solution?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    21. Mar Reguant, 2024. "Mar Reguant discussion of: Policy responses to energy price shocks," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 39(120), pages 761-763.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:nceewp:348902. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nepgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.