Neutral permitting laws perpetuate waste-siting inequalities

Evidence

Conventional industry wisdom counsels private companies to target sites that are in neighborhoods “least likely to express opposition”— those with poorly educated residents of low socioeconomic status. Not surprisingly, many communities that host toxic waste sites possess these characteristics. State permitting laws remain neutral, or blind, toward these inequalities; they therefore perpetuate, and indeed exacerbate, distributional inequalities. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 353

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the ch5 claim that the neutral-cost logic of siting firms mirrors the legal regime permitting the harm. — connects to: State permitting laws structurally determine community influence over siting; Equal protection lawsuits over waste siting fail on the intent requirement — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 1121; Formal equal access from unequal starting positions perpetuates exclusion — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 115 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Formal equal access from unequal starting positions perpetuates exclusion #expands (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 115
• Formal legal equality obscures real inequality because equivalence as a legal norm ignores difference #expands (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 786
• Law substitutes for trust where trustworthiness fails against endgame incentives #complicates (0.75)