The Biden administration has instructed all 94 U.S. Attorneys in the nation to create environmental justice campaigns. The U.S. Attorney for central Illinois, Gregory Harris, says the idea here is not to codify new environmental crimes:
“It’s primarily to enforce the laws that are already there, and the initiative is directed at underserved or underrepresented communities that would often not have these remedies or the federal tools being utilized in their communities,” said Harris, explaining these under-resourced areas are often communities of color or tribal lands. “The effort is to make sure that all communities are safe from air pollution, water pollution, those types of things, using federal criminal statutes that are already on the books.”
One example – the abandoned Pillsbury plant in Springfield in which a contractor did not follow the rules in removing asbestos and made everything worse.
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