CapitalizingDSRPBK.qxd 6/6/08 12:05 PM Page 1 Environmental Studies • Sociology Series: Nature’s Meaning Faber Daniel Faber Series Editor: Roger S. Gottlieb, Worcester Polytechnic Institute “Daniel Faber deftly exposes the roots of the environmental injustices that the poor, people of color, working class, and indigenous communities confront every day in the United States and globally. This is a moving and critical account of domination and resistance in the struggle for the most precious thing of all: life itself.” —David Naguib Pellow, University of Minnesota Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice on Environmental Capitalizing “Daniel Faber’s powerful new book is the Fast Food Nation for the environmental jus- tice movement. Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice exposes the ugly underbelly of capitalism and its parasitic dependency on structural racism and classism for profits. Faber is provocative and honest as he carefully lays out an indictment of the institu- tion he cleverly calls the polluter-industrial complex.” —Veronica Eady Famira, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest “Daniel Faber’s comprehensive approach locates blame for growing environmental degradation to the U.S. economy’s need to compete with world markets. He provides intelligent suggestions for how the environmental justice movement can broaden its power by expanding its vision to a wider network of coalitions and to move from solely distributional justice to productive justice. Despite the power of those who destroy the environment, Faber shows there is much hope through organizing.” —Phil Brown, Brown University “Faber’s searing critique details the depressing realities of the economic, political, and social contours of America’s worst corporate polluters. While they selectively vic- timize people of color and working-class families, there is a growing ray of hope: a transformed and revived grassroots green politics committed to base building and political-economic reform.” —Julian Agyeman, Tufts University “This is a major new contribution to the literature on environmental justice. By connect- ing environmental injustice to the larger processes of globalization, the ascendency of neoliberalism, and increasing corporate power, Daniel Faber moves environmental justice scholarship to a new level. Based on this analysis, he provides a number of trenchant suggestions on movement strategies to bring about a just and sustainable Capitalizing on society.” —Robert J. Brulle, Drexel University DANIEL FABER is director of the Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative in Boston. He cofounded the international journal Capitalism, Nature, Environmental Socialism and is the author or editor of several books, including Foundations for Social Change. Injustice Rowman & Rowman For orders and information please contact the publisher Littlefield ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. A wholly owned subsidiary of ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-3392-9 The Polluter-Industrial Complex The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN-10: 0-7425-3392-1 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 in the Age of Globalization Lanham, Maryland 20706 1-800-462-6420 • www.rowmanlittlefield.com Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice Nature’s Meaning Series Editor: Roger S. Gottlieb, Professor of Philosophy, Worcester Poly- technic Institute Each title in Nature’s Meaning is created to have the personal stamp of a pas- sionate and articulate spokesperson for environmental sanity. Intended to be engagingly written by experienced thinkers in their field, these books express the comprehensive and personal vision of the topic by an author who has de- voted years to studying, teaching, writing about, and often being actively in- volved with the environmental movement. The books will be intended pri- marily as college texts, and as beautifully produced volumes, they will also appeal to a wide audience of environmentally concerned readers. Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions, by Rosemary Radford Ruether Environmental Ethics for a Postcolonial World, by Deane Curtin The Ecological Life: Discovering Citizenship and a Sense of Humanity, by Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Sacramental Commons: Christian Ecological Ethics, by John Hart Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice: The Polluter-Industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization, by Daniel Faber Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice The Polluter-Industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization Daniel Faber ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2008 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Faber, Daniel, 1961– Capitalizing on environmental injustice : the polluter-industrial complex in the age of globalization / Daniel Faber. p. cm.— (Nature's meaning) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-3391-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-3391-3 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-3392-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-3392-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) eISBN-13: 978-0-7425-6344-5 eISBN-10: 0-7425-6344-8 1. Environmental justice—United States. 2. Environmental policy—Economic aspects—United States. 3. Environmental economics—United States. I. Title. GE230.F33 2008 363.7—dc22 2008004124 Printed in the United States of America ϱ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. This book is dedicated to my best friend and partner in life, a wonderful mother, community activist, family therapist, musician, and so much more! Laura Kurman Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction The Polluter-Industrial Complex: Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice 1 The Evolution of American Environmentalism 1 The Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement 6 The Corporate War against the Environmental Justice Movement 7 Not All People Are Polluted Equal: The Environmental Injustices of American Capitalism 7 Eroding Environmental Justice: Colonization of the State by the Polluter-Industrial Complex 8 Against Our Nature: Neoliberalism and the Crisis of Environmental Justice Policy 9 The Unfair Trade-Off: Globalization and the Export of Ecological Hazards 10 Transforming Green Politics: Challenges Confronting the Environmental Justice Movement 11 What Does the Future Hold? 12 1 Not All People Are Polluted Equal: The Environmental Injustices of American Capitalism 15 The Environmental Injustices of American Capitalism 15 Neoliberalism and the Restructuring of American Capitalism 17 Capitalist Strategies for Displacing Ecological Hazards onto the American Working Class and People of Color 23 vii viii Contents Environmental Justice, Occupational Health and Safety, and the Restructuring of Work 34 Environmental Injustice and the New Natural Resource Wars 44 Capital Mobility and the Displacement of Environmental Injustices to the Sunbelt 51 Looking Ahead 54 2 Eroding Environmental Justice: Colonization of the State by the Polluter-Industrial Complex 67 Colonization of the State by the Polluter-Industrial Complex 67 Buying Elections: Supporting Candidates Opposed to Environmental Justice 70 Appointing Corporate Polluters to Administer Environmental Agencies 79 Building a Movement From the Top Down: Creating a Policy Infrastructure that Pays for the Polluter-Industrial Complex 87 Lobbying Against the Environment: The Special-Interest Process for Corporate Polluters 96 “Toxic Sludge Is Good for You”: The Production of Ideology as Environmental Science 103 Reclaiming the State 110 3 Against Our Nature: Neoliberalism and the Crisis of Environmental Justice Policy 119 The Ecological Crisis and the Crisis of Environmentalism 119 Political Opposition to the Liberal Regime of Environmental Regulation 121 Neoliberalism and the Corporate Assault Against the Environmental Movement 126 The Rise and Fall of Federal Environmental Justice Programs and Policies 133 Getting Away with Murder: The Failure of the State to Enforce Environmental Laws 139 Superfund: A Super Failure in Addressing Environmental Injustice 143 Race, Class, and the Environmental Injustices of “Free-Market” Environmentalism 148 Conclusion 161 4 The Unfair Trade-Off: Globalization and the Export of Ecological Hazards 171 The Global Ecological Crisis 171 Globalization, Unfair Trade, and the Corporate Assault on Mother Earth 174 Contents ix Dumping on the Third World: The Export of Ecological Hazards and Environmental Injustice 178 Antigreen Greenbacks: The Export of Ecologically Hazardous Investment Capital 180 Global Pollution Havens: The Export of Ecologically Hazardous Industry 187 Buyer Beware: The Export of Ecologically Hazardous Commodities 193 Dumping on the Third World: The Export of Pollution and Hazardous Waste 197 Globalization, Unequal Ecological Exchange, and Environmental