The Organization of Environmental Injustice

环境保护组织他的提案将解决以下问题：哪些类型的化工厂构成最大的健康威胁，哪些类型的社区？长期以来，环境正义学者一直对工业带来的物质危险以及使社区容易受到工业危害的因素感兴趣。他们广泛研究了种族、阶级和公民参与等社区特征对接触工业设施及其排放的影响。然而，研究人员很少研究工业设施本身及其特性对排放的影响。他们也没有研究设施和社区特征的组合如何影响污染暴露。这在很大程度上是因为研究人员缺乏关于设施排放带来的健康风险的系统数据，而且学者们可用的方法不适合测试复杂的、更高阶的相互作用。为了纠正这种情况，我们使用美国环保署最新发布的风险筛选环境指标(RSEI)来调查设施和社区特征对化工厂风险相关排放的影响。我们使用传统的回归技术来分析设施和社区因素的独立影响，并使用新的定性比较分析(QCA)方法来确定它们的联合影响。与结构嵌入性的研究一致，我们假设，设施和社区因素不仅对风险相关排放产生显著的净影响，而且它们还相互作用，产生多种因果路径。通过明确这种相互作用，该项目将有助于弥合组织行为学和环境正义方面的文献之间的差距。这项研究还将生成工业污染者的结构类型学，政策制定者可以利用这些类型学来集中精力和确定监管工作的优先顺序。特别是，这项研究将使地方应急规划委员会(LEPC)和州应急委员会(SERCs)受益，它们负责根据《社区知情权法案》传播有关当地污染者的信息。最后，结果应该有助于化学品制造商协会改善其成员公司的自律和环境绩效。

THE ORGANIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICEThis proposal will address the following question: Which types of chemical plants pose the greatest health threat and in which types of communities? Environmental justice scholars have long been interested in the physical dangers posed by industry and the factors that make communities vulnerable to them. They have extensively researched the effects of community characteristics like race, class, and civic engagement on exposure to industrial facilities and their emissions. However, researchers have rarely studied industrial facilities themselves and the effects of their characteristics on emissions. Nor have they examined how combinations of facility and community characteristics influence pollution exposure. In large part, this is because researchers have lacked systematic data on the health risks posed by facilities' emissions and the methods available to scholars have not been suited for testing complex, higher-order interactions. To remedy this situation, we use the EPA's newly released Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) to investigate the effects of facility and community characteristics on chemical plants' risk-related emissions. We employ conventional regression techniques to analyze the independent effects of facility and community factors, and novel qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) methods to determine their conjoint effects. Consistent with research on structural embeddedness, we hypothesize that not only do facility and community factors exert significant net effects on risk-related emissions, but they also interact to produce multiple causal pathways. By specifying such interactions, this project will help to bridge the gap between the literatures on organizational behavior and environmental justice. This study will also generate a structural typology of industrial polluters that policymakers can use to focus and prioritize their regulatory efforts. In particular, this research will benefit Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs) and State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs) that are responsible for disseminating information about local polluters under the Community Right-to-Know Act. Finally, results should help the Chemical Manufacturers Association improve the self-regulation and environmental performance of its member companies.