March 19, 2025
Contact: Gregg Macey, Director, Center for Land, Environment & Natural Resources, UC Irvine School of Law
Oakland, CA – Today UC Irvine School of Law’s Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources, published a new report, Goods Movement and Environmental Justice Policy Pathologies. The report, written by Gregg Macey (UC Irvine School of Law) and Sue Dexter (University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy), combines legal analysis; review of public records; interviews with agency staff, members of the logistics industry, and community leaders who fight against the expansion of freight corridors, inland ports, and warehousing; and geospatial and public health benefits analysis. It addresses a problem that has confounded environmental policy from the beginning.
For example, after the Clean Air Act was enacted, criteria air pollutants declined precipitously while regions such as California’s San Joaquin Valley failed to achieve certain standards. At the same time, hundreds of communities faced a growing suite of pollution hotspots, clusters, and corridors. The goods movement industry, which continues to spread across the Inland Empire, San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area, and elsewhere, presents a new version of an age-old problem: How can air quality standards ensure regional air quality while addressing conditions on the ground, including among fenceline and other disadvantaged communities under the law?
The importance of this question was laid bare in Select Steel, the first EPA decision on the merits for a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The decision included an agency sleight of hand – EPA presumed that compliance with environmental laws meant that “there is no affected population” that would suffer adverse impacts from an agency action under civil rights law. The “Select Steel presumption” is one of many “pathologies of administration” that can help explain the persistent gap between federal and state environmental justice policies and the lack of progress in reducing public health disparities.
The report looks at similar pathologies that are at work in California, at agencies that carry out the state’s “first-in-class” environmental justice laws and policies. Its findings are sobering. Pathologies of administration include: the sidelining of cumulative impact analysis, lack of integration with local land use authorities, inability to engage in continuous improvement – required by law – to identify and address policy and programmatic gaps that impede implementation, and failure to affirmatively apply civil rights laws – including recently updated regulations under California Government Code Section 11135 – so that agencies can police themselves.
The longstanding influence of administrative pathologies contributes to the status quo. To overcome each pathology, the report turns to a case study of how air districts, with state support, can use an under-researched approach to clean air regulation – indirect source review (ISR) – to better balance regional air quality and localized impacts. It concludes with an exploratory analysis of air quality and public health benefits that can be achieved if such a program were adopted in the Bay Area, using programs developed for the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California as exemplars for scenario analysis.
“We found that indirect source review is not only a legal imperative under state law, but also an opportunity for a cultural shift in how agencies can better address public health disparities through policy design and rulemaking,” said Gregg Macey, director of the Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources. “There is a sense of urgency here – we also found that, even before the new administration took power in Washington and California sidelined much of its Advanced Clean Fleets rule, state programs left considerable public health benefits on the table.”
Indeed, the report finds that the Advanced Clean Fleets regulation, which will now not be fully implemented due to the state’s withdraw of a waiver request to the EPA for authorization under CAA Section 209, would have resulted in significant reductions in nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions – over 2,000 tons per year and 50 tons per year, respectively, through 2045 in the Bay Area alone. Moreover, ISR programs could further contribute to NOx emissions reductions of between 76 and 185 tons per year, and PM emissions reductions of between 1 and 3 tons per year in the Bay Area through 2045.
“Indirect Source Rules provide policymakers with a powerful tool to help clean up pollution from hot spots like warehouses and ports,” said Fernando Gaytan, senior attorney on Earthjustice’s Right to Zero campaign. “Communities across California live with some of the dirtiest air in the country, and we need commonsense solutions from our air regulators to clear our smog problem. We’re looking forward to working with Air Districts like the Bay Area Air District to shape strong Indirect Source Rules that clean the air for millions of California residents.”
“The massive explosion of the goods movement industry in California has resulted in dangerous pollution for communities and workers, many who are already disproportionately burdened by bad air and health problems,” said Imari “Mars” Keith, chapter organizer with the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay Chapter. “Whether it’s mega-warehouses, ports or railyards, Indirect Source Rules offer a path to fight the pollution crisis in the Bay and secure clean air for all.”
“It is imperative that zero-emission battery electric and hydrogen trucks replace highly polluting diesel versions. Diesel exhaust results in severe health impacts in communities close to freight corridors and distribution clusters. The Advanced Clean Truck regulation falls short of current clean air goals. There is a role for ISR and other initiatives to complement existing programs,” said Sue Dexter, researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California, Price School of Public Policy.
“East Oakland is facing a major increase in shipping and logistics operations – including the proposed expansion of the Oakland Airport and new warehouse development – on top of the existing burdens of numerous polluting sources,” said Gustavo Gutierrez, East Oakland Organizer with Communities for a Better Environment. “As this report highlights, an indirect source rule is urgently needed to protect the health and safety of East Oakland residents and environmental justice communities throughout the state.”
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