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Amy Laura Cahn named acting director of Environmental Justice Clinic
Vermont Business Magazine The director of Vermont Law School’s (VLS) Environmental Justice Clinic (EJC) has been appointed by President Joseph Biden, Jr, to a prominent role in his administration fighting racial and economic disparities in environmental policies.
Marianne Engelman-Lado has been named deputy general counsel for environmental initiatives at the Environmental Protection Agency. The position highlights the legal expertise she employed at VLS as a law professor and the founding director of its community-based lawyering clinic. The EJC represents and partners with environmentally overburdened communities of color and low-income communities to enforce civil rights protections through an environmental lens.
EPA sued by CLF for refusing to investigate discrimination claims
Last week the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), Chelsea’s GreenRoots and Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a federal lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The group argues that the EPA failed to investigate discrimination concerns in the ongoing Eversource substation project on Chelsea Creek.
The groups previously filed a Title VI civil rights complaint against Massachusetts energy officials after they ignored resident concerns and refused to provide translation services at community meetings where many non-English speakers, particularly Spanish-speaking residents, live.
The group said the EPA declined to act on that civil rights complaint, and the subsequent lawsuit aims to force a proper investigation.