EPA plays ‘environmental justice’ card against Keystone XL

HOUSTON, Texas - A proposed pipeline that would ferry Canadian crude oil to Texas refineries has run afoul of the recharged federal push to protect minorities and the poor from an overburden of pollution.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the plan for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline doesn't evaluate the potential health impacts on Port Arthur, Texas, where one fork of the pipeline will end.
The criticism reflects new priorities at the EPA under administrator Lisa Jackson, who has intensified its quest for “environmental justice,” a movement rooted in the idea that minorities and the poor bear an unfair share of society's most toxic institutions.