ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a design for what believe to be a rational, equitable, and efficient policy for dealing with environmental justice issues. The component of the rational-comprehensive model maintains that the decision maker is confronted with a given problem that can be separate from other problems or at least considered meaningfully comparison. In this instance, the problem is defined as assuring that no definable group in society is exposed to a disproportionate burden of environmental hazards. The existing alternatives advanced as a means of achieving environmental justice consist of a political-based solution, a class-based solution, a race-based solution, and a risk-based solution. The analysis of the political-based solution—given the criteria of rationality, equity, and efficiency—indicates that this is the least favored of the four alternatives. The class-based solution would be amenable to some of the components of the rational comprehensive model.
