Behind Environmental Injustice: Disparate Siting and Post-Siting Migration of Fossil Fuel Power Plants

Abstract Environmental injustice can be explained by two mechanisms: the disproportionate siting of polluting industries in low-income and minority communities, and demographic changes following the establishment of toxic sites. This paper investigates fossil fuel power plant siting decisions and the subsequent demographic changes in the context of environmental injustice. Using census tract level data from the United States between 2010 and 2019, we find that fossil fuel power plants are more likely to be located in areas with higher minority populations, and leads to more than 2.5 percentage points increase in the local minority share.