Congress must deliver bold action on climate change
As our country grapples with the devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the disease continues to infect and kill in communities fighting legacies of pollution at disproportionate rates. The statistics are disturbing, but unsurprising: the latest data shows people living in areas with elevated levels of fine particulate matter are 8% more likely to die from COVID-19. This research should propel policymakers into action, yet the Trump administration continues to turn a blind eye to front-line communities and leave behind those most gravely affected.
Far too often, Black and brown communities are hit first and worst by the devastating impacts of pollution and climate change because the same racist policies redlining them into the shadows of pipelines and dirty power plants originated within the same power structures that lent them few tools to combat these injustices. For too long, the federal government has allowed dirty corporate polluters to set up shop operating power plants, landfills, pipelines and other dangerous facilities strategically in the backyards of lowwealth, tribal and Indigenous communities and communities of color.
Right here in Virginia, developers continue to target Charles City, home to mostly Black and Native American families, for two gas-fired power plants roughly a mile from one another. While neither project may directly serve or benefit the community long-term, the prospective new installments and associated compressor stations would expose Charles City residents to toxic chemical emissions that cause bronchitis, lung infections and breathing difficulty, making them more susceptible to the coronavirus. Unfortunately, Charles City is just one example of a much broader pattern of our nation’s legacy of environmental and systemic racism.
Environmental injustice is a systemic problem and our answer to it must be overarching and comprehensive. Every state in America has a Charles City forced to reckon with contaminated water, toxic waste sites or devastating mining operations. That is why I am proud to have worked alongside climate justice leaders, practitioners and community members for over a year to introduce the Environmental Justice for All Act, making clear our commitment to these communities to work collaboratively to ameliorate these wrongs. The time has come to address our nation’s legacy of environmental pollution by building a resilient, clean economy that works for everyone.
The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis laid the groundwork to fulfill this promise when we released our comprehensive climate action framework this summer. The blueprint draws from the best of American innovation and ingenuity to achieve net-zero carbon pollution by 2050 with focused attention in underinvested communities to cut pollution and advance environmental justice.
Our Climate Crisis Action Plan recognizes that the voices, faces, and lived experiences of all Americans have been notably absent when crafting federal policy, and seeks to address the historic shortcomings of our response to environmental injustice by centering equity and justice in our solutions. To build a clean-energy economy, we have to increase the capacity of environmental justice communities to participate in federal policy making, making sure that we are being honest and consistent partners in the process. We must strengthen the enforcement of our environmental laws and consider the cumulative pollution impacts of industrial facilities in environmental justice communities like Charles City, prioritizing them in new federal spending projects to deploy clean energy and infrastructure.
In too many of our communities, “poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east.” There is much work to be done, but the climate solutions outlined in the Select Committee’s action plan offer incredible opportunities to both jumpstart our economy and protect public health. Together, we can ensure a bright future for all Americans while delivering justice to communities long harmed by pollution. This plan is the first step in delivering on that promise.