HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?
Toolkit: State and Local Justice40 Advocacy
This Toolkit provides background on the Justice40 Initiative, an overview of State-Level Justice40 actions, the steps that advocates and community leaders can take to ratify the Justice40 commitment into their local governments and various resources.
How can advocates shape and influence the Justice40 Initiative and investments?
A number of federal agencies have been hosting public hearings and webinars on the Justice40 Initiative. Community-based organizations and environmental justice groups can participate in agency stakeholder engagement sessions to recommend changes to federal agency programs and other actions to support Justice40 implementation. Several agencies also have Justice40 landing pages with more information on how they are implementing Justice40, including the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Many federal programs rely on state or local agencies and organizations to implement or allocate funding to deliver investment benefits and services. As such, successful implementation of the Justice40 Initiative hinges on effective engagement and consultation with state and local government agencies and local communities. Community members and organizations can reach out to their state and local elected officials and state agencies to ask about their plans to apply for Justice40 program funding or implement Justice40 funding that is allocated to state and local governments, based on existing program formulas, and to urge them to use the funds in ways that maximize benefits to communities and avoid harms. Examples of how Justice40 program funding can be directed to benefit communities are below.
There are several federal programs with significant funding that communities can access, including the DOT’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and Emerging Contaminants grants, the DOT’s Intercity Passenger Rail grants, and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund.
Examples of how Justice40 initiative programs can benefit communities
• Climate change resilience: Communities affected by more severe flooding, heat, wildfires, or other climate change impacts may wish to urge their local governments to seek Justice40 funds to build climate resilience. For example, local governments can apply for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood insurance or wildfire management funds from the U.S. Forest Service to help prevent and mitigate the effects of these natural disasters, which have become more intense and damaging with climate change.
• Clean energy and energy efficiency: Communities seeking cleaner, more efficient energy options may wish to encourage their local governments to apply for funding from programs such as the DOE’s National Community Solar Partnership or the Building Codes Implementation for Efficiency and Resilience program.
• Clean transportation: In communities where children are breathing toxic fumes from their school buses, community members can request that their local government apply for funding for zero- or low-emissions buses from the EPA’s Clean School Bus program.
• Affordable and sustainable housing: Community groups interested in increasing access to affordable housing and reducing threats of more extreme heat may wish to call on their state government to invest Community Development Block Grant Mitigation funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in energy-efficient affordable housing and the expansion of neighborhood tree canopy, parks, and other green spaces nearby to lower temperatures and the urban heat island effect as well as energy bills.
• Training and workforce development: Unions, businesses, and workers in need of job training and education support could ask their local governments to apply for the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Technical Assistance and Workforce Development grants and career skills training or the Brownfields Job Training program.
• Remediation and reduction of legacy pollution: Communities with abandoned gas wells that are now orphaned may wish to apply for funds from environmental remediation programs such as Funding to Support Orphan Well Plugging or the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund through the Department of Interior. Communities with brownfields can ask their local government or local community organization to apply for funding from the EPA to clean up the sites or to assess the site.
• Critical clean water and wastewater infrastructure: Drinking water pollution has plagued communities across the country. Community groups in affected areas can call on their state and local governments to secure funds from the EPA’s Lead Service Lines Replacement program or funds from the EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and Emerging Contaminants grants to address per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances—“forever chemicals” used in industry and consumer products that break down slowly and build up in people, animals, and the environment.
In addition to influencing Justice40 investments to ensure they deliver real benefits to communities, local groups may wish to ensure that these investments don’t harm communities. For example, investments in economic and community development may drive up the cost of living and lead to the gentrification of predominantly Black neighborhoods and other neighborhoods of color, forcing existing community members to move to lower-rent areas that are often farther away from economic opportunities and critical services. Local groups may wish to call on local governments to work with federal agencies and project developers to develop anti-displacement strategies, including inclusionary zoning; community land trusts, or community-based organizations that acquire and manage land to protect; and expansions to affordable housing.
Investments in nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and hydrogen, among other emerging decarbonization technologies, might increase or exacerbate environmental burdens in communities of color and low-income communities. For example, CCS projects may prolong the operational lifetime of fossil fuel power plants—and thus the concentration of toxic air pollutants—in environmental justice communities. Federal, state, and local governments should exercise utmost caution before designating such programs as part of the Justice40 Initiative.
Lastly, some states are forming Justice40 oversight bodies made up of state agency and community representatives. In Delaware for example, environmental justice communities successfully advocated for a state Justice Forty Oversight Committee to study environmental justice challenges in the state and recommend actions and needed Justice40 and other investments to address those challenges.
How can my local or state government access Justice40 program funding?
State and local governments can use the EJNCP Justice40 program funding finder to identify programs for which they are eligible to receive or apply for funding. For example, state governments are eligible to receive funding from the following Justice40 programs, which are allocated based on existing program formulas: Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, State Energy Program, and the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program.
In some cases, local governments can apply to agencies in their states to receive a portion of these funds, including the following: the DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program, the FTA’s Formula Grants for Rural Areas program, and the FTA’s Buses and Bus Facilities Program. In some cases, local governments may be eligible to receive funding directly from federal Justice40 programs based on established allocation formulas, such as the FTA’s Urbanized Area Formula Funding program for transit improvement and certain Community Development Block Grant funding from HUD.
Lastly, state and local governments are eligible to apply for funding directly from federal Justice40 programs, including the following: the EPA’s Brownfields and Superfund programs, the DOT’s Low or No Emission Vehicle grants, and the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program.
Once state and local governments identify the federal Justice40 programs for which they are eligible to receive funds, they can contact program staff using the links provided for each program in the Justice40 funding finder.