The best way to Build Back Better is to stop leaving communities behind.
—EJNCP co-authors, September 20, 2021.
Congressional leaders have a critical opportunity to join forces with President Joe Biden to turn the tide against climate change, economic inequality, and environmental injustice. Black, Latino, Indigenous and other communities in the United States have for too long been on the front lines of our nation’s most dangerous environmental and health hazards. Oil refineries, power plants, ports and waste incinerators are just a few of the many industrial facilities that pump billions of pounds of pollution into the air and water. These are disproportionately sited in communities of color, leading to higher rates of cancer, asthma, cardiovascular disease, neurological issues and other life-threatening health problems for the people living there. This undermines these communities’ ability to participate equally in the economy and live safe, healthy and prosperous lives.
Biden’s landmark executive order on climate change in his first days in office launched the Justice40 Initiative, a commitment to direct 40 percent of the benefits from infrastructure and clean energy investments to disadvantaged communities. There is no time to waste. Congress must equip the Biden administration with the resources needed to implement Justice40. It can do this by passing a Build Back Better package that invests in tackling climate change and programs that deliver economic, public health and environmental benefits to the communities that need them the most, including the following:
- Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants: Congress must support this new block grant program to reduce pollution and climate threats in communities on the front lines of our nation’s most dangerous legacy environmental and health hazards. These grants would provide up to $500,000 for 1 to 3 years to support community-led priorities to reduce pollution and improve public health and climate-readiness (funding level: $5 billion).
- Healthy Ports: Congress must invest in healthy ports by providing rebates and grants for zero emissions (ZE) port equipment to reduce diesel emissions, improve public health and mitigate the cumulative impacts of air pollution on neighborhoods near ports, often communities of color and low-income areas (funding level: $3.5 billion).
- Pollution Clean-up: Congress must invest in cleaning up toxic pollution in communities to improve public health and quality of life, including by providing funding to: replace refuse trucks and school buses with zero emission (ZE) vehicles; support Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) programs; allow the Environmental Protection Agency to monitor community air quality and share information with residents when pollution levels are unsafe; clean up Superfund sites; replace lead service lines; and reduce air pollution and toxics at public schools in low-income and disadvantaged communities (funding level: $25.5 billion).
- Equitable and Sustainable Community Development: Congress must invest in safe, healthy, prosperous and climate-ready communities by providing funding for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), and reconnecting communities deliberately segregated and divided by highways (funding level: $22.5 billion).
- Investments in the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) for community engagement: Congress must invest in the technology, staff and grants needed to effectively engage communities and secure their early input on large infrastructure projects. This engagement in critical for federal agencies to understand the cumulative impact of the pollution on clean air, water, and wildlife, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior, the Department of Transportation, and the Army Corps of Engineers (funding level: $950 million).
A full list of critical environmental justice investments in the House Build Back Better bills that must be included in the Build Back Better Act can be found here.
