By: Alison Adkins
In the last several years, more and more Americans have begun to view climate change and environmental degradation as serious threats to their wellbeing.[i] More Americans have also started expressing concerns that environmental hazards disproportionately impact marginalized communities.[ii] In response to these concerns, democrats in both houses of Congress introduced a piece of legislation known as the Environmental Justice for All bill.[iii]
The Environmental Justice for All bill seeks to address environmental concerns in four major ways.[iv] First, it would amend the Civil Rights Act to give “private citizens and organizations that experience discrimination (based on race or national origin) to seek legal remedies when a program, policy, or practice causes a disparate impact.”[v] Second, it would provide $75 million per year in grants to reduce health disparities in disadvantaged communities.[vi] Third, it would place new fees on oil, gas, and coal companies to fund a federal program to help communities transition away from greenhouse gas-dependent industries.[vii] Fourth, it would require the federal government to consider the cumulative effects of environmental pollutants when deciding to grant or deny permits under the Clean Air or Clean Water acts.[viii]
https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-street-earth-sign-2990605/
The bill is still in its infancy, having been introduced in both houses of Congress but not yet put to a vote.[ix]However, as the bill progresses, it is likely to face criticisms on several fronts. First, like many sweeping environmental programs, the Environmental Justice for All Act is likely to be critiqued for its cost. The “Green New Deal” took a comparable environmental justice approach marked with a similar price tag, and this proposition was challenged as too costly.[x]
President Trump recently initiated a rewriting of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), removing the requirement to include an analysis of cumulative environmental impacts in permitting decisions and citing costs.[xi] One of the Environmental Justice for All Act’s main components is undoing this change.[xii]
The Act may also face other criticisms frequently presented against federal environmental regulations. For example, one criticism argues that the benefits and costs of the regulation will not be evenly distributed, resulting in harm to certain regions of the country that rely heavily on polluting industries[xiii]. Another criticism chastises the environmental justice movement’s struggle to set priorities regarding the relative dangers of different toxins and claims the movement attempts to take on too much at once with limited resources.[xiv] Finally, the Act has been criticized as unlikely to pass, which would make it ineffective.[xv]
However, the Environmental Justice for All Act overcomes these criticisms. There is evidence that environmental regulations do not cause broad reductions in economic growth.[xvi] While there is some truth that some environmental regulations have previously caused localized economic problems,[xvii] the Environmental Justice for All Act’s focus on reinvestment in communities previously dependent on green-house gas producing industries will mitigate and overcome this effect. By building on the success green energy has already begun having in these areas, the Act will alleviate further economic downtown.[xviii] This reinvestment program also works to counter criticisms regarding the balance of benefits and regulation burdens. The Act also empowers individuals to take their own environmental concerns to court, which will counter concerns about priority settings. To explain, involving the judicial system permits local communities to work internally and decide what issues matter most to them while harnessing their energy into those efforts. Finally, while it is far from certain the Act will pass in Congress, by introducing environmental justice concerns into the larger, national conversation it has already successfully moved towards its goal.
[i] Cary Funk & Brian Kennedy, How Americans see climate change and the environment in 7 charts, Pew Research Center (Apr. 21, 2020), https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/21/how-americans-see-climate-change-and-the-environment-in-7-charts/ [https://perma.cc/Y838-KN4H].
[ii] Environmental and Climate Justice, NAACP, https://www.naacp.org/issues/environmental-justice/ [https://perma.cc/9JDX-L9M8].
[iii] Rachel Frazin, Senate Democrats introduce environmental justice bill, The Hill, (July 30, 2020) https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/509799-senate-democrats-introduce-companion-to-environmental-justice-bill [https://perma.cc/L9GB-NSFP].
[iv] Yvette Cabrera, Exclusive: Kamala Harris to introduce comprehensive environmental justice bill in senate, Grist, (July 30, 2020) https://grist.org/justice/exclusive-kamala-harris-to-introduce-comprehensive-environmental-justice-bill-in-senate/ [https://perma.cc/YSM5-C6TB].
[v] Id.
[vi] Id.
[vii] Id.
[viii] Id.
[ix] Environmental Justice for All Act, PopVox, (Feb. 27, 2020), https://www.popvox.com/madison/documents/environmental-justice-for-all-act https://perma.cc/BK9T-9DY3.
[x] Ari Natter and Bloomberg, The Green New Deal Would Cost $93 Trillion, Ocasio-Cortez Critics Say, (Feb. 25, 2019) https://fortune.com/2019/02/25/the-green-new-deal-ocasio-cortez/ [https://perma.cc/2AJ3-ZVME].
[xi] Rebecca Beitsch, Trump faces another challenge to rewrite of bedrock environmental law NEPA, (Aug. 06, 2020) https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510847-trump-faces-another-challenge-to-rewrite-of-bedrock-environmental [https://perma.cc/SW8V-J73F].
[xii] Cabrera, supra note iv.
[xiii] Alana Semuels, Do Regulations Really Kill Jobs?, The Atlantic, (Jan. 19, 2017)https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/01/regulations-jobs/513563/ [https://perma.cc/B9DD-5H4L].
[xiv] Christopher Foreman, …And Environmental Justice for All? (Dec. 1, 1997) https://www.brookings.edu/articles/and-environmental-justice-for-all/ [https://perma.cc/RF9T-EKTF.]
[xv] Cabrera supra note iv.
[xvi] Semuels, supra note xii.
[xvii] Id.
[xviii] Silvio Marcacci, Renewable Energy Job Boom Creates Economic Opportunity As Coal Industry Slumps, Forbes, (Apr. 27, 2019,07:20am) https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2019/04/22/renewable-energy-job-boom-creating-economic-opportunity-as-coal-industry-slumps/#230b260e3665 [https://perma.cc/LPZ2-YTPX].