Elizabeth Warren Unveils ‘Environmental Justice’ Plan for Poor Communities
Elizabeth Warren Unveils ‘Environmental Justice’ Plan for Poor Communities
(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren released a plan on Wednesday that would focus the federal government’s resources on “environmental justice” by helping vulnerable communities address the effects of climate change and pollution.
The Democratic presidential contender’s proposal concentrates on racial inequality, as well as bolstering environmental programs at both the federal and local levels, improving existing data to better prepare at-risk areas and punishing polluters.
“From predominantly black neighborhoods in Detroit to Navajo communities in the Southwest to Louisiana’s Cancer Alley,” Warren’s campaign says in its plan, “industrial pollution has been concentrated in low-income communities for decades -- communities that the federal government has tacitly written off as so-called ‘sacrifice zones.’”
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, and Joe Biden are statistically tied for first place in polls of the Democratic presidential race, with about 26% support. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator, is a distant third, at 14.6%.
Another candidate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, has proposed legislation with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to build on the Green New Deal’s framework to ensure marginalized communities are not faced with the greatest burdens of climate change.
Warren’s plan calls for creating a Council on Climate Action to pursue environmental justice.
It would strengthen programs and restore funding to the Environmental Protection Agency that was cut by President Donald Trump’s administration. The EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council would be elevated and report directly to the White House, and all federal agencies would be required to consider climate when making decisions.
“Climate action needs to be mainstreamed in everything the federal government does,” according to the plan.
Warren also proposes improving the way the EPA maps communities to better identify endangered areas and use that data to more accurately gauge the environmental effects of climate change.
She said a Medicare for All government-run health system, a Sanders proposal that she champions, would help provide care for people in “frontline communities” who “disproportionately suffer from certain cancers and other illnesses associated with environmental pollution.”
Warren’s slate of climate-change proposals, including those already released, will cost $3 trillion, according to her campaign. They would be paid for through her Real Corporate Profits Tax and by reversing the Trump administration’s tax cuts.
At least a third of the spending will go toward “frontline and fenceline communities” which are at the highest risk of impact from climate change, her campaign says.
Warren has previously released climate plans on transitioning to “Green Manufacturing” and her “100% Clean Energy Plan,” which involve spending $400 billion in energy research and development. She committed to providing job training and wage and benefit guarantees to workers in fossil-fuel industries who would lose their jobs in the transition to clean energy.
She also calls for stronger legal action against major polluters. She has previously proposed fining corporations that harm the environment through her Climate Risk Disclosure Act.
The new plan also plan reiterates her proposal to “hold the finance industry accountable for its role in climate change” by requiring banks and other companies to “disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and price their exposure to climate risk into their valuations.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Gregory Mott
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