The creation of the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus is a huge step in the right direction for communities that live in some of the most environmentally dangerous places in America and offers real hope for federal action on the legacy pollution issues that plague them. For too long our nation’s most vulnerable families have been the victims of discriminatory industrial siting, neglectful environmental regulation, and substandard law enforcement. This has caused severe health economic impacts for generations of people who have continually been ignored by local and national policy makers.
The caucus’ three founding members - Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) - must now concentrate on raising the awareness of these issues and so substantive action can be taken. A good state level example of this can be found in Illinois’ recently passed Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), which cleans up neighborhoods that have suffered the most due to legacy pollution issues and invests in local jobs.
FEJA stimulates job creation with strategic new investments in energy efficiency, renewables, and energy innovation designed to cut down on air and water pollution and enhance Illinois’ position as a leader in America’s clean energy economy. The law is also designed to attract new investment and businesses to the state - particularly since corporate procurement of clean energy resources is at an all time high - and preserve Illinois’ low energy rates for residents and businesses.
FEJA is widely considered to be a good blueprint that could help places like the Ironbound district in Newark, NJ and in northern New Castle County in DE, which have been historic victims of environmental mismanagement and neglect. The sheer number of refineries and chemical plants make these areas some of the most dangerous places to live, and solutions must be found that focus on enforcement of clean air guidelines, jobs to local residents to help clean up the air and water, and stronger investments in industry’s that don’t cause the surrounding communities to get sick.
Any national program will need to have strong enforceable language that puts local community input at the center of any environmental and economic revitalization. Too often funding for environmental justice policies is relegated to state bureaucracies or organizational actors who (if they do it at all) develop programs with little or minimum community consultation and then impose them on communities, leaving little time or priority for local input and implementation. Moving forward, these communities must have a seat at the table and be able to create their “own” tables (and resources for participation) so that each policy and law can be customized for their needs, since they are residents and taxpayers.
Using these and other mechanisms for participation is essential and we’ll be looking forward to working with the caucus to ensure communities’ solutions to tough environmental justice issues are implemented. In the months and years ahead, there will be a lot of important, difficult work to do, but thankfully the first step has already been taken with the caucus’ creation.
Onward!
Leslie Fields
Director of Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships
Sierra Club