Today, 175 environmental and civil rights organizations and allied organizations supported H.R. 2021, the Environmental Justice for All Act. The bill includes bold policies to strengthen the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This Act requires federal agencies to consider the cumulative, disproportionate and adverse effects of pollution on communities and people of color and low-income. It would also allow residents and groups the ability to hold polluters in court for projects using federal funds or engaging in environmental discrimination. To fund investments in environmental justice, the bill would also use new fees on coal, oil, and gas companies.
The Environmental Justice for All Act, which was created on the simple premise of everyone having the right to clean water and clean air and to live without fear of poisonous chemicals, is a significant step towards ending environmental racism.The letter reads:. It establishes strong new norms by making significant investments to clean up toxic pollution that has plagued environmental justice communities over the past decades. It also invests in the same communities to ensure that they have equitable access and equitable use of emerging technologies and resources that should be available to them as the nation recommits to addressing the climate crisis, our safety, and our health.
Environment justice communities continue being exposed to toxic pollutants and other environmental health hazards at higher levels than the rest of society. This bill will address long-standing environmental and health risks and allow individuals and groups to hold those responsible accountable.
People who have been most affected by the country’s highest levels of pollution are now aware that those in power cannot ignore them.Raul Garcia, Earthjustice Healthy Communities Legislative directorAs environmental issues worsen with the climate crisis, we need to urgently address past injustices and future injustices. Thank you Rep. Grijalva & Rep. McEachin. They were open to listening to the needs and concerns from environmental justice communities, and turned that feedback into policy.
The letter was signed 175 times by various groups, including the Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Indigenous Environmental Network, Flint Rising, and Moving Forward Network.
“Too many frontline or fenceline communities have been affected by environmental injustices from climate injustice to energy injustice to food injustice to transportation injustice and water injustice,” said Dr. Sacoby WILSON, Director, Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health, (CEEH).. It is high time that all Americans have access to clean air and clean water. The EJ for All Act will make a major contribution to addressing decades worth of environmental racism, decades-old Jim Crow environmental policies, decades long of extraction from the Earth and its peoples, and decades-long inaction on the suffering of communities with toxic trauma.
We are tired of empty promises. We want to see concrete and immediate action to stop further harm to our communities, who are suffering from toxic exposures that have caused a huge burden of cancers, damage our children’s developing brains, birth defects and reproductive disorders. Vi Waghiyi is the Environmental Health and Justice Program Director at Alaska Community Action on Toxics and Native Village in Savoonga Tribal Member. We are also suffering from the interconnected and devastating effects of climate crisis. We support H.R. H.R. 2021, The Environmental Justice for All Act, is supported by us. We appreciate the hard work of Rep. Grijalva & Rep. McEachin for addressing our concerns and listening to them.
The complete letter can be viewed here
