President Joe Biden presented an ambitious budget plan that rallied agencies across government to concentrate more resources on low-income and other communities. This included air pollution monitoring and new efforts to install more efficient appliances in low income homes.
Bidens campaign pledge to support communities that have been suffering from environmental injustice for decades is fulfilled by the fiscal 2023 request to fund environmental justice efforts.
The proposal calls for $1.45 Billion for environmental justice initiatives within the EPA. This includes $100 million for environmental equity programs to expand community air quality monitoring and other efforts that help communities at the frontlines of exposures. The proposal also includes $215 million to EPA for the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield sites, which includes training and technical assistance for communities.
Superfund cleanups and brownfields, which have sometimes struggled to find funding, will see big increases in the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Biden requested almost $1.2 billion for EPA superfund activities in fiscal 2023, the same amount as the current year, but this would be in addition to the $3.5 billion that was provided for Superfund by last years infrastructure law.
The brownfields funding would be in addition to the infrastructure package funding, which allocates $1.5 million for such cleanups. Budget request.
All-of-Government approach
Biden also promised an all-government approach to environmental equity, from the Energy Department to Department of Justice Department.
Biden’s budget request for $1.4 million would grant the Justice Department $1.4million to create a new Office for Environmental Justice.
Biden’s Justice40 initiative will be implemented at different agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget. The fiscal 2023 request contains $12 million. The Justice40 initiative aims to direct 40% of the clean energy, clean water and other investments to disadvantaged areas.
According to an OMB factsheet, Biden’s request for environmental justice will help create good-paying work, clean up pollution and implement Justice40. It will also advance racial equality and secure environmental justice in communities that have too often been left behind.
Training and Assistance Boosted
The fiscal 2023 budget proposal also contains proposed authorization language for new environmental justice grants. These grants are intended to reduce the disproportionate health effects of environmental polluting.
It proposes a new Environmental Justice Training Program, valued at $10 million, to increase the ability of residents from under-served areas to identify and address disproportionately adverse environmental or health effects.
Other departments and agencies also request additional or new funding in order to benefit disadvantaged communities.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has requested $1.1 billion to improve climate resilience and energy efficiency in public housing, tribe housing, and other housing assistance. $400 million of that will go towards assisted housing.
HUD’s fiscal 2023 request also authorizes the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program and Ginnie maes ongoing Environmental, Social and Governance disclosure efforts. These disclosure efforts are meant to direct liquidity to more environmentally-sustainable housing and other products.
Energy Department programs to reduce rising energy costs for low income households include $100 million for a pilot program under Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. This program has been providing assistance with home energy bills, weatherization and minor energy-related home repairs for many years.
The new LIHEAP Advantage pilot would provide more efficient electric appliances and energy systems to help reduce carbon emissions in low-income households.
