As Black History MonthContinued, conversations about environmental injustice are being weaved into discussions about the ways Black communities are left behind in Minnesota, as well as the impacts of environmental injustice.
Minnesota’s stark wage and education gaps were a major issue even before the current racial reckoning.
Minister JaNaé Bates, communications director for the group, ISAIAHAccording to, climate issues are the same as other issues. Minnesota has ample resources to ensure everyone can live in safe and healthy communities. However, policy and planning decisions have neglected some Black populations.
Bates stated, “We should have clean air, clean waters, and healthy land.” “We’ve discovered that this is not always the case.”
She cited North Minneapolis and St. Paul’s Rondo as two areas that are suffering from interstate construction and heavy industry. The new Biden administration has placed environmental justice at the forefront of its agenda. infrastructure law.
Bates acknowledged that there has been some progress in addressing the problem, but pointed out that Black communities are often not informed about policy developments. Bates pointed out that subsidies for solar panels aren’t widely advertised in Black communities.
She argued that the gap goes beyond affordability.
Bates explained that “not just the financial means” is important. “But that they know what’s going on, when you consider the fact that lower-income families often work multiple jobs and don’t always have the time or space necessary to absorb all that is happening in civic life.
She also said that Black-led organizations are contributing by increasing awareness in their communities about climate issues.
Bates stressed that environmental racism can be linked to other historical inequities within Black neighborhoods. While it may take time to overcome these barriers, she argued that recent history of political willpower offers hope.
“When COVID-19 became very important and very real to our lives, there was legislation that people had been working for years on,” Bates observed. “It was passed in a blink of an eye because we recognized the urgency.”
With more urgency in environmental matters, she hopes it will translate into expanding infrastructure to make marginalized communities more resilient to climate change.
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Commerce City residents living under the Suncor refinery’s shadow are asking the Environmental Protection Agency for a denial of an emissions permit, which was recently renewed in Colorado.
Lucy Molina is a Suncor neighborhood coordinator with 350 Colorado. She lives near the facility. She believes the EPA can finally hold industrial polluters to account and respond to communities’ calls to protect their lives.
Molina said, “They make billions and they get cancer.” “We have the most polluted ZIP codes in the nation. This is not something you should be proud of. It’s time to wake up in the community and fight for our children’s future and that of our planet.
Suncor has a long history of violations with regulators. The EPA reported that Suncor was in “significant violations” of the regulations. Clean AirAnd Water actsFederal toxic disposal laws for each quarter of the past three years.
Suncor should close the facility until it can meet compliance and reduce its emissions.
Suncor representatives emailed to say that they are committed to making improvements to reduce their environmental impact and that they care deeply about the communities around the Commerce City refinery.
Environmental groups are also urging EPA to end decades of injustice against the mostly Latino community. Molina, a single mom, stated that she would love for her family to be moved far from her “deadly neighbor”.
Molina stated, “It’s hard to just get up and run.” “I mean, it’s not as easy to just get up and go, you know what? Communities like ours have been burdened by the stench and heavy pollution for decades. Transitions must be made.
Colorado and the U.S. have a high proportion of communities of color that live near polluters. This is largely due to the fact they couldn’t find housing elsewhere because of redlining or other policies.
After Colorado officials have submitted the proposal on February 8, the Region 8 office of the EPA has 45 days to review it.
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Climate Crisis: Take Action is a student-led coalition pushing Indiana lawmakers to establish a new environmental-justice task force.
The group rallied last month at the state Capitol to call for the General Assembly. pass legislationA 17-member commission was established to draft a new climate plan for the state.
Claire Curran (a sophomore at Brebeuf High School) told the crowd that stopping climate change starts at home.
Curran stated that “Youth activism has always been a key factor in significant social change.” “Civic engagement does not seem to be a new phenomenon for this generation.”
The Elkhart High School Pennant reports the bill has stalled in the Senate’s environmental-affairs committee, where it has yet to receive a hearing. The committee chair, Sen. Mark Messmer (R-Jasper), told the Indianapolis Star that the measure was redundant and that it can be achieved through another committee or the state’s 21st Century Energy Task Force.
The Pennant reports on both the Senate bill as well as a Pairing resolutionThe Environmental Affairs Committee is also stuck on a similar issue.
Senator Ron Alting (R-Tippecanoe County), the legislation’s principal sponsor, said last month to students that grassroots organizing like theirs is vital for the democratic process.
“Is there a topic or anything more important than the air we breath and the water we drink?” Alting said, “I don’t think so.”
The Senate bill, in addition to creating the task force, would require Indiana’s utility regulatory agency to issue a report for each year from 2050 on the state’s greenhouse gas-emissions.
In a 2020 pollThe Pew Research Center found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents said climate change was affecting their community in some way.
This story was created by Elena Krueper (a high school student who is part of Earth Charter Indiana’s Youth Environmental Press Team) and published in The Elkhart High School Pennant.
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Proposed legislationMassachusetts would end subsidies for wood burning power plants by removing biomass as an acceptable fuel source for its two primary clean-energy programs.
Fuel from biomass plants is currently included in the Renewable Portfolio Standard or the Alternative Portfolio Standard. However, environmental groups have noted that burning wood is more polluting and has major health consequences in surrounding communities.
Caitlin Pease Sloan, Massachusetts vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation, stated that subsidies to biomass should be ended, particularly as climate change threatens to increase emissions.
Peale Sloane stated, “It’s important that we now clarify what we call renewable.” “So that we can increase our subsidies for renewables without increasing combustion or additional climate impacts from carbon dioxide emissions.”
Last year, the operating permit for a proposed Palmer biomass plant in Springfield was revoked because of its proximity to an environmental-justice community. Springfield is home to high levels of asthma and other respiratory diseases. A letter from over 100 groups The Legislature was urgedThe bill must be passed so that biomass cannot subsidized in any part of the state.
Sen. Eric Lesser of Springfield, one of the bill’s co-sponsors stated that the proposed plant was intended to be built in the middle a densely-populated neighborhood with many residents who are immigrants, people from color, or low-income.
He argued that ending subsidies for biomass would help to reverse the history of racism in the places these plants were placed.
Lesser noted that the greater Springfield area has one the highest asthma rates in the country. “This industrial legacy, as well as a legacy of pollution tied to these power stations, is a major reason for it.”
He stressed that it was important to ensure that front-line communities, which are most affected by climate change and pollution, receive the best climate-mitigation assistance.
Naia Tenerowicz is a Springfield resident and environmental advocate who said that while Massachusetts is a leader for net-zero emissions in many areas, subsidies for biomass put the Commonwealth back.
Tenerowicz commented that the idea of biomass being subsidized as clean fuel was “a great idea.” It’s not something I want to see happen to anyone in any community.
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