Will 2021 Be the Year for Environmental Justice Legislation? States Are Already Leading the Way

The capped site of the former Diamond Alkali factory on the Passaic River in Newark, New Jersey, which is part of one of the largest and most expensive cleanup projects in the EPA’s Superfund program. The community surrounding the toxic site is primarily lower-income Black and brown residents. Credit: NBC News In Oregon, new legislation would require state officials to consider the “cumulative” impact on neighborhoods already overburdened by pollution before granting permits to projects that potentially pose a threat to human health or the environment. In Illinois, a bill would dedicate more than $27 million annually over the next 10 years to fund clean energy and climate initiatives in low-income communities of color by 2030. And in Massachusetts, lawmakers immediately promised on Thursday to refile a bill that would for the first time codify the definition of an “environmental justice community” in state law after Republican Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed it, providing an early indication of how contentious the issue could become. We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web’s top headlines deliver the full story, for free. Those measures are a […]

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