• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
‘LET’S SUE BIG OIL’: Legal Team Launches Class Action Campaign for B.C. Municipalities June 17, 2022
‘It Could Have Been Any of Us’, Colleague Says, After Brazil Confirms Murders of Bruno Pereira, Dom Phillips June 17, 2022
Infrastructure Gap a ‘Life and Death’ Matter as Northern Canada Warms June 17, 2022
Ban Fossil Fuel Ads Like Tobacco Promos, Doctors Urge Ottawa June 10, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Demand & Distribution Buildings

Trump Policies Hand Poor, Non-White Areas the ‘Brunt’ of Climate Impacts

January 24, 2020
Reading time: 5 minutes
Primary Author: Compiled by Gaye Taylor

Jay Phagan/Flickr

Jay Phagan/Flickr

1
SHARES
 

Critics are warning that the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the environmental review process for pipeline and highway megaprojects will hit poor and minority Americans hardest.

The sweeping changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), unveiled earlier this month, “would limit the scope of the environmental analysis required for such projects, including allowing greater industry involvement in environmental reviews and diminishing the role climate change plays in those assessments,” The Hill reports.

The proposed changes include an end accounting for cumulative effects, constraining or eliminating public input on projects, and requiring those who apply for injunctions to pay a financial penalty, the publication states. Critics are concerned that “with polluting industries already more likely to set up shop in minority communities as well as those with poverty, those same areas will bear the brunt of the changes to NEPA dealing with pollution and climate change.”

The cost will be borne by “the most vulnerable communities,” whose residents will “pay with [their] lives and their health. They always have,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, Vice President of Environmental Justice, Climate, and Community Revitalization at the National Wildlife Federation.

Particularly troubling, said senior environmental justice lawyer Kym Hunter, are legislative revisions that would limit the inclusion of cumulative effects in the review process. Under these changes, new projects could be advanced without having to account at all for tangential carbon-producing projects (such as new highways, for example), or for the presence of other polluting industries “that have already set up shop” in the vicinity of poor or minority neighbourhoods.

Communities will also lose the right they currently have to comment on projects, and the right to access to information.

Even where comments are still permitted, Trump’s changes call for any public input to “be more technical,” requiring commenters to have a command of pertinent data and sources likely well beyond the reach of average citizens.

“The whole point of NEPA is to give the public a voice in the decision-making process, and this just cuts that down in so many ways,” Hunter said. “The primary communities to suffer are those that already have a limited voice.”

They have limited funds, too. Yet, under the proposed changes, “communities also face the possibility of having to pay a bond—a fee to the agency—when asking for an injunction to stop the project.” The proposal doesn’t include rate guidelines, The Hill says.

Noting that America’s most vulnerable communities already have severely limited resources, Santiago Ali condemned the creation of yet another barrier to those already isolated from the protections that due process should provide. 

Meanwhile, a new study concludes that being poor in America, and especially being non-white, brings significantly increased exposure to environmental stresses and harms, including higher temperatures, reports NPR.

Researchers from the Science Museum of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Portland State University examined 108 urban areas nationwide, all “redlined” by the federal government in the 1930s—a racist practice by the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation that designated neighbourhoods with large numbers of Black and immigrant families as high-risk, effectively blocking them from home value appreciation or public investment. The study found that “redlined neighbourhoods are hotter than the highest-rated neighbourhoods by an average of almost 5.0°F.”

The redlining practice, “along with the other segregationist housing policies of the time, had lasting effects—from concentrating poverty to stifling home ownership rates,” NPR states. With the newly discovered micro-climate heating phenomenon, “you can still feel those effects—literally.”

The warming pattern appeared “consistently across the country,” said study co-author Vivek Shandas, a professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State. Poor, overheating, and facing persistent barriers caused by racism, these once-redlined communities “are much more likely to face grave consequences in terms of their human health, their financial health, or generally their ability to cope with these effects,” Shandas said.

That these typically inner-city spaces are so much hotter than whiter, more well-to-do sectors of a city likely owes, Shandas added, to a lack of green spaces and tree canopy. In urban areas, such factors can help counter the heat generated by concrete and pavement, but they are critically lacking in poor, inner-city areas in the U.S. A related study by the U.S. Forest Service found that “in 37 cities around the country, formerly redlined neighbourhoods have about half as many trees on average today as the highest-rated, predominantly white neighbourhoods on those maps.”

“Our cities, they’re not like jungles where they developed just by natural selection on their own,” said Sarah Lillie Anderson, senior manager of tree equity programs at the non-profit American Forests. “People designed these places, which means they were designed for particular people, and that means not everybody was held in mind when plans for cities and communities were made.”

Last week, the Trump administration delivered yet another blow to American homeowners—again, especially the poor, writes the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). On January 16, the federal government approved a new Department of Energy rule “that will make it much more difficult to set new energy efficiency standards for common appliances and equipment—from refrigerators, dishwashers, and home furnaces to commercial air conditioners and industrial motors.” ACEEE notes that the now-gutted standards “reduce harmful pollution, save the average U.S. household $500 each year, and according to the administration’s own fact sheet, will save U.S. consumers and businesses about $2 trillion by 2030.”

Describing the move as “the latest in a series of administration attacks on energy efficiency that include a recent rollback of efficiency standards for new light bulbs as well as cars and light trucks,” the ACEEE says the new rule “will significantly increase the energy savings threshold needed to trigger the process and allow manufacturers to largely design the testing that decides if the products meet standards.” The attacks “defy the common-sense, bipartisan support that energy efficiency has long enjoyed,” said ACEEE Executive Director Steven Nadel. 

“They will cost consumers and businesses money, create market uncertainty for businesses due to likely legal challenges, add to harmful pollution, and undermine efforts to address the climate crisis,” Nadel added—all of which will hammer poor and non-white Americans first and hardest.



in Buildings, Cities & Communities, Demand & Efficiency, Demographics, Energy Politics, Environmental Justice, Health & Safety, Heat & Temperature, Legal & Regulatory, Supply Chains & Consumption, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Jason Woodhead/Flickr
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Trans Mountain Pipeline On Track to Lose $600 Million, Parliamentary Budget Officer Finds

June 24, 2022
312
Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay
Petrochemicals & Plastics

Plastics Cited as ‘Fossil Industry’s Plan B’ as Guilbeault Announces Partial Ban

June 24, 2022
193
Erik Whalen/wikimedia commons
Severe Storms & Flooding

Yellowstone Park Reopens, But Flood Recovery Could Take Years, Cost Billions

June 24, 2022
73

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

The federal government's Cliff Street Power Plant is at the centre of Ottawa's plans to reduce natural gas demand. Photo: PWGSC

EXCLUSIVE: Ontario Regulator Refuses New Pipeline, Tells Enbridge to Plan for Lower Gas Demand

May 30, 2022
5.1k
Jason Woodhead/Flickr

Trans Mountain Pipeline On Track to Lose $600 Million, Parliamentary Budget Officer Finds

June 24, 2022
312
Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay

Plastics Cited as ‘Fossil Industry’s Plan B’ as Guilbeault Announces Partial Ban

June 24, 2022
193
Bruce Reeve/Flickr

Opinion: Ontario’s New ‘Carbon Tax’ Looks Like the One Doug Ford Fought

June 7, 2022
1.6k
zephylwer0/pixabay

North American Steel, Aluminium Giants Lumber Toward Green Transition

June 24, 2022
164
Michael and Diane Weidner/Unsplash

Scientists, Politicians Debate Ethics of ‘Climate Tinkering’

June 7, 2022
72

Recent Posts

Erik Whalen/wikimedia commons

Yellowstone Park Reopens, But Flood Recovery Could Take Years, Cost Billions

June 24, 2022
73
TAFE SA TONSLEY/Flickr

Clean Energy Investment to Exceed $1.4T This Year, Still Falls Short of Climate Goals: IEA

June 24, 2022
93
Nemaska Lithium/Facebook

Critical Minerals, Hydrogen Lead Ottawa’s Low-Carbon Industry Strategy

June 24, 2022
79
Cjp24/Wikimedia Commons

UK Green Shift Won’t Repeat Job Destruction of Deindustrialization, Report Finds

June 24, 2022
36
/PxFul

Canadian Farmers Offer Ottawa a Roadmap to Cut Agriculture Emissions

June 24, 2022
92
Pavlofox/Pixabay

Millions Face Famine as Climate Disasters, Ukraine War Slash Food Supplies

June 24, 2022
48
Next Post
power pylons sunrise grid

57% of Australians See Direct Effects of Bushfires as Power Grid Faces Peak Cooling Demand

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}