Activists See Biden’s Day One Focus on Environmental Justice as a Critical Campaign Promise Kept
The new president signed executive orders on inauguration day aimed at embedding equity across the government and rolling back Trump’s anti-environment legacy.
January 24, 2021
Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as Cancer Alley along the Mississippi River in Louisiana on Oct. 15, 2013. Credit: Giles Clarke/Getty Images
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Catherine Flowers remembers the moment she realized the environmental justice movement had entered a new era of acceptance and recognition.
It came last spring, the environmental justice activist said, when then-candidate Joe Biden snatched the Democratic nomination from Sen. Bernie Sanders and shortly afterward announced the creation of a joint task force to shape climate change policy. “He talked about environmental justice,” said Flowers, recalling her sense of amazement.
Will 2021 Be the Year for Environmental Justice Legislation? States Are Already Leading the Way
The new state laws address the disproportionate impact of climate change and pollution on communities of color. Joe Biden is promising to do the same in Washington.
January 15, 2021
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
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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.
Activists Eye a Superfund Reboot Under Biden With a Focus on Environmental Justice and Climate Change
The EPA’s program for cleaning up the nation’s hazardous waste dumps has a backlog of sites that lack funding the largest in 15 years.
By David Hasemyer and Lise Olsen
December 28, 2020
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Super Threats: Last in a series with The Texas Observer and NBC News about Superfund sites and climate change.
The uber challenge facing the incoming Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency in its oversight of 1,570 hazard waste sites is best summed in a name that’s become synonymous with the daunting task: Superfund.