President Trump’s recently proposed budget continues to slash spending for the federal government’s environmental justice programs. Eliminating such wasteful spending would be good news for taxpayers — and even better news for the low-income and minority communities that are the alleged beneficiaries of the environmental justice agenda.
There is out of touch, there is laughably out of touch, and then there is environmental justice. Communities struggling with crime, drugs, failing schools, few job opportunities, and broken families are getting government-funded solar panels, bike paths, and electric vehicle charging stations — not to mention an invading army of bureaucrats and others foisting their green wish list on people who never asked for any of it.
The fact that environmental fads are less popular in poor and minority communities is not an injustice that needs to be rectified with multibillion-dollar federal programs. If anything, it is a perfectly rational response from those who face real problems in their daily lives and can’t be bothered with fashionable causes.
Even worse than what the environmental justice crusaders want to bring into the community is what they want to keep out — jobs, and especially good-paying, blue-collar jobs. The 20th-century migration of poor southern Blacks to the industrial North is a success story worth retelling. There, millions escaped poverty by taking factory jobs that served as a gateway to the middle class and a better life for themselves and their children. That same opportunity awaits millions more today and is a major reason the administration has emphasized policies to expand domestic manufacturing. It can’t happen if the environmental justice crowd gets its way and blocks these industrial projects in the communities that need them most.
Environmental justice bureaucrats and lawyers treat manufacturing facilities as public enemy No. 1. Any company considering locating anywhere near any community of color would likely face a federally financed legal onslaught predicated on hype about pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
This is where the environmental justice agenda has it backward. Fearmongering about industrial pollution disproportionately harming these communities is built on weak evidence, to put it mildly. In truth, any manufacturing facility must comply with the most stringent air and water pollution requirements anywhere in the world, and such emissions have declined dramatically over the last several decades. The real problem is poverty, not pollution, and the solution is good-paying jobs — the jobs often blocked by the environmental justice bureaucracy.
Environmental justice is far from the first policy to harm the people it claims to help. Pulling the plug on as much of this as possible may well be the most important part of Trump’s community development agenda.
Donna Jackson is a senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). She wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Reprinted with permission from DC Journal by Donna Jackson.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
It’s climate fluctuation, not climate change – the Trojan Horse used to steal our freedom and initiative. Stewardship is key.
We need to start some serious drilling for oil, fracking for gas and refining our product in THIS country. That should have been done yesterday!
Environmental warriors, bought and paid for, Not one would fight for the cause out of belief, I wonder, would they defend the manufacturer for the right to pollute if the price were right, would they come up with the justification and explanation.
And Welfare and Food Stamps were supposed to be the end of poverty, especially for minorities. But then maybe I could just say propaganda of any type that Democrats are promoting in the end never benefits those they say it will. Democrats have never been known to walk the talk when it comes to the promises they make. So many citizens have been fooled by the climate change agenda never stopping to evaluate what is really going on and who it’s really benefitting. The industrial revolution raised the world out of poverty creating an amazing middle class in the U.S. I’ve never been able to figure out how that continues by forbidding industry to exist, but it sure seems that is the end goal for some.
In the U.S. we do a lot in manufacturing and producing energy to help keep our planet clean. The countries that need to be yelled at for polluting our air and waters are the two biggest polluters….India and China!!! Last night in the AZ State University graduation ceremony, Harrison Ford was the speaker. He started out not to bad talking about conservation but them yelled to the crowd that we need to “change our culture” to save our planet. These rich celebrities pollute this world much more that we average Joe’s. Let them give up their jets and multiple mansions and live like the average American.
Let the incredibly corrupt Al Gore be the Allegory for our times!
Those who want Eco Justice & can afford it do these:L
Drive EVs
Solar on homes
Recycle waste
Energy storage units on site
Telework
Boost H2
Boost Nuclear
LIVE what U Lecture
I determined long ago that Environmental warriors were the enemy of the American people
From your lips to GOD’S ears. Otherwise, the folks who have the capability to change things are too rich to care.
Yet they never miss a chance to tell us it is OUR fault. Dumba$$ocrat$, I am looking over at you….
Now the Government must stop Frauds, dishing out Taxpayer Money to the states to handle programs like Medicaid and others without monitoring if it went where it was supposed to.
What about fishing, hiking camping biking, watching nature thrive? How about learning good stewardship of the land, enjoying nature and all the species that live in it? Don’t you think that benefits everyone? It’s sad to me to see the areas I used to play in the woods being destroyed with the animals that lived in them.