Sen. Elizabeth Warren is taking Democratic efforts to combat climate change one step further, releasing a plan on Wednesday that would address “environmental racism.”
The $1.5 trillion plan would more heavily invest in low-income and minority communities in the form of job-training programs and technologies.
“Our crisis of environmental injustice is the result of decades of discrimination and environmental racism compounding in communities that have been overlooked for too long,” according to the new plan.
“The same communities that have borne the brunt of industrial pollution are now on the front lines of climate change, often getting hit first and worst,” she wrote, arguing that it’s a “result of multiple choices that put corporate profits before people, while our government looked the other way.”
She added: “It is unacceptable, and it must change.”
Justice for communities on the front lines of the climate crisis must be at the core of our response to climate change. Here's my plan for how I'll center environmental justice in the fight to end the climate crisis. https://t.co/agB4llfPRg
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 9, 2019
The senator’s plan calls for improving equity mapping of marginalized communities to better identify climate risk damage from increasingly intense storms, droughts and wildfires.
Warren would mandate that all federal agencies consider climate impacts in developing rules, and she would restore the Obama-era water rule, which the Trump administration recently rolled back. The plan also instructs the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice to enhance enforcement against industrial polluters. […]
Warren’s plan would apply to communities on coasts threatened by storm surge and sea-level rise, as well as those more prone to wildfires and flooding. It would help people move out of flood-prone properties and transform post-disaster housing assistance to better protect renters.
Warren highlighted several areas in the U.S. particularly vulnerable to pollution and health problems linked to toxic runoff. In Detroit, Michigan, a predominantly African American neighborhood called Boynton is situated next to a large oil refinery, which has led to high levels of cancer linked to toxins and has made that ZIP code the most polluted in the state.
In her plan, Warren said she would provide job training, guaranteed wage and benefit parity for fossil fuel workers transitioning into other industries, as well as pensions and early benefits for those who retire. (CNBC)
On Wednesday, Warren officially ousted former Vice President Joe Biden from his top spot in RealClearPolitics's national average of polling, although by a small margin—26.6 percent to Biden's 26.4 percent.