Environmental Justice Faces Opposition from House Republicans

By Better Today On Dec 9, 2023

TL/DR –

Speaker Mike Johnson’s first bill passed through the House aims to cut $5-6 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, impacting many energy and climate projects which benefit Republican states. The bill also proposes to block environmental justice initiatives and withhold support for a “just transition” for disadvantaged communities. Opinion writer Derrick Jackson argues that the legislation is both racist and hypocritical given that 73% of investments from the Inflation Reduction Act are funneled into largely Republican-controlled states.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s First Bill Threatens Inflation Reduction Act and Environmental Justice

Speaker Mike Johnson’s first bill in the House aims to cut up to six billion dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act. (Photo: Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Speaker Mike Johnson’s first legislative move in the House threatens to hinder several energy and climate projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. This could adversely affect environmental justice initiatives and block a \”just transition\” for disadvantaged communities, despite the significant benefits Republican states receive from this funding.

Transcript

Mike Johnson, the new House Speaker from Louisiana, is already attempting to slash key legislation from the Biden Administration. His first bill in the House aims to gut the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included nearly $370 billion in climate and clean energy funding. Additionally, it would eliminate the President’s Justice 40 initiative, which aims to direct at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from federal climate and infrastructure investments to underserved communities hit hardest by pollution and climate change impacts.

The bill Johnson pushed through the House would significantly impact the energy and climate change projects under the Inflation Reduction Act, including clean energy and efficiency efforts by the Department of Energy, a national climate corps, state net zero programs, and the consideration of the social costs of greenhouse gases.

The bill would also significantly impact communities of color that have suffered disproportionately from pollution by banning funding of the White House’s Justice 40 initiative, which directs the benefits of environmental projects towards these communities. It would block funding for a more diverse science workforce and a new national laboratory focused on diverse communities. There is even a ban on any discussion of ‘critical race theory’ in the Department of Energy and in any discourse on environmental injustice.

The bill also removes funding for the Biden Administration’s Justice 40 initiative, which benefits communities of color that bear the brunt of pollution. (Photo: Pixabay, Pexels)

Interestingly, the Inflation Reduction Act that the GOP publicly criticizes has triggered nearly 250 projects for electric vehicle factories and other renewable energy factories. This has unleashed about $100 billion of investment, with 73% of it going to states that Donald Trump won or are controlled by Republican legislatures. South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina each have at least $10 billion of this investment, while Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia each have at least a billion dollars of investment.

Seventy-three percent of investments from the IRA go to largely Republican-controlled states. (Photo: Daxis, Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

This bill provides a glimpse into the Republican agenda on climate change moving forward. While it won’t pass under the current administration, it could serve as a blueprint for a second Trump administration.