CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE?: Vermont state senators on Friday heard that efforts to save society from global warming and efforts to fight racism need to be combined.
The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy on Friday took testimony from several witnesses who said environmental justice must incorporate efforts to fight racism.
According to the text of S.148 — “An act relating to environmental justice in Vermont” — the bill’s purpose is “to establish an environmental justice policy for the State of Vermont and require the State agencies to incorporate environmental justice into their work.”
It would establish an Advisory Council on Environmental Justice within the Agency of Natural Resources to advise the state “on environmental justice issues.”
Kiah Morris, a former state representative and now the movement politics director for Rights and Democracy Vermont, said environmental justice is about “efforts to combat climate change in a just and equitable manner.” She expressed frustration that existing social justice positions in government are relegated to advisory roles.
“The frustration of once again being relegated to an advisory function to appease political sensitivities in order to pass this vital piece of legislation, it continues the harms as discussed,” she said. “We need to be honest about the reticence to give this body meaningful authority, and why that is the case is that it builds a sense of distrust among the communities who are looking for this opportunity to finally be heard.”
The bill offers a definition for environmental justice.
Environmental justice redresses structural and institutional racism, colonialism, and other systems of oppression that result in the marginalization, degradation, disinvestment, and neglect of Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color. Environmental justice requires prioritizing resources for community revitalization, ecological restoration, resilience planning, and a just recovery to communities most impacted by environmental injustices and natural disasters.
Another witness to testify on the bill was Jennifer Byrne, an Environmental Justice Clinic fellow from Vermont Law School.
“Our fundamental purpose is to craft environmental justice policies for Vermont based on based on the testimony of those who have been systematically excluded from the mainstream environmental movement,” she said.
According to Byrne, the bill would mandate that more than half of all funds be spent on environmental-related causes, and should target “EJ populations.” The bill defines those populations as “based on race, low-income, and limited English proficiency.”
Hayley Jones, director of Community Action Works for Vermont and New Hampshire, requested that lawmakers establish more enforcement mechanisms for their social justice climate agenda.
“We need not only to establish this EJ policy in Vermont, we have to set up systems of accountability,” she said. “It’s not just about checking a box and patting ourselves on the back; we need to establish, as you’ve seen in S.148, an EJ Advisory Council, a coalition of advisors from historically marginalized groups who are going to hold legislators and regulators their promises.”
Sebbi Wu, the Climate and Equity advocate for VPIRG (Vermont Public Interest Research Group), also spoke. Wu said he’s not aware of any substantial opposition to implementing climate social justice policies.
“During this time working on this issue I have not come across anyone who is outwardly opposed to passing such a bill,” he said. ” … The more central question to me is whether the first step that we take on this meets the moment and sets the state on the right trajectory to do this work properly.”
The push for environmental justice comes at a time when Americans are increasingly upset over soaring gas prices, which may soon top $4 per gallon.
President Joe Biden has backed an agenda that would harm the gas producers and distributors. And U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently urged Americans to buy electric vehicles as a way to avoid gasoline expenses.
Many Americans will not likely be able to purchase electric vehicles, which can average around $50,000, even with $12,500 in subsidies included in the Build Back Better bill.
Friday’s meeting of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy can be viewed online in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.
Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.
Is this surprising?
What a load of horse manure.
Everything Vermont does to fight global warming won’t amount a hole in the snow worldwide..
So Morris, who was an elected official once, wants an advisory council, which doesn’t have to answer to the voters, to be able to make the laws? Interesting.
Is the Environment UnJust?
When did the environment become a person entitled to Justice?
Did anyone vote on extending the human right of “Justice” onto the Environment?
Are clouds and trees people too now?
It’s truly sickening that so many of our people are in the struggles of their lives now- says the levels of addictions and suicides, and the filthy government spends our tax dollars this way.
The Tree of Liberty is dry.
Environmental justice is just a code word for:
1) having even more socialistic, Dem/Prog-run, government programs
2) promoting even more of central command/control regimentation of Vermonters, by using CLIMATE CHANGE scare-mongering as a foil
In November 2022, Vermonters will be voting, en masse, to vote out those socialistic fakesters
When do the “Make Vermont Normal” people take the wheel back from the “Keep Vermont Weird” crowd?
People in other states that I know, have commented that Vermont is now the nations’ leader in being woke and communist. This crap is an example of what they are referring too. Normal people don’t want to live here anymore.
This is a great example of the “You get what you vote for” disease. It is currently playing out in large cities like Seattle or states like Kali. Strange things begin to happen when the lunatics take over the asylum. It has begun to infect Vermont so get ready to disinfect.
I identify as a Vermonter.
Where’s MY justice?
I identify as a Vermonter, who does NOT belong to any party; yet, I must belong to one of them to vote in the primary…..Really!!!
My Daddy used to say people like that are “educated beyond their intelligence”.
Your dad’s a smart man… it isn’t justice for us it’s JUSTUS for leftist feelz… that won’t lower the
the Co level one iota…
Rebecca my Daddy said that many of them are so open minded that their brains fell out.
Bahahahahahahaahahhahaa!
That does it! From here on out in going to identify as bipoc!…..what! Im sorry, what are the genetic qualifications? Go ahead, ask me to prove it.
Carpetbaggers trying to profit from an imagined grief to perpetuate the flow of dollars to their accounts. Environmental Justice what a load of you know what!
crap
Exactly. Just follow the money.
An ironic and horrific afterthought to the ‘Sub-Saharan’ comment; some of these women, the ones coming from more orthodox Islamic cultures are forced to wear hijabs, coverings that hide their hair/femininity. Now that they have arrived in “welcoming to all” liberal Vermont, they will have to conceal EVEN MORE of their bodies with a mask (make sure it covers your nose AND mouth!), conforming to dictates of not only their brutal patriarchal culture but also the irrational MANIA of indulgent western libtards whose claim to virtue is a “refugee’s welcome” sign in their front yard.
One tenant of racial/environmental justice I never see addressed; Why are we populating one of the coldest, wettest, most northern states with refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa? It’s always seemed unnecessarily perverse to me. Perhaps that’s the point? To render a population completely unfamiliar and alienated from the land that they live on, forcing them to be MORE dependent on the system/structure that relocated them. These people are from a hot, dry climate, their home could not be more dissimilar to ours, and yet I never see ANY liberal hand wringing over this obvious oversight.
What a bunch of WOKE DOPES!
Did Jonathan Swift write this plot?
What a crock of {Fill in the Blank}…