For Immediate Release
September 5, 2015
WE ACT for Environmental Justice, 212-961-1000 ext. 320 communications@weact.org
WASHINGTON, D.C.- As states begin to plan their response to the recently released Clean Power Plan (CPP), members from the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change (EJ Forum), coordinated by WE ACT Director of Federal Policy, Jalonne White-Newsome, rolled out a list of demands during a Capital Hill briefing for the Clean Power Plan.
During the briefing, forum members shared with Congressional leaders and staff the importance of meaningful public engagement with Environmental Justice Communities (EJ), federal agency accountability and support to ensure that low income communities and communities of color will benefit from the rules implementation.
Some of the demands Include encouraging their state to support the Clean Energy Incentives Program, demanding EPA support states in conducting a comprehensive Ej analysis to ensure implementation does not increase emissions in communities, commissioning a report to understand how EJ has been integrated into federal agencies and the state planning process, and supporting appropriations that funds energy efficiency programs – like the USDAs Rural Development program, and Energy Efficiency Conservation Loan Program.
The Clean Power Plan is the first ever rule to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants, the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States. Since the rule was proposed in June 2014, environmental justice and social justice advocates have been advocating to ensure environmental justice became a more prominent part of the final rule that was released on August 3.