Exclusive: Kamala Harris to introduce comprehensive environmental justice bill in Senate [View all]

[Budi]

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FROM the Article:
Great read...

https://grist.org/justice/exclusive-kamala-harris-to-introduce-comprehensive-environmental-justice-bill-in-senate/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Exclusive: Kamala Harris to introduce comprehensive environmental justice bill in Senate

Fifteen years ago, Kamala Harris — San Francisco’s District Attorney at the time — created an environmental justice unit in her office. The goal was to go after the perpetrators of environmental crimes that were hurting some of the city’s poorest residents.

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Harris, as California’s junior senator, is fighting for a comprehensive piece of legislation that will give vulnerable communities the tools they need to address environmental disparities.
On Thursday, Harris plans to introduce a companion bill in the Senate to the Environmental Justice for All Act introduced earlier this year in the House of Representatives by Democrats A. Donald McEachin of Virginia and Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona.

“Environmental justice is interconnected with every aspect of our fight for justice. From racial justice and economic justice, to housing justice and educational justice, we cannot disentangle the environment people live in from the lives they live,” Harris told Grist in an email. “These crises we are experiencing have exposed injustices in our nation that many of us have known and fought our entire lives.”

The Senate bill, whose lead cosponsors are Democrats Cory Booker of New Jersey and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, acknowledges how factors such as segregation and racist zoning codes have rendered communities of color more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and left them with limited resources to address ongoing environmental health disparities. To address this, the act aims broadly to meaningfully engage impacted communities in government decision-making processes,..

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The Environmental Justice for All Act would amend the Civil Rights Act to allow private citizens and organizations that experience discrimination to seek legal remedies when a program, policy, or practice causes a disparate impact.
It would also require federal agencies to consider health effects that might compound over time when making permitting decisions under the federal Clean Air and Clean Water acts. In addition, it would fund research on and programs to reduce health disparities and improve public health in disadvantaged communities.

Under the act, new fees on oil, gas, and coal companies would go toward a fund to support workers and communities transitioning away from fossil fuel jobs. Finally, the act also intends to codify and make enforceable a....
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Thank You Sens Harris, Duckworth & Booker, & all who bring their many long years of clawing through these issues at a Local State & Federal level, finally to the point of preparing a solid bill, & now today, having the priviledge of introducing it to the Senate.


Proud to see these leaders of our future doing more than talking about it for a campaign photo op.
Thank you.

A well prepared & carefully written bill indeed.

Environmental Justice defined.
💙