It will not advance its stated goals
On his seventh full day in office, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” Alongside policies aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, the order promises to “secure environmental justice” for “historically marginalized” communities. In pursuit of that goal, it demands that 40 percent of the benefits of environmental and infrastructure programs flow to specific disadvantaged communities.
That objective might sound commendable, even overdue. But beneath the upbeat progressive jargon, Biden’s “Justice40 Initiative” threatens to gum up the workings of both government and private enterprise and, ultimately, to undermine the very goals the administration claims to value most: lowering emissions and reducing poverty.
The environmental-justice (EJ) movement began in the 1980s with the reasonable claim that minority communities are entitled to equal protection under environmental laws. Over time, however, the movement attracted activists who see EJ as part of a broader leftist struggle. Many describe environmental problems as inevitable by-products of a racist, capitalist society. Longtime EJ activist Richard Moore, for example, said at a Center for American Progress roundtable that American minorities today face “climate injustice, environmental racism, and environmental genocide.”
Continue reading the entire piece here at the National Review (paywall)
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James B. Meigs is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a City Journal contributing editor, cohost of the How Do We Fix It? podcast, and the former editor of Popular Mechanics. Based on a recent report.
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