Watch as Project 21 Testifies Before Congress

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Hello John,

Criticizing those who see “environmental justice” as a “one-sided issue,” a member of our Project 21 black leadership network is testifying today before Congress to explain a more balanced approach for applying racial considerations to the federal grantmaking process.

Project 21 member Donna Jackson is scheduled to testify at a virtual hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife today at 2pm ET. The hearing is entitled “Environmental Justice for Coastal Communities: Examining Inequities in Federal Grantmaking.” Click here to see more about the hearing and how you can watch it live, or stream it later on-demand.

In her prepared testimony, Donna notes that most hearing participants are presumably “in a comfortable economic position” and “can afford to be complacent about the costs of environmental policies.” But, as she later points out in her presentation, burdensome environmental policies can be “devastating” to poor – often minority – communities by causing higher consumer prices, fewer job opportunities and less infrastructure.

“The environmental justice movement is part of the problem,” Donna claims, “not part of the solution.”

In her prepared testimony, She adds:

There are far too many people who try to make environmental justice into a one-sided issue. They focus only on claims that disadvantaged and minority communities are disproportionate victims of environmental threats such as water pollution, air pollution, climate change, and others. But I think the greater threat comes from the disproportionate impacts of environmental policies and the damage they do to the economic aspirations of those who can least afford them.

Regarding federal grantmaking in particular, she notes:

If the purpose of these grants is to pursue policies that serve to raise the cost of living on those who can least afford it, or to stifle the creation of good-paying jobs for those who most need them, then minority communities are better off without the money. The only winners seem to be environmental activists, bureaucrats and lawyers, but not the communities these people claim to serve.

Donna is also highlighting Project 21’s “Blueprint for a Better Deal for Black America” in her presentation to Congress. In the Blueprint, Project 21 noted that regulations can have a “disproportionately negative impact” on black American entrepreneurs and recommended “minority impact assessments” be conducted on new regulations to determine how they might affect minority communities before they are instituted.

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