For Immediate Release: August 12, 2022
Media contact: Sade Moore, Water Hub, smoore@climatenexus.org

Positive climate action comes at a cost to fossil fuel-impacted communities
The Water Equity & Climate Resilience Caucus responds to Inflation Reduction Act

The Water Equity and Climate Resilience (WECR) Caucus is a national network of nearly 100 organizations centering frontline communities of color and low-income communities working to advance climate and water equity. At the national level, the Caucus pushes for policies that ensure safe, affordable drinking water, resilience and economic opportunity for communities made vulnerable by pollution and climate change.

Following passage in Congress, climate justice leaders with the WECR Caucus shared their response to the Infrastructure Reduction Act of 2022. While a significant investment in the United States’ clean energy future, this legislation also paves the way for new offshore drilling and oil pipelines that fuel further climate change while threatening the health and safety of communities facing flooding, fire and drought. This hard-fought compromise reflects our national approach to climate policy that has long focused on incrementally reducing emissions without centering environmental and economic justice.

Some positive climate action…

• On clean energy, the bill contains billions of dollars for the manufacturing and deployment of clean energy technology, efficiency and electrification; direct rebates for consumers; and funding for energy and water efficiency in affordable housing.

• On water, there will be billions of dollars to help farmers reduce water use and pollution, and more than $4 billion dollars toward safe water access in the West for communities and Tribes facing water insecurity as drought and overuse drain rivers, reservoirs and underground aquifers. The bill also provides $2.6 billion to FEMA to help coastal communities prepare for extreme storms and climate change.

• On environmental justice, ​​the bill would cut the pollution that disproportionately impacts predominantly Black and brown, low-income communities, with $47 billion in environmental justice initiatives that will clearly benefit frontline communities.

But at what cost and at whose expense?

• The concessions made to get a climate bill in place do so by endangering communities living in the shadow of mining, drilling, moving and burning fossil fuels, including those in the Gulf South and Alaska. The bill requires the Department of Interior to put millions of acres of public lands and waters up for oil and gas leasing before the agency can grant access or sell leases to renewable energy projects.

• As part of the deal, Congressional leadership agreed on separate legislation that will, if passed, make it easier to approve polluting fossil fuel project permits and undermine the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a critical tool for communities of color and low-income communities to fight dirty energy and other polluting industries. 

• The bill includes giveaways to polluters like carbon capture and sequestration instead of focusing investment on a just transition away from the fossil fuel economy. Emissions reductions projections don’t account for future fossil fuel extraction or rely on false solutions like CCS that are unproven and likely to keep polluting power plants open longer.

The co-chairs of the Water Equity and Climate Resilience Caucus released the following statements:

Dr. Yasmin Zaerpoor, Director of Water Equity and Climate Resilience with PolicyLink

“For years, communities of color and people living with pollution and the impacts of climate change have been calling for policies that build a liveable future for all. While we are glad to see Congress invest in clean energy, electrification and climate resilience, we are disheartened that it is again at the expense of the same communities that have been disproportionately negatively impacted by policymaking in the past. We need bold climate action rooted in climate justice that does not continue to push pollution and destruction from fossil fuels onto Black, Brown and Indigenous Peoples.”

Colette Pichon Battle, Esq., Vision & Initiative’s Partner, Taproot Earth

“Once again, the only climate proposal on the table requires that the communities of the Gulf South bear the disproportionate cost of national interests bending a knee to dirty energy — furthering the debt this country owes to the South. We say no more. What feels like a 'win' for the rest of the country, appears to be a line drawn in the sand for the Gulf South.”

We either fight for what we love, or we let the negotiators of this deal sacrifice us again. We choose now to do better than what this bill delivers.”

Read the full Taproot Earth statement here.

About the Water Equity and Climate Resilience Caucus
The WECR Caucus is a national network of organizations centering frontline communities of color and low-income communities in working to achieve water equity and climate justice. It is co-chaired by PolicyLink and Taproot Earth (formerly Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy).