Climate change is the existential threat of our generation, and a colossal public health crisis. The environmental impacts of climate change have tangible, significant, and severe impacts on human health and continue to worsen population health disparities.

Background

Here in Los Angeles, environmental racism and injustice runs deep. For example, despite the fact that the Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon was closed five years ago, thousands of lead-contaminated properties have yet to be cleaned. There remain roughly 1,000 abandoned oil wells in the city of Los Angeles which continue to emit noxious carcinogens like formaldehyde and benzene into the air - the vast majority of which are located in close proximity to Black and Latinx neighborhoods. Here in the San Fernando Valley, the Aliso Canyon storage facility - home to the largest methane blowout in U.S. history at 109,000 metric tons - has yet to be closed. In the East Valley neighborhood of Sun Valley and Pacoima, SoCalGas and the City of Los Angeles colluded to cover up a three-year long gas leak that has disproportionately impacted working class Latinx communities. 

And in one of the most egregious examples of environmental genocide, the city of Los Angeles continues to receive roughly 40% of its water supply from the LA Aqueduct. The LA Aqueduct is a century old 338-mile pipeline owned by the City of Los Angeles that starts in the Owens Valley in the Sierra Nevada mountains and terminates at the mouth of the San Fernando Valley close to the 405 and 118 highway junctions. That water historically belonged to the Indigenous Paiute Tribes of the Owens Valley, until it was swindled out of their control at the turn of the century by powerful Los Angeles business tycoons colluding with the federal Bureau of Reclamation. To this day, if the Paiute Tribes - which are sovereign governments - have so much as a broken water pipe or wish to divert water to irrigate a field, they must obtain permission from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Meanwhile, dust storms on the Tribal reservations triggered by the aqueduct’s water drainage and diversion system have led to some of the most extreme forms of air pollution with particulate matter at ten times higher than EPA standards. 

Higher temperatures, melting permafrost, and rising sea levels in Alaska have forced the displacement of countless Alaskan Native Tribal villages, while in the lower 48 oil spills, marine pollution, and urban runoff have significantly disrupted Tribal fisheries and access to traditional foods. In Flint Michigan, Black families still lack clean lead-free running water. In Navajo Nation, there are thousands of abandoned uranium mines that have been linked to higher rates of chronic diseases that have yet to be properly closed.  These examples only provide a small snapshot of the devastating impact of this crisis, and how environmental injustices over the decades have precipitated the outsized impact of climate change on low-income communities of color.

The health and socioeconomic impacts of climate change and environmental racism are astronomical. The exploitation of earth’s finite resources by reckless oil and gas companies in pursuit of endless profit is corrosive to both human health and our collective society. In a fair and just democracy, there is no room for such profligate gain at the expense of millions of people.

VISION

Structural racism and the legacies of redlining have left Indigenous, Black and Latinx communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, as they experience the harshest impacts of climate change. And while I support the findings and recommendations of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, a comprehensive response to climate change necessitates including a federal jobs guarantee and a 21st century public health system that includes Medicare for All. Similarly, our environmental platform must include significant green-energy infrastructure investments into needs like broadband and internet access. That is why our Environmental Justice, Economic Growth, and Green New Deal platform calls for the following policies:

Abolish all federal oil and gas tax subsidies.

• Federal subsidies for oil, gas and coal companies equal a whopping $649 billion annually - roughly nine times higher than annual appropriations for the Department of Education ($73.5 billion in FY 2021). 

• Federal fossil fuel subsidies take the form of direct tax breaks, such as the Intangible Drilling Costs Deduction (IDCD), or through indirect subsidies, such as the Foreign Tax Credit. The IDCD allows fossil fuel companies to deduct the vast majority of costs associated with drilling new oil wells domestically, while the Foreign Tax Credit is a loophole that allows fossil fuel companies to deduct the royalties they pay abroad from their taxable income here at home. 

  • Eliminating these two tax incentives alone would generate $25.7 billion in revenue over a decade, which would be reinvested in renewable energy production and job creation. 

Invest billions annually towards constructing high-speed rail and modernizing and electrifying public transit through 100% renewable energy.

• In cities like Los Angeles, freeway expansion projects and redlining policies worked hand in glove to violently displace low-income Black and brown neighborhoods for decades. The result has been massive urban sprawl, high-density traffic, air pollution, and worsening poverty in low-income neighborhoods.

• LA has the worst ozone pollution in the country, much of it driven by a transportation sector heavily reliant on petroleum-based fossil fuels. Nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions nationally come from the transportation sector. It’s essential that we invest billions into constructing high-speed rail and electrifying public transit. According to Data for Progress, electrification could reduce 21.5 million metric tons of CO2, lead to over 4,000 fewer deaths nationally, and save over $100 billion in associated health costs.

Expand and Strengthen the Clean Air Act to empower the EPA to aggressively pursue litigation, fees, and penalties on fossil fuel companies. 

• For too long the EPA has neglected to meaningfully prosecute and hold accountable fossil fuel companies for their direct role in exacerbating climate change and polluting our air and water. For too long fossil fuel companies have triggered hazardous spills, explosions, and accidents only to then abandon their responsibilities towards full cleanup and remediation. And for too long the boundless greed of fossil fuel companies has gone unfettered as they directly contribute to worsening human health and population health disparities.

  • Empowering the EPA to pursue full charges against fossil fuel companies could generate hundreds of millions that would be directly invested in repaying the individuals and communities impacted by their endless greed, and in subsidies for renewable energy research, development and manufacturing to prevent future disasters.

Ban fracking, offshore drilling, and mountaintop removal coal mining.

• There are thousands of wells off the shores of California, with the overwhelming majority located off the coast of Los Angeles. While California State law bans offshore drilling, it is not barred federally, and the Trump Administration has stubbornly pursued ways of restarting offshore drilling. A permanent federal ban would ensure no future Administration could underhandedly violate state bans. 

• Fracking - specifically hydraulic fracking - is one of the most dangerous and pollutive forms of energy extraction in the world. Like coal mining, it can lead to severe adverse health impacts through release of chemicals that worsen air and water pollution and have been linked to health conditions like leukemia, birth defects, asthma, and other ailments. 

• Because of where many fracking sites are located, the practice has disproportionately impacted soil, air, and water quality on Tribal lands and reservations. 

  • Under the Trump Administration, thousands of acres of lands in culturally and spiritually sacred sites like Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Bears Ears in Utah have been opened up to fossil fuel leases to plunder and extract finite oil and gas. It is violation of our constitutional treaty and trust obligations to subject sovereign Tribal lands and sacred sites to such ruthless exploitation.

Invest $1 trillion annually into renewable energy technology research, and development; and provide strong incentives for state and local governments to transition to 100% renewable energy economies. 

• In order to implement use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar on an industrial scale, it requires significant long-term investments into new, cost-efficient and sustainable technologies research and manufacturing. The United States can and must lead this new era of energy development.

• In addition to R&D investments, Congress should subsidize state, Tribal and local governments to make the transition to 100% renewable energy sources to ensure no community is left behind in the transition. 

Provide a federal jobs and wages guarantee and tuition-free college for workers in the fossil fuel and health insurance industries as we transition to a 100% renewable energy economy and implement Medicare for All.

• It is critical that worker rights be protected and expanded by strengthening unionization and collective bargaining for workers in the renewable energy industry. In addition, Congress must step in and provide tuition-free college to help transition workers to a new career if they choose as part of a comprehensive plan to make all public colleges tuition free. 

• Similarly, Congress must establish a federal jobs guarantee for workers in the fossil fuel, health insurance, and pharmaceutical industries as we push to enact policies like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. A federal jobs and/or wages guarantee - depending on individual circumstance - would prevent job loss and mitigate any displacement that may ensue from a transition to a renewable energy-based economy and single-payer healthcare system. 

Divest federal pensions from fossil fuel companies and strongly incentivize states to follow suit.

• Divestment from the fossil fuel industry must take many forms, and that includes our federal employee pensions. At the same time, Congress must strongly incentivize states to follow suit by tying access to certain federal funds to meaningful action towards divestment. 

Invest $200 billion in block grants for state, Tribal, territorial, and local governments towards creation of energy-efficient and green municipal broadband infrastructure.

• High-speed broadband connectivity is necessary for a modern world, and especially for our public schools, colleges, and universities. But we must ensure this development is publicly-owned and controlled as opposed to financing further corporate monopolization of our telecommunications infrastructure. 

• However, we must be mindful of, and responsive to, any population health impacts of radio frequency radiation (RFR).

Commission a federal advisory committee of environmental justice activists and experts, Tribal officials, public health practitioners, medical professionals, and urban planners to develop a comprehensive report on the intergenerational impacts of environmental racism on the social determinants of health.

• In public health practice, the social determinants of health are broadly defined as the socioeconomic factors - like access to housing, education, healthcare, food security, transportation and so forth - that influence health outcomes. 

• While some research has been done on the population health impacts of climate change, few studies have taken a holistic view of how destructive forms of state-sponsored segregation like redlining, the creation of the interstate highway system, decades of fire suppression policies that deny centuries of Indigenous knowledge, water diversion and privatization policies, and other federal, state and local laws and regulations have precipitated the rise of climate change and contributed to the immense racial health inequities we see today. 

In partnership with the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, Tribal Nations, and the Department of Interior, commission a comprehensive report on the generational impacts of the Los Angeles Aqueduct on the economic, social, spiritual, and health outcomes of Tribal communities in the Owens Valley. 

• Over a century ago, the City of Los Angeles colluded with the federal government to swindle the Paiute Tribes in the Owens Valley in the Sierra Nevadas by taking over full control of their water. After former city officials bought thousands of acres of land in the Owens Valley, they built a 338-mile pipeline to transport the water, with its terminus, to this day, in the San Fernando Valley. 

• Over a century later, the LA Aqueduct continues to supply roughly 40% of the water source for the city, while Tribal citizens experienced some of the worst rates of air pollution nationwide for decades brought on by frequent dust storms resulting from drainage of the Owens lake. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) continues to hold full control and rights over the water in the Owens Valley. This means that the Tribes must seek the approval of LADWP to make simple repairs, or to divert water for irrigation, or any other needs. 

  • This is a direct infringement on the inherent sovereignty of Tribal Nations, who are appropriated a percentage of their own water from LADWP annually. 

• This report must outline policy recommendations for full remuneration and damages, and a plan for transitioning control of the water in the Owens Valley back to the rightful hands of the Paiute Tribes in the region. 

Invest a minimum $20 billion annually into the EPA and CDC to conduct research on the public health impacts of climate change and provide block grants to state, Tribal, territorial, and local governments to address its population health impacts.  

• Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities are disproportionately impacted by chronic diseases like asthma, allergens, food and waterborne diseases, and other forms of adverse health conditions that are worsened by climate change. As part of our comprehensive response to our climate emergency, it is necessary that Congress fund localities to prevent, mitigate, and treat its adverse health impacts. 

Provide full, permanent, and entitlement funding for Water and Sanitation infrastructure on Tribal lands and reservations and for Tribal water programs at EPA.

• Nationally, up to 12% of homes on Tribal lands lack safe drinking water and basic sanitation - more than twenty times the national average. On some Tribal reservations and Alaskan Native Villages, up to a third of households lack drinking water. Similarly, in the over 40 years since passage of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, only 45 Tribal Nations - or 7% of Tribal governments - have EPA-approved water quality standards. This is a national stain that must be immediately addressed. 

Invest $15 billion annually to update and modernize municipal water and sanitation infrastructure.

• Years later, Flint Michigan still lacks clean water. Nationwide, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities are acutely impacted by degraded municipal water systems. We must rebuild our ageing water infrastructure through green energy improvements that decontaminate water supplies from harmful metals and other contaminants, repair septic tanks and drainage fields, and build new water systems that provide access to water scarce communities. 

  • Rebuilding our critical infrastructure is a necessary component of our comprehensive response to climate change while creating thousands of good-paying jobs in the process. 

Establish the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis as a permanent committee with full legislative authority and subpoena power. 

• In order to fully legislate on the Green New Deal, we need a permanent committee that has the full authority to develop and pass legislation on climate issues and to subpoena federal officials. Without teeth, the recommendations of the Committee will remain largely wishful rather than actionable.