[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
SWELTERING IN PLACE: COVID 19,
EXTREME HEAT, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
=======================================================================m
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE,
AND TECHNOLOGY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 14, 2020
__________
Serial No. 116-76
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
40-802PDF WASHINGTON : 2020
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY
HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas, Chairwoman
ZOE LOFGREN, California FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma,
DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois Ranking Member
SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon MO BROOKS, Alabama
AMI BERA, California, BILL POSEY, Florida
Vice Chair RANDY WEBER, Texas
LIZZIE FLETCHER, Texas BRIAN BABIN, Texas
HALEY STEVENS, Michigan ANDY BIGGS, Arizona
KENDRA HORN, Oklahoma ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas
MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey RALPH NORMAN, South Carolina
BRAD SHERMAN, California MICHAEL CLOUD, Texas
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee TROY BALDERSON, Ohio
JERRY McNERNEY, California PETE OLSON, Texas
ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado ANTHONY GONZALEZ, Ohio
PAUL TONKO, New York MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida
BILL FOSTER, Illinois JIM BAIRD, Indiana
DON BEYER, Virginia FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
CHARLIE CRIST, Florida GREGORY F. MURPHY, North Carolina
SEAN CASTEN, Illinois MIKE GARCIA, California
BEN McADAMS, Utah THOMAS P. TIFFANY, Wisconsin
JENNIFER WEXTON, Virginia
CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania
C O N T E N T S
July 14, 2020
Page
Hearing Charter.................................................. 2
Opening Statements
Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Chairwoman,
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of
Representatives................................................ 9
Written Statement............................................ 10
Statement by Representative Frank Lucas, Ranking Member,
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of
Representatives................................................ 11
Written Statement............................................ 13
Witnesses:
Ms. Heather McTeer Toney, National Field Director, Moms Clean Air
Force
Oral Statement............................................... 15
Written Statement............................................ 18
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, Vice President of Environmental
Justice, Climate, and Community Revitalization, National
Wildlife Federation
Oral Statement............................................... 26
Written Statement............................................ 29
Mr. Cecil Corbin-Mark, Deputy Director, WE ACT for Environmental
Justice
Oral Statement............................................... 36
Written Statement............................................ 39
Mr. Hilton Kelley, Founder/Director of the Community In-Power &
Development Association Inc.
Oral Statement............................................... 43
Written Statement............................................ 46
Discussion....................................................... 53
Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Ms. Heather McTeer Toney, National Field Director, Moms Clean Air
Force.......................................................... 82
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, Vice President of Environmental
Justice, Climate, and Community Revitalization, National
Wildlife Federation............................................ 88
Mr. Hilton Kelley, Founder/Director of the Community In-Power &
Development Association Inc.................................... 93
Appendix II: Additional Material for the Record
Documents submitted by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson,
Chairwoman, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S.
House of Representatives....................................... 96
Reports submitted by Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, Vice President of
Environmental Justice, Climate, and Community Revitalization,
National Wildlife Federation................................... 126
SWELTERING IN PLACE:
COVID-19, EXTREME HEAT,.
AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
----------
TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2020
House of Representatives,
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
Washington, D.C.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:08 p.m., via
Webex, Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson [Chairwoman of the Committee]
presiding.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Johnson. Well, the hearing will come to order.
And without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare
recess at any time.
Before I deliver my opening remarks, I want to announce a
couple of reminders to the Members about the conduct of the
hearing. First, Members should keep their video feed on as long
as they are present in the hearing, and Members are responsible
for their own microphones. So please also keep your microphones
muted until you are speaking.
And finally, if Members have documents they wish to submit
to the record, please email them to the Committee Clerk, whose
email address was circulated prior to this hearing.
And one additional thing before I begin my opening
remarks, several of the written witness testimonies for today's
hearing were received after the Committee's 48-hour deadline
submission. This is really unfortunate. As I know my colleagues
and their staff rely upon this testimony to adequately prepare
for our hearings, this is not something that I or my staff
support or will encourage in the future. It is my hope that
this will not become a common occurrence on this Committee. And
I want to let all of my colleagues know that I and my staff
will work to ensure all future witness testimony is received
and distributed in a timely manner.
I look forward to continuing to work with the Ranking
Member Lucas and his staff to invite expert witnesses like
those on today's panel and to support the work of the
Committee.
Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to this
virtual hearing to discuss the intersection of COVID-19,
extreme heat, and environmental justice (EJ). I would also like
to thank our esteemed witnesses for participating in this very
important hearing. I know your time is in high demand during
this period of intersecting crises, and we appreciate you being
here. There is no better time to discuss these important and
intersecting issues than right now.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not treated everyone the same.
The death rate for African-American, Hispanic, and Native
American people is much higher than for white people of all age
categories. A Washington Post analysis found that majority-
African-American counties have six times the death rate of
majority-white counties. The trends for exposure to extreme
heat and other environmental harms mirror those of COVID-19.
Extreme heat is especially problematic in cities, where
urban heat islands form, making some neighborhoods much hotter
than others. Urban heat islands occur primarily in
neighborhoods of color and low-income areas, where there are
often less trees, more concrete, less access to air
conditioning, and are located closer to highways and factories.
These disparities hold true for many other issues. People
of color and low-income communities are hit first, worst, and
hardest by many disasters and diseases. Disparities between
African Americans and whites in COVID-19 mortality rates, as
well as exposure to environmental harms, are the result of the
legacy of historic redlining and discriminatory housing
practices. African Americans were systematically denied equal
access to housing, and to this day, the historically redlined
neighborhoods are on average 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than
non-redlined neighborhoods in the same cities. Sometimes this
temperature difference can be as high as 12 degrees.
And my home State of Texas is no stranger to extreme heat,
nor other severe weather or environmental threats. In recent
years, Texans have dealt with toxic emissions from refineries
in Port Arthur, devastating hurricanes and associated flooding
in Houston, and destructive tornadoes in Dallas. Now COVID-19
is devastating our great State. Communities of color and low-
income communities are on the frontlines, fighting for their
lives against environmental hazards, disease, and social
injustice as well.
So, this week, nearly 2/3 of the country is facing warmer-
than-normal temperatures, with 40 percent of the lower 48
States having a moderate risk of extreme and dangerous heat.
According to NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's) Climate Prediction Center, the Texas
panhandle will experience some of the worst prolonged heat,
with temperatures around 110 degrees.
While it is important that agencies like NOAA and EPA
(Environmental Protection Agency) collect data and conduct
research on extreme weather and environmental pollution, it is
not enough. The scope of ongoing Federal research on issues
such as extreme heat and environmental justice must expand to
better understand the impacts of environmental and public
health risk on vulnerable communities.
That is why we are very fortunate to have the opportunity
to speak with such an esteemed panel today. I look forward to
hearing from our expert witnesses on how the impacts of social
injustice, COVID-19, and the climate crisis on vulnerable
communities are interconnected, and the role that science and
research can play in closing the gaps in environmental and
health disparities for these communities.
[The prepared statement of Chairwoman Johnson follows:]
Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to this
virtual hearing to discuss the intersection of COVID-19,
extreme heat, and environmental justice. I would also like to
thank our esteemed witnesses for participating in this very
important hearing - I know your time is in high demand during
this period of intersecting crises, and we appreciate you being
here. There is no better time to discuss these important and
intersecting issues than right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has
not treated everyone the same: the death rate for African
American, Hispanic, and Native American people is much higher
than for white people in all age categories. A Washington Post
analysis found that majority-African American counties have six
times the death rate of majority-white counties.
The trends for exposure to extreme heat and other
environmental harms mirror those of COVID19. Extreme heat is
especially problematic in cities, where urban heat islands
form, making some neighborhoods much hotter than others. Urban
heat islands occur primarily in neighborhoods of color and low-
income areas, where there are often less trees, more concrete,
less access to air conditioning, and are located closer to
highways and factories.
These disparities hold true for many other issues. People
of color and low-income communities are hit first, worst, and
hardest by many disasters and diseases. Disparities between
African Americans and whites in COVID-19 mortality rates, as
well as exposure to environmental harms, are the result of the
legacy of historic redlining and discriminatory housing
practices. African Americans were systematically denied equal
access to housing. To this day, historically redlined
neighborhoods are on average 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than
non-redlined neighborhoods in the same city - sometimes this
temperature difference can be as high as 12 degrees.
My home State of Texas is no stranger to extreme heat nor
other severe weather or environmental threats. In recent years,
Texans have dealt with toxic emissions from oil refineries in
Port Arthur, devastating hurricanes and associated flooding in
Houston, and destructive tornadoes in Dallas.
Now COVID-19 is devastating our great State: communities of
color and low-income communities are on the frontlines,
fighting for their lives against environmental hazards,
disease, and social injustice as well.
This week, nearly two-thirds of the country is facing
warmer than normal temperatures, with 40% of the lower 48
States having a moderate risk of extreme and dangerous heat.
According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the Texas
panhandle will experience some of the worst prolonged heat,
with temperatures around 110 degrees.
While it is important that agencies like NOAA and EPA
collect data and conduct research on extreme weather and
environmental pollution, it is not enough. The scope of ongoing
Federal research on issues such as extreme heat and
environmental justice must expand to better understand the
impacts of environmental and public health risk on vulnerable
communities.
That is why we are very fortunate to have the opportunity
to speak with such an esteemed panel today. I look forward to
hearing from our expert witnesses about how the impacts of
social injustice, COVID-19, and the climate crisis on
vulnerable communities are interconnected, and the role that
science and research can play in closing the gaps in
environmental and health disparities for these communities.
Chairwoman Johnson. At this time I'd like to enter into
the record a letter from the American Psychological Association
expressing their support for this hearing and the importance of
mitigating disproportionate impacts of heat and COVID-19 on
communities of color. The APA recognizes that COVID-19 is
exacerbating mental health disparities among African Americans,
Latinos, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Asian Americans.
They highlight that quality and affordable health care and
treatment must be made available to those hard-hit low-income
and minority communities to close the gap in mental health care
and treatment.
I'd also like to enter into the record a letter from WE ACT
for Environmental Justice, which is an organization that works
to implement community-driven political change to address
environmental racism. I'm entering into the record WE ACT's
2020 Extreme Heat Policy Agenda Report, which is a long-term
action plan outlining Federal policy solutions to mitigate
extreme heat and its impact on vulnerable communities. We will
also hear from the Deputy Director of WE ACT on today's panel.
And so now I will recognize our Ranking Member Mr. Lucas
for his opening statement.
Mr. Lucas. Thank you, Madam Chairman. And before I begin
my opening statement, I would note that we have a couple of new
Republicans on the Science Committee. And at perhaps the next
meeting I will take a little more time to give them the
appropriate introduction that they deserve, but it's good to
add to this Committee.
With that, as we continue to fight COVID-19, I appreciate
that we're focusing our hearing time on this pandemic.
Environmental justice, public health, and extreme weather are
very serious topics that deserve our attention. It's well-
documented that low-income and minority communities are
adversely affected by these issues. And while I appreciate the
effort to better understand why and how that is, I think the
structure and scope of today's hearing doesn't give us the
chance to focus on potential solutions.
Sadly, we know that extreme weather, environmental
quality, and public health all have a disproportionate effect
on low-income and vulnerable populations. I've seen it
firsthand with rural communities and tribal lands in my
Oklahoma district. It's important we recognize that and have an
upfront discussion on it. But in addition to having that
discussion, we have a responsibility to try and solve the
challenges we face. One of the reasons I love the Science
Committee is our focus on solutions. We are the most forward-
thinking Committee. We have the ability to support and shape
our country's path forward.
That's why I would have liked to have seen a witness from
the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice at this hearing. If
we're talking about environmental justice and the disparities
of environmental effects, we need to know what's being done and
how we can improve on it. No one outside of that office can
adequately walk through their $9.5 million budget, one that my
Democratic friends have just proposed increasing by almost 50
percent, I might add.
Like all things in government, EPA's Office of
Environmental Justice is not perfect and there are certainly
things that could be improved, but this is the office that
facilitates nationwide environmental justice solutions. They
should be here today to discuss that. EPA has funded over $33
million in environmental justice grants to more than 1,400
vulnerable communities. It's giving $1 million in grant funding
to States, local governments, tribes, and U.S. territories to
help local environmental justice communities address COVID-19
concerns. And EPA has also requested $18 million as a set-aside
within the Brownfields Projects program to support Opportunity
Zone development. Opportunity Zones are a new community
investment tool to encourage long-term investments in low-
income urban and rural communities nationwide.
It's easy to just talk facts and figures on the economic
hardship communities have faced during this pandemic and the
long-term health effects they have historically battled, but
it's much more difficult to discuss concrete solutions. For
instance, we have to be careful of trying to address extreme
weather by implementing emissions standards that will
inevitably raise energy prices. Low-income families spend a
disproportionate amount on energy costs, and any increase can
affect their entire budget, not to mention their ability to
heat or cool their homes.
So while solutions require careful discussions, I think we
can all agree that investment and development is the best
starting point. That is exactly what Opportunity Zones are
designed to do. Over $10 billion has been raised by investment
as of April 30, and Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin estimates
Opportunity Zones could drive as much as $100 billion into
struggling communities over the coming decade. If you take this
initiative and connect it to our Committee, you'll see there is
the potential for universities and scientific institutions to
commercialize research, support technology transfer, incubate
student startups, and expand student housing near Opportunity
Zones.
Those are just two of many areas that have the potential
to offer solutions to today's hearing. And before any of our
friends on the other side point out the witness process, I want
to say that the minority elected not to invite a witness out of
respect to whoever it might have been. If we chose an
Opportunity Zone expert, they would not be able to discuss
public health or COVID. If we chose a university
representative, they would not be able to discuss environmental
justice or heat waves.
The minority is given the opportunity to invite a witness
to our hearings to allow the Committee to hear differing
perspectives on the issues in front of us, but being in the
minority means we can only choose a single witness. We take
that responsibility seriously and try to invite experts who can
speak comprehensively. Today's hearing topic was simply not
practical for us to identify one expert.
We also do our best to encourage each witness to be able
to comply with established Committee rules, which includes
providing testimony at least 48 hours in advance of the
hearing. Yesterday, within 24 hours from the start of the
hearing, staff had received just one testimony, and Chairwoman
Johnson addressed that issue thoughtfully and fairly a few
minutes ago.
With that being said, I have full faith that the four
witnesses with us today are experts in their fields and will do
an excellent job in discussing the significant issues low-
income and minority communities are facing. I hope we can hold
future hearings with EPA to focus on forward-looking solutions
to these problems. I look forward to the discussion today, and
I yield back, Madam Chair.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lucas follows:]
Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson. As we continue to fight
COVID-19, I appreciate that we're focusing our hearing time on
this pandemic.
Environmental justice, public health, and extreme weather
are very serious topics that deserve our attention. It's well
documented that low-income and minority communities are
adversely affected by these issues. And while I appreciate the
effort to better understand why and how that is, I think the
structure and scope of today's hearing doesn't give us the
chance to focus on potential solutions.
Sadly, we know that extreme weather, environmental quality,
and public health all have a disproportionate effect on low-
income and vulnerable populations. I've seen it firsthand with
rural communities and tribal lands in my Oklahoma district.
It's important we recognize that and have an upfront discussion
on it. But in addition to having that discussion, we have a
responsibility to try to solve the challenges we face. One of
the reasons I love the Science Committee is our focus on
solutions. We are the most forward-thinking Committee, and we
have the ability to support and shape our country's path
forward.
That's why I would have liked to have seen a witness from
EPA's Office of Environmental Justice at this hearing. If we're
talking about environmental justice and the disparities of
environmental effects, we need to know what's being done and
how we can improve on it. No one outside of that office can
adequately walk us through their $9.5 million budget - one that
my Democratic friends have just proposed increasing by almost
50% I might add.
Like all things in government, EPA's Office of
Environmental Justice is not perfect and there are certainly
things that could be improved. But this is the office that
facilitates nationwide environmental justice solutions. They
should be here today to discuss that. EPA has funded over $33
million in environmental justice grants to more than 1,400
vulnerable communities. It's given $1 million in grant funding
to States, local governments, tribes, and U.S. territories to
help local environmental justice communities address COVID-19
concerns. And EPA also has requested $18 million as a set-aside
within the Brownfields Projects program to support Opportunity
Zone development.
Opportunity Zones are a new community investment tool to
encourage long-term investments in low-income urban and rural
communities nationwide. It's easy to just talk facts and
figures on the economic hardship communities have faced during
this pandemic and the long-termhealth effects they have
historically battled. But it's much more difficult to discuss
concrete solutions.
For instance, we have to be careful of trying to address
extreme weather by implementing emissions standards that will
inevitably raise energy prices. Low-income families spend a
disproportionate amount on energy costs, and any increase can
affect their entire budget, not to mention their ability to
heat or cool their homes.
So while solutions require careful discussion, I think we
can all agree that investment and development is the best
starting point. That is exactly what Opportunity Zones are
designed to do. Over $10 billion has been raised for investment
as of April 30, and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin estimates
Opportunity Zones could drive as much as $100 billion into
struggling communities over the coming decade. If you take this
initiative and connect it to our Committee, you'll see there is
the potential for universities and scientific institutions to
commercialize research, support technology transfer, incubate
student startups, and expand student housing near Opportunity
Zones.
Those are just two of many areas that have the potential to
offer solutions to today's hearing. And before any of our
friends on the other side point out the witness process, I want
to say the minority elected to not invite a witness out of
respect to whoever it might have been. If we had chose an
Opportunity Zone expert, they would not be able to discuss
public health or COVID. If we chose a university
representative, they would not be able to discuss environmental
justice or heat waves.
The minority is given the opportunity to invite a witness
to our hearings to allow the Committee to hear differing
perspectives on the issues in front of us. But being in the
minority means we can only choose a single witness. We take
that responsibility seriously and try to invite experts who can
speak comprehensively. Today's hearing topic was simply not
practical for us to identify one expert. We also do our best to
encourage each witness to be able to comply with established
Committee rules, which includes providing testimony at least 48
hours in advance of the hearing. Yesterday, within 24 hours
from the start of the hearing, staff had received just one
testimony.
Chairwowan Johnson addressed that issue very thoughtfully
and fairly a few minutes ago.
With that being said, I have full faith that the four
witnesses with us today are experts in their fields and will do
an excellent job in discussing the significant issues low
income and minority communities are facing. I hope we can hold
future hearings with the EPA to focus on forwardlooking
solutions to these problems. I look forward to the discussion
today and yield back, Madam Chair
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much, Mr. Lucas.
If there are Members who wish to submit additional opening
statements, your statements will be added to the record at this
point.
At this time, I'd like to introduce our witnesses. Our
first distinguished witness is Ms. Heather McTeer Toney, the
National Field Director for Moms Clean Air Force, an
organization that works to protect children from the
devastating health impacts of air and climate pollution. Ms.
Toney previously served as the EPA's Regional Administrator for
region 4 under President Obama and before that was elected as
the first African-American female and the youngest Mayor of
Greenville, Mississippi. She is an expert on environmental and
climate justice. She has spent years working on the ground with
rural communities and communities of color on environmental
justice issues in her home State of Mississippi. Ms. Toney
received her juris doctor from Tulane University School of Law.
Our second witness is Mr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, Vice
President of Environmental Justice, Climate, and Community
Revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation. Dr. Ali
has long been committed to the fight for environmental justice
and economic equity. He worked for 24 years at EPA where he
helped to found the Office of Environmental Justice and held
the role of Assistant Associate Administrator for Environmental
Justice and Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and
Community Revitalization. While at EPA, he led the Interagency
Working Group on Environmental Justice coordinating across 17
Federal agencies to address the issues facing vulnerable
communities. Dr. Ali earned his master's degree from West
Virginia University and holds honorary doctorate degrees from
Green Mountain College, along with an honorary juris doctor
degree from Vermont Law school.
Our third witness is Mr. Cecil Corbin-Mark, Deputy
Director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, an organization
that works to implement community-driven political change to
address environmental racism. WE ACT works to ensure that
people of color and low-income residents participate
meaningfully in the creation of environmental health policy and
practices. Mr. Corbin-Mark previously worked for the Bronx
County District Attorney and the Justice Honorable W.T. Martin,
the Mellon Minority Scholars Program. As a longtime advocate of
environmental justice in New York City, Mr. Corbin-Mark has
strongly pushed to reduce vehicle exhaust to improve air
quality starting with neighborhoods with the worst air quality.
Mr. Corbin-Mark earned his master's of philosophy in
international relations from Oxford University in England.
And our final witnesses is Mr. Hilton Kelley, Founder and
Director of Community In-Power and Development Association, or
CIDA Incorporated, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering
residents in low-income communities in Mr. Kelley's home of
Port Arthur, Texas. Mr. Kelley is a community leader and
environmental justice activist, pushing for cleaner, safer
communities for the vulnerable in his hometown, notoriously one
of the most polluted in America due to its disproportionate
exposure to toxic chemicals. Mr. Kelley's advocacy and
leadership led to Port Arthur being selected by the EPA as an
environmental justice showcase community and receiving $100,000
to improve the community's health challenges. Mr. Kelley is a
Clean Air Ambassador for Earthjustice and a recipient of the
Goldman Environmental Prize.
Let me say to our witnesses, you should each have 5
minutes for your spoken testimony, and your written testimony
will be included in the record for the hearing. When you all
have completed your spoken testimony, we will begin with
questions. Each Member will have 5 minutes to question the
panel.
So we will begin now with Ms. Toney.
TESTIMONY OF MS. HEATHER McTEER TONEY,
NATIONAL FIELD DIRECTOR, MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE
Ms. Toney. Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member
Lucas, and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify today about the very real and very
devastating combination of coronavirus, extreme heat, and
environmental justice existing in our country today.
I'm Heather McTeer Toney, and I do serve as National Field
Director for Moms Clean Air Force. We are a community of over 1
million moms, dads, and caretakers that are united against air
pollution and climate change for the sake of our children's
health. And yes, I previously served as Regional Administrator
for the southeast part of the United States, and my region
covered eight States, six tribes, and over 1/4 of the Nation's
population. In my job I not only assisted communities and
businesses but also really explained the importance of
protective measures, especially in vulnerable populations and
communities of color.
And aside from being a former Mayor, I am a wife and a
mother of three children ages 25, 14, and 3 years old.
Today that we're--the work that we're doing is compounded
with the onset of coronavirus and the looming threats of
climate change. Not only are our moms fighting a pandemic in
the midst of a climate emergency, we're having to do it within
a system of structural racism and inequity. There's no question
that the coronavirus pandemic is impacting black and brown
communities worse than any other demographic in the Nation. A
study from Yale found that black Americans are three and a half
times more likely to die of coronavirus than white Americans.
And while this should not have been a surprise to any of us, it
was certainly acknowledged within minority communities very
early.
The COVID-19 disparities are stemming from multiple
interrelated factors that are all driven by long-standing
structural racism and inequity. People of color and lower-
income people are more likely to serve as frontline and
essential workers, have more essential--more financial pressure
to work, and lower access to paid sick leave.
And due to long-standing environmental and social
disparities, minority communities also have a higher rate of
chronic conditions that put us at risk for more severe
illnesses. As an example, we know that black and brown people,
as well as lower-income people, tend to have higher average
exposure to air pollution. We also know that air pollution
exposure causes many of the same chronic diseases that make
COVID more deadly.
Now, add to this fact that there's ample evidence that
racism within the healthcare setting often results in a lower
standard of care and the fact that some black folks just plain
don't trust the system because of delay or avoid seeking
these--COVID care because of past negative experiences or
distress that stem from a legacy of racism and unethical
medical research and experimentation.
Now, while we may not know exactly the details of how
extreme heat compounds the effects of COVID on low-income
communities and people of color, what we do know and we can see
is that the relationship definitely exists and is exasperated
by oppressive systems of racial inequity.
Just this past weekend Dr. Linda Rae Murray of Chicago,
Illinois, outlined a stunningly familiar relationship between
the death rate of COVID and the Chicago heat wave in 1995,
which was one of the most deadly in its history. We had over
700 people die in Chicago's housing projects in what can only
be explained as death by virtue of being poor.
And one of our organizers in Phoenix, Arizona, Columba
Sainz, she's a wife and a mother of three, she explained it
best. She said energy poverty is real. People in the lowest
income groups spend the most on energy. The hotter it gets, the
more it costs and the more we need. And who can afford to pay
over half their paycheck on air conditioning in the middle of a
pandemic in a heatwave? Communities of color are energy-poor,
and here we are 25 years later and we see the exact same
dynamic played out on the exact same people in the exact same
way. We haven't legislated to lessen the impacts of structural
racism but instead we place a higher burden and a lower value
of lives on the lives of black and brown people. And we see
this through policies that the EPA is doing like the hundred
rollbacks that they have instituted within the past 3 1/2
years.
Now, with economic resources stretched thin by COVID-19,
thoughtful spending and prioritizing projects that produce the
most immediate benefit are needed. I agree, Representative
Lucas, that we should talk solutions. And one of the solutions
includes having better information regarding mapping of heat
islands and better understanding of the risks associated with
low-income and minority communities to better understand the
disproportionate impact of extreme weather on communities of
color. We need to deploy many existing tools, as well as
developing some new ones with the specific goal of
understanding the complex web of interactions that result in
heightened weather-related risk to such communities. We
absolutely must demand a halt to EPA reversing lifesaving
protections and that they revisit their mission of protecting
human health and the environment.
This is our call to action at Moms Clean Air Force. We're
demanding justice in every breath of every policy impacting the
health and well-being of our children.
I look forward to answering your questions later in the
hearing, and thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Toney follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Dr. Ali.
TESTIMONY OF DR. MUSTAFA SANTIAGO ALI,
VICE PRESIDENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE,
CLIMATE, AND COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION,
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
Dr. Ali. Thank you. Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member
Lucas, and Members of the Committee, on behalf of the National
Wildlife Federation, our 52 State and territorial affiliates,
and more than 6 million members in environmental justice
communities and advocates around the country, thank you for the
honor of being able to testify and join you today.
Today's hearing is taking place during a very pivotal
moment for our society. People from all across--from all ages,
racial backgrounds, economic statuses, abilities, and more are
coming together to stand up against injustice that are so
deeply embedded in our democracy. Whether we're talking about
the elevated exposures and health-related discrepancies from
pollution, climate change, COVID-19, or police brutality,
people are connecting the dots and becoming aware of the
disproportionate impacts on people of color, low-income
communities, and indigenous populations.
Our country is built upon the historical foundation of
separate and unequal. I'll say that again, separate and
unequal, and it continues today in the form of sacrifice zones
in both the urban and rural context. Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown
v. the Board of Education, a number of other actions have
attempted to move us forward toward equity and justice, but we
continue to fall short. Wealthier white communities have
benefited from protection and resources that have allowed them
and many of their communities to thrive. Communities of color,
lower-wealth communities, and indigenous people have had to
deal with the disinvestment and lack of protections that have
often left us in a survival mode.
We now find ourselves on the precipice of change, and
millions are demanding change. This awakening is correlated
with the evolving understanding of the institutional and
systemic racism that has played a critical role in the social
structures prevalent today. Racial segregation and redlining
practices that were backed by government entities have had a
long-lasting impact on the concentration of black and brown
people. Communities of color were historically disinvested in,
which has made them susceptible to the placement of toxic
industries that have polluted air, land, and water.
According to published annual estimates on behalf of the
EPA's EJSCREEN, African Americans and Latinx communities face
significantly higher environmental hazard exposures when
compared to the majority of white communities. As a result,
these frontline communities suffer from chronic medical
conditions, heart, liver, kidney, and lung diseases, as well as
cancer. Further, these chronic medical conditions make people
more susceptible to the coronavirus and health-related
illnesses, including heat exhaustion and stroke.
So let me be clear. We have over 100,000 people who are
dying disproportionately from air pollution in our country. We
have 24 million people who are suffering from asthma and 7
million kids. And disproportionately, it is African-American
and Latinx folks who are going to the emergency rooms and the
ones who are dying prematurely from asthma.
We also know that there is a direct connection, as Ms.
Toney shared with folks, between the pollution that people are
dealing with in these chronic medical conditions and then being
more susceptible to the COVID-19 infections and unfortunately
to the loss of life.
We've already discussed the urban heat effects that are
going on and understanding that the temperatures inside of
these communities are greater. We also need to call out the
fact that we have over 500,000 people in our country who are
housing-insecure. So whether we are talking about the impacts
from extreme heat or their lack of ability to protect
themselves from the COVID-19 virus, then we've got work to do.
We also know, as was shared earlier, that there are mental
health impacts that are also associated with extreme heat, and
those challenges may make it more difficult for people to make
the decisions that they might normally make in making choices
about navigating these impacts that are happening from COVID-
19.
I just want to also highlight for folks that many folks
are also being--facing these situations where they are
insecure. They are water-insecure, as well as some of these
other insecurities that we'll talk about. And that gets to our
ability to actually help these people to be in a better place.
If we know that folks' water is being turned off but we've sent
the message across the country that you need to be able to wash
your hands to protect yourself from the COVID-19, then there's
something wrong with our process if we're still allowing these
types of things to go on and if we don't move past just the
moratorium but making sure that people have the security that's
necessary. If we know that, we need to make sure that people in
an extreme heat event have access to air conditioning. That's
the first step in making sure that they can deal with these
escalating bills that are going on, but then we have to ask the
question about what types of air conditioning are proper to
make sure that the right types of ventilation is going on.
That ties also to our schools. Everybody is focused on
trying to move our students back to school so that they can get
a quality education. We have to address this crumbling
infrastructure that is happening in black and brown schools and
on indigenous land. And if we're not doing that, then we're
creating these additional sacrifice zones. We're continuing to
allow this to be the dumping grounds where we put bad policy in
place, where we disinvest in communities, and we don't make
real change happen.
And I'll just close out with this because I'm so thankful
for this bipartisan Committee that is focused on making real
change happen. We have opportunities around a just transition
and utilizing cleaner forms of energy to lower these emissions
that we know are going on in these communities. That's one.
The second one is that we have opportunities around
natural infrastructure, whether it is in our tree planting or
helping to rebuild our marshes and wetlands and all these other
opportunities to create these carbon capture situations.
And then finally, you know, we've had lessons from
Roosevelt and others about the CCC (Civilian Conservation
Corps). And I know there's lots of really great conversations
that are happening now on the Hill about how do we put these
cores back to work to help to rebuild our country but at the
same time make sure that equity is really a part of that
process so that no one is getting left behind.
So I want to thank you all for taking a bipartisan
approach, thinking critically about the actions that are
necessary, but also the investments that are going to be
critical if we're going to help our most vulnerable communities
move from surviving to thriving.
[The statement of Dr. Ali follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much, Dr. Ali. Mr.
Corbin-Mark? You're muted.
TESTIMONY OF CECIL CORBIN-MARK,
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, WE ACT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Mr. Corbin-Mark. Sorry. Sorry very much. Sorry. I'll start
over.
Good afternoon, and thank you, Chairwoman Johnson and
Ranking Member Lucas and all of the Members of the Committee,
for the invitation to testify before you. My name is Cecil
Corbin-Mark, and I'm the Deputy Director of WE ACT for
Environmental Justice. We are a 32-year-old environmental
justice organization with 1,000 dues-paying members primarily
located in the 15th Congressional District. We have offices in
Harlem and in Washington, DC, where we anchor a nationwide
environmental justice coalition called the Environmental
Justice Forum that focuses on climate policy, energy policy,
and other matters of concern to the EJ movement.
WE ACT's mission is to build healthy communities by
ensuring that people of color and communities of low-income
residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and
fair environmental health and protection policies and
practices. And WE ACT envisions a community that has informed
and engaged residents who participate fully in decisionmaking
on key issues that impact their health and community, strong
and equal environmental protections, and increased
environmental health through community-based participatory
research and evidence-based campaigns.
Let me start off by saying that climate change is here
today. It is threatening our health now, and if felt--and if
left unchecked will lead to increases in both illnesses and
deaths. Immediate action can and must be taken to both mitigate
the effects of climate change over time and adapt our
communities in ways that reduce the health impacts now so that
our communities can be further protected.
WE ACT for Environmental Justice strongly supports
measures to reduce carbon pollution and other greenhouse gas
emissions from all sectors, including energy production,
transportation, health care, forestry, agriculture, and the
like.
In addition to mitigating efforts [inaudible] WE ACT
believes it's critical for the Federal Government to provide
technical assistance, tools, and resources to help States,
cities, and rural communities, territories, and tribes prepare
for and protect their communities from the health impacts of
climate change.
We've seen through the Fourth National Climate Assessment
completed in 2018 that details the health impacts of climate
change in the United States and says the health and well-being
of Americans are already affected by climate change with
adverse health consequences projected only to worsen with
additional climate change. Climate change affects human health
by altering exposures to heat waves, for example, one of the
key subjects of this Committee's hearing today, as well as air
pollution, a critical issue that WE ACT has focused on for at
least three decades.
I want to just focus and move to extreme heat. Exposure to
extreme heat kills more people in the United States and
particularly black and brown people in the United States at
higher rates than any other weather-related threat, and extreme
heat events are on the rise. By 2050, one estimate predicts
approximately 3,400 more premature deaths each year in the
United States due to extreme heat, and the burden of heat-
related illness and the death--and disproportionate death--
sorry, and disproportionate death affects climate-sensitive
populations like pregnant women, the young, and the old, and
the chronically ill, as well as people of color and low-income
families and outdoor workers.
Just one heatwave event can cost $179 million in
hospitalizations, emergency department encounters, and
outpatient visits. Extreme heat events can trigger a variety of
other heat-related conditions and severe dehydration to
heatstroke. High-heat conditions can also exacerbate
cardiovascular and respiratory disorders, resulting in
hospitalization and even premature death. Also, extreme heat is
linked to increased aggression and more suicides in some
studies.
The built environment plays a critical role in the
severity of heat-related events because of the urban heat
island effect. Climate change can worsen heat effects due to
less reflective impervious surfaces, which make urban settings
more deadly than vegetative rural communities. This issue of
land use needs to be more actively addressed as the climate
warms, and adaptation also requires considerable emergency
planning and risk communications to inform the public, identify
people most at risk, and respond with proactive measures to get
people out of the heat.
This requires a range of community tools such as cooling
centers, water distribution, fan, wind, air conditioning unit
distribution, and even relocation in some instances. Battling
heat-related health threats requires considerable amounts of
resources. As extreme heat events become more frequent and
intense, key health effects will worsen and health costs will
rise to us, and we will lose more lives.
However, some interventions are really worth it, and I
urge the Committee to really in a bipartisan way advance on key
issues in supporting things like the expansion of the HEAP
program, the Home Energy Assistance Program, as well as
creating more program for WAP, the Weather Assistance--
Weatherization Assistance Program. These--in particular, the
last program has real opportunity to move beyond some of the
structural impediments that have traditionally allowed
communities in our EJ areas to be left behind in terms of the
advancement of both energy and reduce the energy burden that
those communities currently exist with.
Energy insecurity is a significantly serious issue for
many of our communities, and it really is the focus--its
focus--sorry [inaudible] is about really looking at the
interplay between physical conditions, housing, household
energy expenditures, energy-related coping--and energy-related
coping strategies. The--there are a lot of studies that have
been done to really show that if we deal with energy
insecurity, we can help lift certain communities out of the
energy poverty and insecurity that they are experiencing.
One of the things that we at WE ACT really try to advance
and support is the idea that, as we move forth with dealing
with just how we respond in terms of mitigation to heat-related
events, that we really need to tackle the structural
underpinnings that have really created some of the challenges
for our communities not to be able to fend for themselves, and
energy insecurity is certainly at the heart of that. Dealing
with how we weatherize our households is critical so that the
legacy of redlining, the legacy of disinvestment in particular
communities that has so adversely affected particularly African
Americans but also other people of color, as well as indigenous
peoples, is a significant--is a critical effort that must be
undertaken as quickly as possible.
I will, with that, just yield my time and say that the
expansion of the HEAP program so that it can allow for the
payment of air conditioner utility bills is critical to be able
to help provide comfort and aid to some of our communities. And
this is not just a luxury issue of having an air conditioner at
this particular point in time. This is literally an issue of
life and death. As extreme heat continues to be a problem for
communities of color across this country, this is not a luxury.
This is really about public health and making sure that people
aren't dying.
But beyond the issue of dealing with just providing air
conditioners in the short term, one of the things that we have
to do is address the structural issues with housing that have
led to the inefficiency of those homes, creating a higher level
of energy burden for communities of color as they spend more
and more of their income to pay their utility bills.
And so doing the issue--advancing the issue of further
funding the Weatherization Assistance Program is a critical
necessity for these communities to help them move beyond the
challenges that they are experiencing at this particular point
in time and to really address the structurally racist way in
which housing has sort of moved forth in this country over
time.
I'll stop there and say thank you for your time. I've
submitted my testimony, which is long.
[The statement of Mr. Corbin-Mark follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Corbin-Mark.
We will have our final witness now, Mr. Kelley.
TESTIMONY OF HILTON KELLEY,
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF THE COMMUNITY IN-POWER
AND DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION INC.
Mr. Kelley. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking
Member Lucas, and Members of the House Committee on Science,
Space, and Technology. My name is Hilton Kelley, Founder and
Director of the Community In-Power and Development Association
located here in Port Arthur, Texas, also known as CIDA Inc. I'm
also a member of the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum.
The EJ Forum is a national coalition of nearly 60 environmental
justice advocacy experts working to eliminate environmental
injustice through technical assistance, capacity-building, and
policy solutions.
I would like to start by saying I sincerely appreciate
this opportunity to speak before you and this body today, and I
hope that in some way I can shed some light on the social and
environmental impact issues which millions of Americans are
dealing with on a daily basis, which position them to be more
susceptible to the coronavirus and other issues which come with
chronic flooding and climate change and the disproportionate
exposures to pollution.
As stated, my name is Hilton Kelley. I live in the city of
Port Arthur, Texas, on the Gulf Coast. Port Arthur, Texas, is
also home to a large number of refineries, chemical plants, and
other petrochemical industries like Veolia, a chemical
incineration facility; Oxbow Calcining petrochemical coke
facility which dumped tons of sulfur dioxide into the air every
day.
It would be fair to say that out of all four of the oil
refineries with Motiva being the largest, producing 633,000
barrels of oil per day and the five chemical plants, Oxbow
Calcining dumps more sulfur dioxide than all of them combined.
Oxbow Calcining pumps out 98 percent of the SO2
which is emitted into our air, and they refuse to put in the
necessary scrubbers to help protect human health and/or the
environment. Only 2 percent of the sulfur dioxide is emitted
from the four oil refineries and five chemical plants combined.
When we speak of emissions issues, refineries and chemical
plants many times is due to the power failure, malfunction,
fugitive emissions, and startup and shutdown procedures with
the processing units that they dump out the most pollution,
which engulf our communities with strong, pungent chemical
odors, soot, and smoke. And on occasions there has been fuel
tank explosions and process unit explosions like the one in
Nederland, Texas, in November 2019, a day before Thanksgiving.
Many homes were damaged, and hundreds were evacuated to safer
areas.
After the explosion, it was discovered the large amounts
of 1,3-butadiene, which is a known carcinogen, was being
released into the air unchecked due to the fact the processing
unit was no longer there. Because of the large explosion, this
issue is still ongoing, and yes, to be--has yet to be settled
almost a year or so later.
In 2017, shortly after Hurricane Harvey hit the Port
Arthur area, Houston and Beaumont, Texas, area, and all areas
in between, many of the refineries and chemical plants had to
go into shutdown mode and was unable to operate due to flooding
on their grounds. And then the shutdown procedure is in effect.
There's a lot of flaring which takes place because of the
material in the pipelines that must be burned, thus creating
more pollution. And oftentimes, things happen during the flood,
which is out of the facility's control like the tank explosion
at the Valero oil refinery, which took a few days to burn
itself out. But in either case, the workers at the plant, the
community, and the environment suffer.
Historically, African-American people of color have been
forced to live in heavily industrialized low-lying areas due to
housing discrimination on a Federal, State, and local level.
And it is because of this historic fact that we are plagued
with pre-existing conditions like hypertension, liver and
kidney disease, acute asthma, bronchitis, COPD (chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease), et cetera. It's been discovered
by our medical and healthcare experts that in the wake of
COVID-19, those who suffer from the pre-existing conditions
mentioned earlier are more susceptible to being infected with
COVID-19 than others. And it has been proven so.
Due to the disproportionate of large number of African-
Americans' death with pre-existing conditions which have taken
place across our country as we move forward and further into
the 2020 summer, it is also understood by our weather experts
that we are going to experience high heat temperatures ranging
from 98 to 104 degrees. These high temperatures will further
exacerbate the health conditions of those with pre-existing
conditions, rendering them more susceptible to the known virus,
COVID-19.
As we get further into the summer of 2020 and closer to
the peak of hurricane season, hurricanes are expected due to
the patterns which have been created within the last 15 years.
Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita in 2005, Hurricane Gustav and
Ike in 2008, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Hurricane Gonzalez in
2014, and, fast-forward, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which
brought in record-breaking flooding throughout southeast Texas,
leaving 80 percent of the Port Arthur, Texas, area inundated
with water.
Also due to the shutdown procedures of the petrochemical
facilities, we saw a 15,000 percent spike in the release of
known carcinogens. On a personal level, my home was also
flooded with 3 feet of water throughout the whole interior, and
because of the heat, mold, and destruction of my home, it was
deemed uninhabitable and required major construction repairs.
And we had no choice but to live with relatives until we were
able to obtain a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
mobile home, which we were successful in doing. And we stayed
there for a year while our home was being repaired.
Many people were not as fortunate as myself. Many of the
elderly and poor had to live in their damaged homes due to the
fact that they did not qualify for FEMA assistance, and to live
inside of a moldy, humid structure means certain respiratory
illnesses for the inhabitants.
High floodwaters on the Gulf Coast has become a chronic
problem over the years, so much so that many are elevating
their homes in the neighborhoods where once considered a high
ground area, no flood zone, which are now flooding. I have
taken it upon myself and my organization to do what we can to
assist my community and others with learning to fight climate
change and chronic flooding to help sustain our communities,
neighborhoods, and culture by joining up with the Anthropocene
Alliance/higher ground national network, which helped chronic
flooding communities find experts and resources to help keep
their communities strong and find new ways to coexist with our
forever-changing climate. And we are growing in numbers as more
and more further inland communities begin to flood. We flood
and we vote is to be noted.
I would like to end my testimony by asking our--by a few
asks. I would like to ask for our low-income people of color,
disenfranchised communities, are in need of strong Federal
science and the study of cumulative impacts of various
chemicals emitted by large polluting refineries and chemical
plants and other large polluting industries in the Port Arthur,
Texas, Jefferson County area and Hardin County area. We are
also in the need of strong Federal study on emitted chemicals
when they impact our health on the human body and strong
Federal studies on regulation and the possible impacts of
deregulation of polluting industries in vulnerable people of
color communities.
On the last page of my testimony you will find a list of
chemicals emitted into our air in large quantities over the
last 5 years, and some of those chemicals are known
carcinogens. The measure of those chemicals is in pounds and
tons per year. The source of this information is also noted.
I would like to give my sincere thanks and appreciation
for your attention and time. And with all due respect, I
welcome any questions at this point.
[The statement of Mr. Kelley follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. That concludes
the witnesses' testimony, so at this point we will begin our
first round of questions, and I will recognize myself for 5
minutes. And I think that I will pose this question to each of
the witnesses.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed major vulnerabilities in
our government's ability to predict and respond to public
health crises. My colleagues and I on this Committee are
working to understand what Federal investments in science and
research are needed to respond to COVID-19 and mitigate long-
standing and future public health crises.
So to each witness, what science gaps remain in
understanding the converging environmental and health effects
of extreme heat, toxic air pollution, and COVID-19 that
disproportionately impacts environmental justice communities?
And we can start with any of the witnesses.
Mr. Kelley. This is Hilton Kelley. I would like to state
that I believe that there are certain barriers to health care
that make us more vulnerable in the African-American
communities and people-of-color communities. Those barriers are
critical because many times it's because of transportation or
it's because of finances that many people cannot afford to go
to the doctor when they are stricken with heat strokes or when
they are dealing with some kind of adverse physical condition
or mental condition.
And so, with that being said, I think it would be--behoove
our government to look at ways in which they can possibly help
provide quality health care to all of our citizens. I mean, I
know that we have money to do various things to help protect
our country, but yet how important is it to help protect the
country and the people that live in this country who help keep
it great? I think it would be very, very important for our
local government, Federal Government to look at ways in which
we can provide health care to keep all of our people healthy at
all times.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you. Dr. Ali?
Dr. Ali. Well, one of the things that we should be focused
on is making sure that we're understanding these cumulative
impacts that are happening in our most vulnerable communities
from both pollution and COVID-19. So we could make sure that
the Office of Research and Development at the Environmental
Protection Agency has the resources that it needs to also
partner with HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) and
CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to answer that
question. And then we need to have a better understanding also
of these viruses and how they travel. So we continue to have an
evolving set of conversations as people learn more about COVID-
19 to really understand PM2.5, PM10, ultrafines, and other
possible vehicles that may spread the virus.
So we need to anchor it in the facts, we need to anchor it
in the science, and that means that we have to make sure that,
one, the resources are there, and two, the mandate to make sure
that people are understanding how these cumulative impacts may
be causing additional challenges inside of communities of
color, lower-wealth communities, and on indigenous land.
Chairwoman Johnson. Ms. Toney?
Ms. Toney. Thank you, Congresswoman. I think absolutely we
have to do as Dr. Ali just stated and really hold EPA's feet to
the fire. Right now, we're in the appropriations process in the
House, and there's consideration to even veto what their
existing budget is, which would include funding to do these
types of research projects. Unfortunately, right now, EPA is
not holding this as a high priority, so there should be some
accountability there to ensure that they are researching and
using and developing this data so that we can use it in the
future. It's going to be critical to making these
determinations.
I'll say that at Moms Clean Air Force we are very
fortunate that we get to work alongside our friends and
partners at the Environmental Defense Fund. And, right now, EDF
is working on building something called a CVI, climate
vulnerability index, that will help to gather data that comes
from a myriad of sources that really aggregates and translates
the climate change data down to accounting-level scale.
And this information, when you are able to work together
and collect it in your community, is what helps local elected
officials and decisionmakers make these sound decisions that
are sustainable and are resilient for that community. It's also
what helps us as moms advocate for this and understand what
things need to be made a decision need to be made in our own
communities. So, again, data collection is important, research
is important, but investing in it, you have to do it at the
outset.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. I have just a few
seconds, Mr. Corbin-Mark, if you want to make a comment.
Mr. Corbin-Mark. Chairwoman Johnson, thank you. I would
just say that it's really--it's impossible I think at this
point to really try to untangle certainly the African-American
communities but other communities of color current risk from
our not only are historically racist practices but the COVID-19
crisis that we are experiencing as well.
In terms of where and how we move forward, I do think
that, yes, collecting data is critical and important. I do
think that using that data to fuel effective programming and
supporting local, county, and city and State health departments
and answering the questions of addressing sort of the
interrelationship between pollution, the legacy of pollution
that EJ communities experience, and the public health crises
many of our communities already know and understand that we are
facing, this is not new to us.
But I also think that it's important for us to deal with
the historical legacy of racism and to really understand that
racism has a public health sort of output and component to it
that is often overlooked.
And I found it interesting the other day to note that the
CDC, some officials within the--inside the CDC were calling on
the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, to actually
acknowledge the health impact of racism and to sort of move
forth in helping us deal with that as well, and that still--
even though the Director of the CDC has responded to that by
the employees, there's still no movement in terms of concrete
policy and resources being expended toward addressing this
issue of racism and its public health impacts.
So I agree with my other colleagues that it's important
for us to focus on the health impacts of COVID-19, the
disproportionate health impacts of COVID-19, but I think it's
also critical for us to be focused on some of the root causes
of how we got here, and part of that is recognizing that racism
is a public health issue, and the data to be collected about
that and move forward as we continue to deal with the pandemic
of COVID-19 but also focus on the pandemic of racism.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. Lucas.
Mr. Lucas. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I address my
question to whichever or if any of the witnesses would care to
respond.
The Department of Energy reports that low-income families
nationwide spend about three times more of their gross
household income on energy costs then non-low-income
households. As I said earlier, Oklahoma has rural communities,
tribal lands. We're subject to extreme weather, especially heat
in the summertime. Can you all talk about the balance of
implementing emissions standards while ensuring these low-
income communities with less expendable income are not subject
to higher energy costs? And while you're thinking about that,
how does access to energy efficiency programs help in this
context, too? Just whoever would care to touch that subject
matter.
Mr. Corbin-Mark. Ranking Member Lucas, thank you so much
for your question. I would definitely say that the energy
insecurity experienced by the communities in Oklahoma, as well
as those in Harlem, is something that does need to be focused
on. I believe that the Congress should afford more resources to
the Weatherization Assistance Programs. If you look at the
housing quality and housing stock that are inhabited by many
people of color, those are the very same housing stock that
have been disinvested over a long history of racist practices
in our country. These are the very same housing stock that are
energy-inefficient, leak in ways that create a fueling rise--
and fuel the rise, sorry, of the energy expenditures that these
households have to expend.
We also have in certain portions of the country
Weatherization Assistance Programs that are struggling to
really be able to continue to do the work of fixing those homes
because of the lack of resources. I think this is a perfect
place for the Federal Government to step in and really provide
resources so that locally, whether they're administered through
the States or in localities, that we can actually create a real
goal for weatherizing low-income homes across this country.
To me, this is not something our country should be unable
to do. In fact, it is a travesty that we haven't been able to
set a goal and be able to complete the fact that a certain
finite number of houses within this country need the resources
to be able to weatherize, and this would be something that
structurally challenges the racist past of redlining and
disinvestment in those particular localities.
Mr. Kelley. Yes, this is Hilton Kelley of Port Arthur,
Texas. In Port Arthur, Texas, what we're seeing on the ground
and have been seeing for quite a few years is a large number of
residents fighting to pay their electric bill because
[inaudible]. They are making choices whether or not they can
[inaudible] or pay the light, gas, or water bill. There's a
disproportionate number of African Americans in the [inaudible]
black communities that are basically with low employment or no
employment.
I mean, at this particular time because of COVID-19 many
folks in this area have been laid off from their three or four
jobs, they have nothing coming in and at this particular time,
and now they're getting ready to deal with this heatwave that's
going to be going through the country. [inaudible] really
bewildered on how people are going to afford it [inaudible]
trying to keep the lights on, pay for medicine, or now even
paying their rent.
So we are in a situation here but also [inaudible] the
Environmental Protection Agency could do a great service by
pushing industries to reduce toxic emission that they're
dumping the amount of tons every year [inaudible]
disproportionate amount of [inaudible] being dumped [inaudible]
on what they're allowed to [inaudible] when it comes to sulfur
dioxide of course impacts climate change. From my understanding
[inaudible] they're fighting to roll back so many environmental
justice laws that sort of help prevent pollution from being
just openly dumped into the environment, so rolling back the
laws [inaudible] you can dump at will [inaudible] that is not a
healthy situation [inaudible] or the health of the people that
live literally on the fence line. So we have a lot of work to
do right there within the Environmental Protection Agency that
could be done to help eliminate some of these problems.
Ms. Toney. Representative Lucas--I'm sorry, Congressman
Lucas, if I can just add really quickly, you know, it's an
important point to understand that this--the [inaudible]
corporations and businesses because when we're talking about
emissions standards versus high energy costs, what we're saying
to people is you can either have good health or you can have
cheap energy. We're not telling them that both are--there's an
opportunity for both. We're making people make a choice, which
we shouldn't have to because energy companies and coal
companies are telling people, poor people who live in places
like yours and mine in Mississippi and Oklahoma that they have
to do one or the other. In reality, these businesses and
corporations can reduce their cost while at the same time
ensuring that people can live in healthy spaces by reducing
their own emissions.
We should also look at the fact that this is part an
investment that people--and we can help people to take in terms
of reducing their energy costs. A lot of low-income communities
aren't able to afford to front an investment that oftentimes
are--is told to them that they have to make in order to have
renewable energy, in order to have low emission energy sources,
so there are things that we can certainly do within the system
that will make it effective so that we can live healthy and
have reasonable energy cost.
Mr. Lucas. As I yield back, Madam Chair, I would just note
the witnesses provide tremendous insights. We always have to be
honest with the constituents about the balancing act. There is
a cost to everything for every good, and that is part of our
responsibility is to sort our way through all that.
With that, Madam Chair, I yield back.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Ms. Lofgren?
Ms. Lofgren. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman and
Ranking Member Lucas. This has been a fabulous hearing, and
it's been an honor to listen to these witnesses, the insight
that they have to share with us. And I want to honor and
appreciate each and every one of them for that.
You know, the COVID pandemic has revealed divisions and
systematic racism within our society. It didn't create it, but
it revealed divisions, and we have an opportunity now to
examine that broad scope of that and to come up with a path
forward for change.
You've touched on so many issues, and we are going to have
a very broad need to move forward, so I'm just going to focus
on one specific thing as a Californian, and maybe you can talk
about that.
Last September, the EPA moved to revoke California's
waiver to set its own tougher air pollution standards despite--
and we're in court--but despite decades of acknowledging that
California had the right to do that. And in fact California
moved before the national government ever moved on air
pollution because of the tremendous smog problem in this State.
Just recently, Nevada, Minnesota, and New Mexico announced that
they want to adopt the California plan to reduce pollution, so
that would be 16 States and the District of Columbia.
I'm wondering, you know, when you think about low-income
communities that tend to be built near freeways or I think
about the Central Valley where the highest asthma rate for
children in the United States is in the Central Valley of
California and I-5 runs right down that whole valley spewing
emissions. What impact does the EPA action have, do you think,
on the potential risk for COVID for low-income communities?
That is--I don't know if Dr. Ali can mention that or anyone
else.
Dr. Ali. Well, we know historically that there has been
systemic racism in our transportation policies. It is well-
documented that in many instances our roads and highways have
been designed to bring wealth into certain communities and to
dump all pollution unfortunately in other communities.
We also know that when we placed these communities in
locations that are close to our transportation infrastructure,
that these chronic medical conditions that have been mentioned
before are exacerbated. And through that, it makes folks more
vulnerable to COVID-19.
So when California was trying to strengthen their
standards, what they were trying to do is protect more people's
lives. And when we don't do that, unfortunately, we are, you
know, putting more people's lives in jeopardy and also making
folks more vulnerable to COVID-19 because we know that the
pollution that is coming out of tailpipes, you know, plays a
significant role in ozone, which most people label as smog. So
we have a right to make sure that we are doing the right thing
and actually strengthening the respective statutes or laws that
are meant to protect folks.
Mr. Kelley. And this----
Ms. Lofgren. Thank--yes, go ahead.
Mr. Kelley. I'd just like to add to what Mr. Ali was
saying. Here in Port Arthur, Texas, we were in a 3-year battle
with the Valero oil refinery and the Motiva oil refinery, which
is the largest oil refinery in the northern hemisphere. Motiva
puts out 633,000 barrels of oil per day. Now, I lived in
Oakland, California, in the bay area. I'm very familiar with
Interstate 5 going to Los Angeles from the north. But yet with
that being said, I'm familiar with the issues [inaudible].
That's how a lot of the pollution not only from the vehicles
but from surrounding industries started to travel through our
air and it sort of alights in the valley, and therefore you
have more acute asthma in that--in those kind of communities.
But what we found in our fight with these industries to
reduce their pollution when Gina McCarthy was head of the
Environmental Protection Agency, we found that these
industries, when they put in scrubbers, when they put in sulfur
recovery units, when they put in flare gas recovery units,
instead of just dumping all this stuff in the air and finding
creative ways in which to mitigate it and to contain it and get
rid of it properly, you have a huge reduction in sulfur dioxide
carcinogens like benzene and 1,3-butadiene. It has been proven.
After our battle with the Valero oil refinery and within
our battle we kind of like pushed them to put in flare gas
recovery and sulfur recovery units, and they came back to us
and they said, you know what, by us updating our units, by us
buckling down and getting rid of some of the leaks and some of
the fugitive emissions that were taking place, we have saved a
lot of energy. We have saved a lot of money due to fines. We've
saved a lot of money due to the chronic explosions they were
having.
So many times--people don't change all because the owners
of those facilities just choose not to spend the extra buck.
It's all about the extra buck. But if they think about it and
they repaired those units or they changed out many of those
antiquated units and they make sure that their pipes aren't
leaking, they make sure that the tank--their storage tanks
aren't leaking, then they will find that they will save money,
and they will also help to keep the environment cleaner and
thus save a ton of money on fines as well. So it would behoove
them to look at ways in which they can upgrade and spend the
money now so they don't have to spend double that amount on the
backend.
Ms. Lofgren. Thank you very much.
Madam Chair, I see my time is expired. Thank you very
much, and I yield back.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. Weber.
Mr. Weber. Madam Chair, pass me by for the time being.
Chairwoman Johnson. Oh, OK. Ms. Bonamici?
Ms. Bonamici. Well, thank you, Chair Johnson and Ranking
Member Lucas, but really thank you to the witnesses for your
very insightful testimony and really for highlighting how much
our vulnerable communities, low-income communities, black,
indigenous, and communities of color have been hardest hit not
only by the COVID-19 pandemic but also disproportionately
affected by the climate crisis.
I am honored to serve on the Select Committee on the
Climate Crisis, and we recently released our bold,
comprehensive, science-based climate action plan that sets our
Nation on a path to reach net-zero emissions no later than
midcentury and net-negative thereafter. And our plan is
centered on the principles of justice and equity, and we really
looked at it as everyone needs and deserves access to clean
air, clean water, and a planet free from toxic pollution.
Some of the plan steps to repair the legacy of
environmental racism that has really burdened our low-income
and communities of color, include enforcing the bedrock
environmental laws, doubling the EPA's enforcement budget,
amending the Civil Rights Act to define discrimination based on
disparate impact, strengthening public consultation for
environmental justice communities under the National
Environmental Policy Act, and getting rid of exclusionary
provisions in Federal funding for tribes. Those are just some
examples.
And I wanted to point out--I'm here in northwest Oregon. A
study recently from Portland State University demonstrated how
historically racist redlining housing policies, which of course
have been discussed in this testimony, in northeast Portland
have exacerbated the effects of warming temperatures and poor
air quality for black people and people of color. Extreme heat
events are expected to increase in frequency and intensity
because of the climate crisis and, as a result, the same
historically underserved neighborhoods will face the health
risks of increasing temperatures, higher energy bills, and
often inequitable access to green spaces.
And I do want to note because I heard Mr. Lucas's concerns
about high energy bills--strong supporter of the LIHEAP
program, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, but we
also cannot look at those bills in isolation. We need to look
at the cost of additional health problems that are caused by
heat and pollution.
So, Dr. Ali, thank you for your testimony about natural
solutions. And, as you noted, one of the ways to address urban
heat islands is investing in restoration of natural resources
in urban forestry programs. So how can Federal agencies better
coordinate to, for example, increase urban tree canopy, create
good-paying restoration jobs, and address urban heat islands?
Dr. Ali. Well, you know, the first thing that we have to
do is continue to get out of [inaudible]. Over the years,
people began to evolve a bit and working in that direction. You
heard people mention the Interagency Working Group for
Environmental Justice, which came out of Executive Order 12898
that President Clinton signed in 1994 that was bringing folks
together. There are other opportunities that exist there. And
what we have to do is to leverage the resources on the Federal
side but also then also look at some public-private
partnerships to help make change happen.
You know, we have the opportunity now to actually address
many of these impacts that are happening in vulnerable
communities, one, from the fossil fuel pollution side. We have
to have a just transition there. We can also use natural
infrastructure where we can create a number of jobs to be able
to, you know, rebuild wetlands, as I said, our forest, which
can lower some of the heat issues that we're referencing today
but also, as I've heard other Members say, they're very
interested in creating economic opportunities.
So we have the opportunity to do that, but that means
we've got to get these Federal entities together. We've got to
have a comprehensive strategy to be able to address these
communities. And, as was mentioned earlier, we need to
identify--so where are the 100 locations or whatever the number
is that folks decide on that we are going to actually build a
strong foundation under communities and something we need to
discuss today, build power and wealth inside of those
communities so that real long-standing, transformative change
can happen.
Ms. Bonamici. I appreciate that. And a lot of those
issues--most of those issues if not all of those issues are
addressed in the climate action plan.
Ms. Toney, thank you for your testimony. A recent study
found that black women in particular are exposed to high
temperatures or air pollution, they are more likely then to
have premature, underweight, or stillborn babies. And I
wondered if you could talk about how the Trump Administration
of course is taking steps to reduce enforcement of
environmental laws, and how will these regulatory decisions
affect the health and well-being of children and parents
throughout their lives, especially with a focus on children
because you're the mom here. Thanks.
Ms. Toney. Well, yes, Congresswoman, and thank you for
that question. I certainly think of my children every time I
consider this, as well as the millions of children across this
country that are unfortunately disproportionately impacted by
these rollbacks at the EPA.
Just to make it quick and short, there has to be
accountability. Unfortunately, EPA has forgotten the beginning
of their mission, which is to protect human health and the
environment, human health being first. And so when you look at
each of these rollbacks, what we see is that there is not only
a disproportionate impact on people of color but also the
vulnerability to mothers, pregnant mothers, women of
childbearing age are not taking it seriously.
And I will just say personally when I ended my time with
EPA at the end of 2016, 2017, I was pregnant with my son Devon,
who is now 3 years old. At that time I found personally there
were places that just impacted due to climate, due to pandemics
like Zika virus. At the time I was pregnant. I couldn't travel
because of Zika. When I was coming face-to-face with women who
were farmworkers who were talking about the toxins that were a
part of the--their work clothes every day, the fact that they
could not embrace their children, I felt that personally. I
felt it personally when we talked about and were experiencing
what was happening in Flint, Michigan, because I was a breast-
feeding mother. And so to know that there were people who could
not drink water and their children who could not drink water
and have it pass through, these are very real issues that are
made worse when you have an EPA that does not take into
consideration the vulnerability of mothers of children and
certainly of women of color. And being in that group, I
certainly understand why it is important for us to not only
hold them accountable but to keep reiterating how critical it
is for us to understand and then respond to the most vulnerable
among us.
Ms. Bonamici. Absolutely. Thank you for your passion and
your advocacy, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. Biggs.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member
Lucas. And I thank the witnesses for being here today. This has
been very interesting testimony and questions and dialog back
and forth, and I appreciate that.
However, I do have to express a modicum of disappointment
that, as of 24 hours before this hearing began, I had received
testimonies from actually only one of the four witnesses on
this panel, just one, and that's unacceptable as I wanted to
prepare for this hearing. And it actually is a breach of this
body's rules.
And as we get to this subject matter, this has been
interesting because we've covered a very broad array of topics,
but that's just perhaps one of my concerns with this hearing is
that the topic today is actually all over the map, which makes
it disappointing because I think it distracts from what I think
is probably the most urgent and undeniably terrible statistic
and that is that black Americans and other individuals of color
are being hospitalized for COVID and in certain cases dying
from COVID at a disproportionately higher rate than other
demographic groups of Americans in many parts of this country.
And I think my colleagues on the other side, and obviously
everyone can speak for themselves, but I would assume that all
of us would agree that the cumulative burdens faced by our
Nation's poorest communities, many of which are communities of
color, make it more difficult for them to confront COVID or,
for that matter, any other serious private or public health
threat.
But for all the separate strands that we're engaging with
today ranging from residential patterns to climate change to
social justice to environmental regulation and more, these are
subjects that probably warrant a far more in-depth discussion
and in many cases actually some considerable debate and as a
former trial lawyer, I can just tell you that's one of the ways
we try to get at truth is the back-and-forth and exchange to
try to find an answer. We simply can't get there in today's
hearing because we're not focused. And I assume that at some
point the Chair might bring back for a more refined or granular
discussion on these issues.
But I want to just take one example. If you look at one
strand today, EPA regulation, there are some here who believe
that whenever the Trump Administration changes a rule for any
reason that it is unconscionably compromising the safety of the
planet, but that's simply not true in my opinion and other
scientists and in some scientists' opinion as well. I had the
privilege of serving as the Chairman of this body's Environment
Subcommittee in the last Congress, and we reviewed many of
these types of things, and I think I can speak with some modest
amount of authority on the issue.
And every one of us wants clean air, clean water, and some
areas of the country unfortunately lag behind others in these
metrics. But often State-and municipal-level environmental
agencies are much better positioned to make improvements than
Federal bureaucrats hundreds or thousands of miles away.
I can just tell you in the Phoenix metro area, even today,
our number-one problem with our air quality is dust. And we had
one leg of the EPA telling us that we needed to take care of
that by putting water on these dusty areas and in an area that
has 4.8 million people in it and bigger than several States,
and on the other side the EPA telling us that we were
mismanaging our water resources. If we could have handled that
on the local level, we would have seen far more efficient way
to resolve that issue and make strides in that.
And I would say that some EPA rules probably end up
offering more harm to disadvantaged Americans than benefit. For
example, you can look at the overly stringent CAFE (Corporate
Average Fuel Economy) standards, which have been mentioned
today and that Dr. Ali mentioned in his written testimony,
which the Trump Administration has recently eased, and I
emphasize the word eased, not eliminated, when making new
vehicles. And those standards were making new vehicles
increasingly expensive, thereby forcing some Americans to keep
driving older, more dangerous, and less environmentally
friendly vehicles because that's the vehicles they could
afford.
I introduced a legislative fix for some of the problems at
the EPA, but I probably shouldn't introduce that. That'd be
just another tangent because, again, the immediate problem
we're facing today is that persons of color throughout the
United States continue to be hospitalized, in some cases dying
from COVID, and I think we could create perfect air, perfect
weather right now with the flip of a switch if we could. We'd
still be left with this grim problem when we wake up tomorrow
morning.
And I'm hoping that we can refocus some of this hearing on
immediate resolutions for this very serious problem, which I do
think is very serious and needs to be addressed.
And with that, Madam Chair, I'll yield back the balance of
my time. Thank you.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Ms. Fletcher.
Ms. Fletcher. Thank you so much, Chairwoman Johnson, and
thank you, Ranking Member Lucas, for holding this hearing. It
is timely; it is important. I appreciate the insights of all of
our panelists and certainly agree that there are so many topics
that we are addressing as we're gathered here together today
that I hope we'll continue to have additional hearings on these
topics because they are of critical importance.
I at least want to start with a focus in my questions on
one aspect of the Federal response. This is largely directed
first to Ms. Toney and Dr. Ali because you're both former
employees of the EPA. Of course, as we've heard, as the former
EPA Regional Administrator for region 5 under the Obama
Administration, Ms. Toney, as you said, covers the southeastern
United States, and then, Dr. Ali, as a member of the Office of
Environmental Justice serving in multiple administrations.
I would be interested to hear from you what mechanisms
were in place when you worked at the EPA that ensured
environmental justice considerations were integrated into the
research and rulemaking process and whether to your knowledge
these mechanisms are still in place. And then I'll just go
ahead and ask kind of the second part of my question, which is
if also you have policy recommendations for ensuring that
environmental justice communities are placed in the EPA
research and development regulatory actions as we move forward.
So both what was there? Do you know whether it's still there?
And what recommendations do you have? And then after you two
address it, if anybody else [inaudible]. Do you want to start
maybe--maybe we'll start with Ms. Toney and then go to Dr. Ali.
Ms. Toney. Thank you, Congresswoman. I can speak to what
happened in the region. I certainly worked very closely with
Dr. Ali as he was in the EJ office in Washington, DC. When I
think about what things we did and what things have been
successful and where we should continue to move forward, it's
certainly in investing and leveraging not only our data and
research but also in environmental justice communities that are
already doing the work. And I can think of no better example
than Spartanburg, South Carolina, where they were able to
utilize and turn a $300,000 EPA workforce development grant
into what is now over $30 million in investment.
And they were able to work together with EPA because there
was a program in existence that used--it was sustainable
communities that brought together the Department of
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and EPA to
leverage funds so that the environmental justice communities
could not just grow in one space but have a 360 view of how
they were growing and developing and investing in those
communities. And so people were actually not only learning a
skill but they were investing in their own resiliency and their
own sustainability in their housing and in their
transportation, and it was a beautiful--it was not only a
leverage point but also collection of community, business,
industry coming together for the betterment of the community.
I also served as the Chairwoman of the Local Government
Advisory Committee for EPA before I was Regional Administrator,
so I did this in my capacity as Mayor. And it was--I was
appointed by then-Administrator Lisa Jackson, and what was
interesting is I was appointed about 2 weeks before the BP oil
spill happened, so truly thrown into the fire. But one of the
things that was important during that time period was
understanding and listening to local officials, which is what I
did.
I was in charge of collecting the information from over 30
elected officials who sat on that Committee across the country
to talk to other local elected officials about what works. And
if there's anything that I know and have certainly seen, it is
that Mayors, City Councilmembers, County Supervisors, and
Governors who are on the frontline and are determined to fight
climate even when our Federal Government is reversing things,
they're the ones that know, and they're the ones that are
giving us the information of how to really activate and utilize
these resources. And so I think that's what--a place we should
go--not only go back to but really learn some lessons from.
Ms. Fletcher. Thank you so much, Ms. Toney. I'm running
close on my time, but, Dr. Ali, if you could touch on anything
else that you think would be additionally helpful, I appreciate
that.
Dr. Ali. Yes, well, one, we should always be honoring
communities and their innovation and suggestions on how to do
this better. One of those tools was actually created in
collaboration with a number of folks, the States, local
governments, Mayors, frontline communities, and others. There's
Plan EJ 2014, which actually has an ADP process, the action
development process, which gets to rulemaking and helping those
other parts of the agency to better understand how and where
environmental justice should be integrated. And a part of that
was actually taking out rule writers and getting them outside
of their desk and actually training them on environmental
justice, taking them to communities so they could see how the
impacts were actually playing out so that they would have a
better understanding when they're going through that process.
So that's one part.
And I'll just close real quickly because I know we're
short on time. Another tool that came out of suggestions from
communities is the National Environmental Justice Advisory
Council, which allows folks to provide advice and
recommendations to the Administrator and hopefully those--that
advice and recommendations also permeates to the White House
and to others about what the real needs are. So communities
play a strong role in that, along with business and industry,
States, tribal representation, and so many others.
Mrs. Fletcher. Thank you so much for that answer, and
thank you to all of our witnesses for your testimony here
today. I exceeded my time, so, Madam Chair, I yield back.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. Garcia.
Mr. Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member Lucas,
and to our witnesses, very intriguing testimony, very important
issues here.
I echo Representative Biggs' sentiment that I hope in
future engagements we can narrow down the content here a little
bit so we can focus on specific asks and needs as we move
forward and truly bring solutions forward.
I will say as a Californian I'm in the heart of northern
LA, 38 percent Latino population, and I grew up in this area
seeing the terrible air quality. I saw the regulations flow
downhill to where we are today. And I will say simply that
Ranking Member Lucas's comments that these regulations don't
come for free, they do impart a cost on all Members and voters
and citizens of this country and specifically in California.
And to that point, while we have some of the highest
regulations in California, we are also seeing some of the
highest energy prices, and that does dramatically impact the
minority populations, the low-income populations, just as
everything you've outlined before. So these costs are real.
They are direct, and they do hit the pocketbooks of citizens
that we're trying to help by definition.
I guess my question is, and I have no specific witness
that I direct this to, but if anyone has seen the data, to hear
about it, the COVID crisis here has actually given us in some
ways a unique insight into the direct cause and effects of
human beings on the environment. Over the last four months
we've seen things shut down. I've seen in LA freeways in the
middle of rush hour that are populated with maybe 10 percent of
the cars that they were historically. Have you seen any data
that shows us what the ramifications of this shutdown have had
to the environment in all neighborhoods I'd say but especially
in urban environments, low-income populated neighborhoods? Are
we seeing dramatic decreases in health cases as a result of air
quality? Are we seeing massively improved air quality as a
result of the shutdown?
Ms. Toney. Congressman, I can start out----
Mr. Corbin-Mark. Congressman----
Ms. Toney. Oh, Cecil----
Mr. Corbin-Mark. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Ms. Toney. I'll start and take a quick stab at that, and I
will have to supplement the testimony with the actual articles
and data. But to the best of my knowledge certainly we have
seen in communities where it has not gotten better,
particularly in communities of color. There is this belief that
because there are fewer vehicles on the roads that that reduces
emissions and reduces air pollution. What it does not take into
account is that air pollution that is around fence line
communities, black and brown communities that are literally
right next door to polluting industries, so places like
Houston, Texas; St. James Parish, Louisiana, these are places
that, regardless of what happens with transportation, they are
still going to be experiencing high levels of air pollution.
And if we add to that the fact that these are essential
workers, so these are folks that are not only on the frontlines
when they're going to their jobs, be they nurses or doctors,
janitors, hotel workers, but they're also people who are having
to shelter in place in the pollution in the places where they
live, so that has resulted in seeing actual higher levels of
instances of health impacts that are devastating to black and
brown communities.
I'll just close by saying one of the things we don't want
to put out there is that in order to clean the environment,
people have to get sick because that's not true, and that's
certainly not what we want to have happen. It should be the
opposite, that this is sort of a wake-up call to us that just
because we see clear sky in one place does not mean that it's
clean.
Mr. Corbin-Mark. And, Representative Garcia, just to add
to what my colleague Heather has said and to say that, you
know, there's an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
study that has documented the fact that while we've seen, even
prior to COVID, record sort of decreases in terms of air
pollutions from--air pollution from other sectors like the
transportation sector because of some of the initiatives like
the CAFE standards and other things that have been put in place
by the EPA under previous administrations, one of the things
that still remains stubbornly problematic in terms of air
pollution is the emissions from buildings.
And again, I point to the fact, as I discussed in my
testimony, that one of the things that needs to happen here is
that we really need to have greater resources for
Weatherization Assistance Programs and to really take the
public housing stock across this country and treat it as though
it is a finite resource, which it is, and then invest in making
sure that the air quality inside of those homes is better by
reducing the emissions from oil--dirty oil-burning furnaces,
for example.
The fact is that part of what we're saying to folks for
COVID-19 is that our biggest public health tool is for you to
shelter in your homes. Well, that is only exacerbating the
problem when we deal with the consequence of both extreme heat
and the fact that we have not dealt with air pollution coming
from those buildings in terms of the boiling of fossil fuel
infrastructure--the burning of fossil fuel infrastructure like
the heating and [inaudible] systems, et cetera.
So I would just--and that--as I said, there's an MIT study
that points that out and really documents that, and we'd be
happy to forward that to you. But I'd urge the Committee to
really look at the issue really providing--telling or
encouraging your other colleagues in Congress to provide
greater funding for Weatherization Assistance Programs. That's
a way in which we can decrease the emissions that are coming
from buildings and make those homes really truly the better
public health option while we wait for a virus--a vaccine,
sorry, for the COVID-19 virus.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much, Mr. Garcia.
Mr. Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Johnson. Ms. Stevens. You're muted. Unmute.
Now, can you proceed? She looks like she's unmuted here, but--
well, we'll come back to you when we get that straightened out.
Mr. Tiffany.
Mr. Tiffany. Madam Chair, can you hear me OK?
Chairwoman Johnson. Yes.
Mr. Tiffany. OK. Thank you very much. It's a great
pleasure to be on your Committee and join Ranking Member Lucas.
Thank you very much for the time today.
I just have a real simple question. I don't know if
there's a simple answer to any of the panelists. How much money
are you looking for? How much money are you looking for from
the taxpayers of the United States for various projects that
you're talking about and that you're so passionate about? And
I'll listen to your answers.
Dr. Ali. Well, let me respond to that because I've heard
that question asked for decades now. And I don't think that
there is a specific number that folks are looking for. What
folks are looking for is transformation. What folks are looking
for is justice. And what folks are looking for is that when we
move forward on the development of policy, programs, or
activities, that there's a real environmental justice analysis
to address the impacts that are happening. And to also
understand that there have been choices that have been made in
the past that have gotten us to the place that we find
ourselves in now.
So once we put together a comprehensive strategy and make
sure that we've got that analysis, then we can begin to unpack
all the things that need to be fixed at the Department of
Transportation and our transportation issues, around housing,
around job creation and making sure there's true equity there,
on the environmental side, and our public health side, so I'm
not sure how you quantify that.
But what you can do is that you can begin to be very
serious about the changes that have to happen to help these
communities to be made full and made whole again. So for me
that is the best way to respond instead of there being a
specific number that we're actually truly focused on putting
the mechanisms in place to help people to move from surviving
to thriving.
Mr. Kelley. And this is Hilton----
Mr. Corbin-Mark. I would just follow up what--hello?
Mr. Kelley. Yes, I would just like to second what Ali
Mustafa has stated. I believe that, you know, the counselor is
definitely on point with what we are thinking as well. I mean,
it's not about the amount of money that we need, but it's about
the work that needs to be done and putting together a
comprehensive plan to get it done when it comes to reducing
pollution, when it comes to adequate housing, and when it comes
to health care for Americans across the board, so I second that
statement which Ali Mustafa made.
Mr. Corbin-Mark. I--this is Cecil, and I would just say to
you, Congressman Tiffany, the--there--I support what both of my
colleagues have said, but there are ways in which to come up
with a number. So if we're talking about the Weatherization
Assistance Program, there is a finite number of public and
affordable housing in this country. It can be counted. The
Department of Housing and Urban Development has that number.
They can come up with a number for what it would cost for us as
a nation to weatherize every single public housing or
affordable housing unit in this country.
I do not think that that is something that is out of reach
of the taxpayers of this country. And furthermore, what I said
in my earlier statements was that that would redress some of
the historical injustices with regards to redlining and the
disinvestment within those type of housing units.
It would reduce the energy burden on those
representatives--sorry, those constituents of yours that fall
into those particular categories, and it is a very definitive
and achievable task that can be quantified. And, to be quite
honest, I think that if we came up with a number, it would not
be something that would break the bank. I just don't see that
happening.
Far too often what we do is we pass on those programs for
other kinds of band-aid types of efforts, which are important
and critical. So, for example, we may say, well, let's give out
a few air conditioners here or there. But if you give out air
conditioners in a situation where extreme heat is continuing to
rise, what you're doing is putting a band-aid on a problem
because that house is going to take more electrical cost to
keep it cool than if you had insulated and weatherized the
house properly in the first place. This is a fairly sound
scientific and engineering approach. It has a finite cost,
there is a finite number, and it can be done.
Ms. Toney. This is Heather Toney. Just very quickly, I
agree with all of my colleagues. I think that we should also
look at what the return on investment is because we don't count
that often enough. And so as we look at what the investment in
the dollar amount, whatever that may be, I agree that we have
to look at transformative efforts but also rely on the career
EPA staff and scientists. Unfortunately, this Administration
has greatly reduced that institutional knowledge. But you did
have career and will in the future hopefully 1 day have career
staff that know these numbers, have the relationships with
local mayors and officials that are leveraging these dollars,
and we're also looking at what the return on that investment
is. So when you utilize these funds to not only create more
resiliency within a community that sustains extreme weather,
you're actually reducing the amount of money that you have to
put into programs like FEMA and emergency response. So there is
a balancing act that's done there. It just takes a little bit
of time, thought, and transformative action to correct some of
the past injustices.
Mr. Tiffany. Madam Chair, I really want to thank the
panelists for their answers, especially Mr. Corbin-Mark. He
seems to have a strong idea that this is quantifiable.
I would just follow up with one thing with Mr. Ali. He
said there would be an analysis that would need to be done.
What has that analysis been done or is there a way for us to
see what the assumptions are that are going into the analysis
for those costs so we would have an idea with finite resources
in the Federal Government for how much money that it would cost
with that analysis?
Dr. Ali. There are steps that have been put in place that
have been developed with lots of different folks around
environmental justice analysis, so as was stated at the
beginning of this, you should most definitely invite someone
from the Environmental Protection Agency who's still there to
walk you through the various steps that are a part of that and
to think then about how that needs to be expanded and to be
able to utilize that in a number of the decisionmaking that
happens.
One of the things that would be really helpful is that, as
we're moving forward on the creation of laws, is that there is
an environmental justice analysis component that's a part of
that to help you to be able to make the best decisionmaking
possible. And of course that should be done in coordination
with frontline communities and others who have expertise in
many of the areas that folks are making decisions on.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Tiffany. Ms. Stevens.
Ms. Stevens. Can you hear me now, Madam Chair?
Chairwoman Johnson. Yes.
Ms. Stevens. Fabulous. Well, what I was saying earlier was
thank you for having this very informative and insightful
hearing. I've learned a lot from our witnesses in particular,
and I want to thank them for their expertise and their time
today as well, just such incredible work in organizations and
efforts that each one of them represents.
And to kind of go back to where we circled on a few times
but just to get slightly more specific, how can we invest in
science infrastructure to help bolster our understanding of the
disproportionate impacts of extreme weather on our communities
of color based on places where we might be overlooking or
things that might be making improvements? We obviously hear a
lot about tree canopies. There were certainly some great
examples that Mr. Kelley provided--and maybe with that, Mr.
Kelley, maybe I could--I'll call on you to begin to answer the
questions.
Mr. Kelley. Well, yes. We've been working with quite a few
groups when it comes to helping to reduce the climate change
impact within the city of Port Arthur and southeast Texas area.
We work very closely with the Union for Concerned Scientists.
We're working very closely with Anthropocene Alliance, which
provides scientists various resources and information to help
us sort of rebuild and reconfigure our community when it comes
to housing, when it comes to protecting ourselves against sea-
level rise.
And I think by investing in Union of Concerned Scientists,
the Sierra Club, and various other organizations that have the
science, that have the wherewithal and the staff to sort of
help put together programs to assist with some of these
operations to help us, No. 1, keep our cities cooler, by doing
various planning procedures like gardening, we got our wetland
restoration projects that need to happen. Also we are dealing
with sea-level rise, so how do we mitigate our housing? So on
the coastal areas we have to look at a new way of living.
We have to look at a new way of building, and that means
many people here--as a matter of fact, in Port Arthur after
Hurricane Harvey, any house that's being built in the city of
Port Arthur must have an elevation plan, so therefore, homes
must be elevated at least 6 feet above the norm at this
particular point, but yet if you still live in a low-lying
area, then the city of Port Arthur and the State will not fund
your elevation project. They are trying to get people out of
those low-lying areas because many of them are--at this
particular point they're not sustainable, and it's time to move
a little bit closer inland. But yet, there are many ideas, and
there are many programs by various organizations such as Union
of Concerned Scientists, the Sierra Club that can help to put
together programs and ideas to help us move forward with this
new norm called climate change.
Ms. Stevens. Right. Well, and I'll tell you, you know,
there's some--I guess it's still a debate, but I'm here for the
infrastructure guarantee. You know, certainly those safe and
maintained roadways and bridges, the guarantee that everyone
can drink clean water, fresh water, and that everyone can
breathe fresh air. And that's just our baseline. But then we
can continue from there to innovate and create jobs. But, you
know, these are real issues. There's a reason why we're having
this conversation. And certainly the data is so, so critical.
And I'm curious to ask our witnesses what data the EPA
could be collecting right now about the link between
environmental disparities and the impacts of COVID-19 and other
data that other agencies could be collecting. And I'll tell
you, Mayor Toney, I'm a huge fan. I've just gotten to know you
through this hearing, but reading about your bio, I was
delighted to see you on. And I just have a few more seconds
here, but maybe we could get you in before we have to pass it
over.
Ms. Toney. Well, thank you very much. And I absolutely
agree that the EPA should be doing as much data collection as
humanly possible. There are a number of research facilities and
everything from data including race, sex, age, where the
populations are most impacted, relating that to climate
impacts, so layering it on top of places that have been
devastated by flood, fire, and just a number of the different
dynamics we see, in addition to things like air pollution, as
well as what communities are doing in response.
And then, again, I want to go back to one of the things
that we are working on because we work alongside the
Environmental Defense Fund that has really come up with a great
research tool, the climate vulnerability index, because it's
actually a toolkit that helps decisionmakers. It helps mayors
and community organizers to understand where they should put
the emphasis of their dollars and their focus when they're
doing what they're doing right now, which is developing climate
action plans and looking at renewable energy portfolios.
The way the Federal Government can assist is because
it's--by some of these communities and mayors come to the
Federal Government, come to EPA for things like Federal
assistance and technical assistance grants. These things are
partnerships together that allow communities to do the work
they need to do to research and understand where is the best
place to put their dollars, how they make the most of their
investment, and how they protect their most vulnerable
populations. So these tools are being put together now, and I
think it's important for the Federal Government to recognize
where there's an opportunity to make some real difference, so
thank you for that, Congresswoman.
Ms. Stevens. Thank you. And thank you again----
Mr. Corbin-Mark. Congresswoman, I just want to add your--
and part of your question was----
Ms. Stevens. Yes.
Mr. Corbin-Mark [continuing]. Focusing on where can we
make investments for the science infrastructure. I want to
point out that under the National Institutes of Health, there
is a National Institute of Minority Health and Health
Disparities, and it is one of the least-funded entities under
the NIH system. I think that that is one of the places that you
could begin to look to make other types of investments to
really call upon, for example, the CDC to focus on racial
disparities, to focus on the issue of racism as a public health
issue, as it has been documented scientifically by a number of
studies. And I think that those are ways in which you can begin
to strengthen the infrastructure. I think it is a travesty that
in the midst of this pandemic we have to claw out of the
Federal agencies information about health disparities, about
the way in which COVID-19 was racially disparate in terms of
our communities, and that should never be able--allowed to be
happening again.
And then the last thing I'll say--and I think this
transcends all--many of the questions that we've talked about,
Congress has the power of the purse, and with that power comes
particular requirements that you can institute in the
legislative language [inaudible], and you all should be doing
that. I think the other thing is that you also have the power
of oversight. The more you put agencies--Federal agencies under
whatever administration they are--under scrutiny and force them
to bring out into the daylight data gaps, the issue of not
looking at these things in terms of their racially disparate
outcomes, the more you do that, then the more pressure is
applied to those agencies I think to come up with answers. You
can certainly put the public on notice, and we will certainly--
I think those of us inclined to do so try to create greater
accountability around the time of the elections.
Ms. Stevens. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Corbin-
Mark. Thank you for your expertise, phenomenal.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. McNerney.
Mr. McNerney. Well, I thank the Chairwoman. Can you hear
me now?
Chairwoman Johnson. Yes.
Mr. McNerney. I thank the Chairwoman for holding the
hearing. And I want to thank the witnesses. Your testimony is
stark and very informative, so I appreciate that.
The city of Stockton, California, which is located in my
district, has one of the largest environmental justice
communities in the State of California. It's historically borne
a disproportionate share of pollution as a result of redlining,
which has been discussed, illegal dumping, air pollution near
schools, and other discriminatory policies.
Mr. Kelley, your organization is deeply involved in the
fight for the fundamental right to breathe clean, unpolluted
air. Can you describe the impacts that extreme heat has on
chronic cardiovascular respiratory diseases, which are
exacerbated by airborne pollutants?
Mr. Kelley. Yes. Well, you know, when we're dealing with
pollution, we know for a fact that sulfur dioxide, it impacts
the respiratory system, and it impacts the nervous system. Now,
there are other gases that come along with, you know, illegal
dumping, for instance, when you have garbage and trash, and
with that heat, you never know exactly what type of toxins are
being dumped in various [inaudible] when you have illegal
dumping. This is why we have segregated trash for various
areas. You have hard trash, you have industrial liquid trash,
and we have various departments which they are to go in for
safety purposes. But when you have illegal dumping, there are a
number of products that are dumped in illegal dump sites. You
have toxins like paints, you have solvents, you have some fuel
material, you have a lot of petroleum material, rubber,
plastics, all sorts of things.
And then as this--you know, as these areas start to grow
in size and you have a large pocket of people living in that
concentrated area, then, as the heat starts to buildup over
time, what you'll find is that there are gases that will emit
from that large pile of trash that's not being treated
properly.
So, with that being said, illegal dumping, that's a
different animal than when you're talking about environmental
pollution from large industries that may also be plaguing that
community. And we are having a difficult time dealing with the
large number of people in our community. One out of every five
households in the city of Port Arthur has a child or someone
that has to use a nebulizer before they go to school or take
breathing treatments before they go to bed because of the
toxins that they're breathing like sulfur dioxide, particulate
matter, and other toxic chemicals that come from the oil and
gas industries and also the chemical incineration facility
called Veolia.
So there are a pocket of communities that are around our
country that are dealing with this, and what we have a tendency
to do is try to go and work closely with our State to try to
find some type--kind of reprieve from the dumping of these
toxic chemicals and illegal dump sites. I know in south Dallas
there was a major problem with an illegal dump site, but yet
they ended up turning it into a legal dumpsite, but yet the
citizens got very involved and they ended up having a lot of
say-so in how that dumpsite was to be processed and then also
employed the people in that community.
So they incorporated the science, they incorporated the
citizens, thus creating jobs and thus creating a clean way in
which to get rid of the trash that was dumped in that area and
that was the way they sort of worked together to get that done.
So I hope I answered some of your questions.
Mr. McNerney. You answered more than my question. I
appreciate that was a good answer.
Dr. Ali, as States and local government--I've seen you
before in front of the Energy and Commerce Committee. You're a
great witness.
As States and local governments across the country seek to
address the economic fallout of COVID-19, I'm concerned that
things like air quality monitoring and environmental justice
priorities are not going to be given their due consideration.
What steps might we take in Congress to elevate this issue so
that they aren't left behind?
Dr. Ali. Well, you know, it also ties to a previous
question that we need to make sure that we are properly funding
community-based participatory research. We need to make sure
that our historically black colleges and universities, our
Hispanic-serving institutions, our tribal colleges have the
resources that are necessary to partner with frontline
communities on these issues. We need to make sure that the
communities also have the resources so that they can do their
own air monitoring.
We have an expert on the line with us today in brother
Cecil Corbin-Mark--excuse me, Cecil. I'm talking too fast--that
they've done incredible work and making sure that folks have
the education and the training that's necessary for communities
to understand what these impacts are and then working in
conjunction with State and Federal folks. There is a true
honest relationship there.
So I'll yield back some of my time because I believe Cecil
may want to also add something to this.
Mr. McNerney. Well, my time is already expired, so I'm
going to have to yield back, so, thank you.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. Weber.
Mr. Weber. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. I
have been watching and listening for a while, and I want to
extend my welcome to Mr. Garcia and Mr. Tiffany for joining our
Committee, get that out of the way.
For each of the witnesses, if you don't know my
background, I owned and operated my own air conditioning
company for 35 years. And, Mr. Kelley, let me quickly say for
you that my bride of almost 44 years grew up in a little town
called Nederland, Texas, which is right up the road from Port
Arthur.
Mr. Kelley. That's right.
Mr. Weber. So we know that area quite well, and it's in
our district of course.
Mr. Kelley. Last year, right before Thanksgiving, we had a
major event out there with the TPC plant exploding, so I hope
every one of your family members was safe.
Mr. Weber. They were, and I was there on the ground with
County Judge Jeff there probably [inaudible] after it happened
I think, so we got to go check that out in person. And you know
that County Judge Jeff Branick, by the way, sustained damage at
his own house.
Mr. Kelley. Wow. I did not know that. I'm sorry to hear
that.
Mr. Weber. You bet you. He did.
But to all of the witnesses, really have any of you all
ever run an air conditioning or an energy company? And I'm
assuming the answer to that is probably categorically no unless
there's something in the background I missed. What I'd like to
say, and with all due respect to our great Chairwoman, she's
such [inaudible] to work with, and I got to go overseas with
her and her son Kirk--somebody was going to say something? No.
Mr. Corbin-Mark. Yes, just to be clear, no, I have not run
an energy company, though I have participated in launching an
energy company with a bunch of my colleagues.
Mr. Weber. Well, that's good to hear, Mr. Corbin-Mark,
because you seem like a high-energy guy. I'm just saying. But
anyway, I got to go over with Eddie Bernice and Kirk, and we
had a delightful time. But I think we're a little too broad on
this particular hearing with everything that we've got tied to
it whether it's heat and cold, energy efficiency, whether it's
climate change, social justice, whether it's racism. I mean,
let me just tell you, from an air conditioning and heating
contractor's point of view, heat, cold, and energy efficiency
is pocket book blind, race blind, sex blind. It gets everybody
the same way.
I was on the Environmental Reg Committee in the Texas
legislature. [inaudible] tell you that the TCEQ, Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality, has more air monitoring
than probably any other area in the United States. That's just
a fact. I think they do a pretty good job. We all live and work
there. As I told Mr. Kelley, my wife grew up there. I lived in
south of the Houston area. I was born and raised there. We all
want clean air, clean water. We all want a good environment. We
really do.
And so, you know, if you want to talk about air
conditioning, if you want to talk about high-efficiency, the
cost of energy, I'm your guy. That's my background. That's what
I do. Environmental quality, TCEQ is the second largest
environmental regulatory agency in the world, second only to
EPA. And again, TCEQ's employees live and work in that
community. They want clean air. They want clean water. They
monitor that situation.
So I've got a little bit of a different twist here. I want
the House to come back to D.C. We can do this safely. We can do
this efficiently. We want to come back and get in this room
where I can see everybody. I'm the only Member of Congress in
this room--where we can see everybody and talk face-to-face,
shake your hand, get to know you a little bit before the
meeting and hearing, after the hearing. We can observe social
distancing.
And I'll just get really politically incorrect and say we
need to get our school kids back in school. We can do it
safely, get our economy going again. We can observe social
distancing. We can use all the precautions. We can get this
economy back up rocking and rolling, people back to work. And I
will tell you that if parents listening to this who are going
to be saying, yes, if we can do it safely and keep everybody
safe, I want my children back in school.
Here we have Ms. Toney, who is a mother of three. Judging
by the way she looks, her age they're probably one, three, and
five, so I'm just saying we can get them back in there.
And we need to get back up rocking and rolling. JFK said a
rising tide raises all ships. We need to be doing that. I
appreciate you all being here. I appreciate the Chairwoman
calling this. And with that, I yield back. Thank you very much.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. Tonko.
Mr. Tonko. Yes, Madam Chair, can you hear me?
Chairwoman Johnson. Yes.
Mr. Tonko. Oh, great. Thank you. And thank you, Madam
Chair and Ranking Member Lucas, for this great hearing, and a
special thanks to our witnesses for bringing their expertise
and insight to the panel.
This is such a crucially timely topic for my home
district. We just experienced a June in upstate New York where
the daily high temperature exceeded the historical average 21
times over. Half the days in June were warmer than 85 degrees,
which exceeds our average high not only in June but in July as
well. So my constituents have been forced to endure this heat
in homes that for the most part don't have air conditioning
because our summers have not been this warm.
However, COVID's stay-at-home orders, combined with warmer
summers--a warmer summer is making for, at minimum, an
uncomfortable and, at worst, a potentially deadly summer in
Albany and the surrounding area. Heat is the primary driver of
summertime morbidity for persons with pre-existing medical
conditions, and minority communities have disproportionately
more pre-existing conditions. So our societal half-century of
negligence has driven both issues. It is therefore up to us to
resolve them.
So, with that being said, Dr. Ali, it's great to see you
again. I always appreciate your input. I see this as similar to
some of the more broad community-related environmental justice
issues that you described in your testimony. To that end, what
kinds of tools do you think the Federal Government can employ
to help rectify this environmental justice problem?
Dr. Ali. Well, there are a number. At the Department of
Energy, we have the Energy Efficiency And Conservation Block
Grant program that provided about $3.2 billion to tribal--or to
tribal brothers and sisters, to low-income communities, to a
number of others that is now no longer in place.
We also, as was stated before, need to look at our
interagency sets of opportunities to leverage resources to help
people to have the information but then also to have the
planning in place to be able to move forward.
We also need to look at our banking industry also and the
investments in certain communities that they're willing to make
and in others that they aren't. Redlining is still real. There
is a report that just came out recently with the OCO and
certain banks, the enforcement not happening there and the
redlining and pushing people and not investing in certain
communities. And we know the Community Reinvestment Act is a
part of their privy.
There are number of things that folks on the Hill can do
to make sure that the resources are either going to our Federal
entities, making sure that enforcement is happening properly,
and then looking at how do we help to strengthen our existing
infrastructure under the organizations who have always been
focused on the impacts that are happening but also the set of
opportunities?
Mr. Tonko. Thank you. Thank you. And, Ms. Toney, given
your many years and working on the ground with community
members, what do you believe the Federal Government must do to
be a constructive partner in the retrofitting of homes that are
suitable for a future warmer climate?
Ms. Toney. Thank you, Representative Tonko. I think we
should absolutely be listening to our local elected officials.
They are on the frontlines. But we also have a tool right in
front of us. The Select Committee on Climate was mentioned
earlier, and I think it's important to know that there are some
significant opportunities there within their 12 pillars that do
focus on environmental justice but also rely upon working
within communities and community organizations to make sure
that the infrastructure dollars are put into the right place.
So the House actually has this report in front of them
right now, and at Moms Clean Air Force, we're encouraging all
of our members to reach out to their Members of Congress, ask
the question have you taken a look at this report. This is some
active action items that we can get behind right now that will
help make a difference in not just responding to coronavirus in
upcoming bills but also looking at the appropriations process
today, as well as what we can plan for in the future.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you. And keep that advocacy going. What
kind of improvements do you believe that current programs such
as LIHEAP could benefit from to ensure our most vulnerable
neighbors are able to afford their energy bills, including for
lifesaving cooling services?
Ms. Toney. We need to take an assessment and make sure
that they are being applied correctly, implemented correctly,
and they are having an impact in the communities that need them
the most. I think as you look at that, it's important for us to
take assessment and understand where the dollars are going and
then how they're being utilized and if they're being utilized
to the best of their ability right now.
I stress this appropriations process at the moment because
it's ongoing. I have never before seen a process--or an EPA
that is going through the appropriations process and talking
about vetoing their own budget, but here we are. So looking at
internally assessing and seeing where these dollars are being
spent, how they're impacting the communities where they are,
and if there needs to be some revisiting, I think now is the
time to do that.
Mr. Tonko. Well, thank you so much. I have exhausted my
time, but I appreciate your insights and would suggest that
beyond addressing the American homes through these health and
security measures, we're also providing for job creation, so
thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. Foster.
Mr. Foster. Thank you. And can everyone hear me? Yes?
Chairwoman Johnson. Yes.
Mr. Foster. OK, great. Well, first off, I just want to say
that environmental justice is an issue that hits very close to
home with me. I have in my district the second, third, and
fourth largest cities in Illinois in the form of Aurora,
Joliet, and Naperville, three cities with very distinct
histories.
And I also appreciate the comments on redlining. You know,
I--when the University of Richmond put online the redlining
maps of Joliet and Aurora, two cities I represent, I spent
probably 2 hours looking at those maps just almost trembling in
rage at the fact that we could see, you know, maybe almost a
century later the fingerprints of the redlining, and you can
see on those maps--you can see the incredibly racist and anti-
ethnic comments made by Federal employees in the 1930s that
determined the fate of those neighborhoods and the wealth of
those who live there.
You know, I don't believe it is an accident that the last
two coal plants to be shut down in the region were immediately
upwind of the African-American areas of south Joliet, the same
place that contains many un-remediated chemical waste sites.
So I--what I'd like to focus on my questioning is the
effect of urban planning and zoning. You know, the first line
of defense is always to reduce industrial pollution, but the
second line of defense is to plan things to avoid forcing
people to live right near places that--you know, that are near
these often unavoidable sources of pollution. You know, Mr.
Kelley, you're from Port Arthur. You know, I remember driving
through when I was in college, like 45 years ago, Port Arthur
and saying, wow, why do people live, you know--have to live
near some of these chemical plants?
And Texas is famous for its lack of zoning. You know,
industrial sites, you know, they--you know, it's often probably
pointed to as a competitive advantage of Texas that anyone can
build--you know, it's my land; I can do whatever I want with
it, which ignores externalities that you place on your
neighbors.
And in Illinois we have been going through for decades the
very painful and slow process of separating industrial sites
from places that people live. And just recently in my district
after a painful discussion we eliminated an ethylene oxide-
using site that had a tremendously potent carcinogen pumped
right in the middle of a suburban area.
So maybe I'll start with Mr. Ali. You know, you mentioned
how to pick 100 communities to show how well we could remediate
this, but that means you're picking 10,000 losers. How do we
decide, you know, where we spend our money to do the most to
benefit for minority public health?
Dr. Ali. Well, no matter what the number is, that does not
mean that--let's say if you identified 100, 500, 1,000,
whatever that number is, that doesn't mean that the work
doesn't stop in other communities that are, you know, being
driven by our statutes and our laws, so that work continues.
But when I say that, I hope people understand that if we do not
make communities whole, that if we don't build a strong
foundation underneath of them, they will always be attractive
to negative entities, so that's why I say we've got to get
together and actually make real change actually happen.
And then at the same time we can continue to make sure the
people are following the laws, you know, that there's
enforcement and accountability and compliance, and all the
various things that all of the Federal agencies and departments
do. And if we're not willing to do that, then, you know, we're
doing folks a huge injustice. So that's the reason that I state
it the way that I do.
Mr. Foster. Yes, but isn't there an important role in
comprehensive planning? You know, Mr. Kelley showed pictures of
flood. His area is not only subject to, you know, huge chemical
pollution, it's also evidently a flooding area. This happens in
Illinois as well, and over time what we do is we have paid
money to the communities to relocate themselves away from flood
areas, as has been done all over the country. And it's a
terribly--it's a very fraught discussion, but I think it's
really important to mitigate this, to actually, you know, have
long-term plans to mitigate things and--you know, and then
execute them.
Dr. Ali. Well, of course. That's why, you know, many of us
who work in the field that we do, we focus on equitable
development and making sure that we are also addressing, you
know, the egregious behaviors of zoning, you know, where people
would zone something like light industrial and other categories
that they would use to be able to justify being able to place
things in black and brown communities, so of course long-term
planning.
And that's where making sure that there is transparency in
the process, making sure that the voice of communities is a
driver in that process helps us to make sure that we're not,
you know--not doing the sins of the past. I don't know how else
to say it but that because there was intentionality in the
decisionmaking that was done and placing certain things in
certain communities and building low-income housing in
floodplains and doing a number of things that we now--you know,
it's all coming together now of why people are being not only
disproportionately impacted but why they are literally having
crosshairs placed on their communities. So there are ways for
us to address that by making sure that communities are a part
of the planning process and that they are helping to drive that
planning process.
Mr. Foster. Well, thank you. And thank you, Madam Chair,
for this.
Mr. Corbin-Mark. Congressman Foster, if I may,
Representative Foster, I would also--I support your notion that
community planning is a critical thing but also making sure
that there are resources for community-based planning and
community-driven planning is also really critical. I think that
technical assistance to help communities engage in the process
is really important. They bring a level of expertise that is
often devalued by professional planners, not all, but some, and
so I think it's really critical and important to recognize that
technical assistance needs to contribute their expertise of
knowing the communities and understanding their communities
from living there over long periods of time is really critical
as well.
Mr. Foster. Thank you. And, Madam Chair, I yield back.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Mr. McAdams.
Mr. McAdams. Thank you, Madam Chair. And this time--this
hearing is timely for my district as Utah is grappling with
both rising COVID case counts and summertime heat. In fact,
Utah hit 100-degree temperatures on a record early date this
year, on June 5, and we're likely to hit the 100-degree mark
again this week.
So Utah's population has a smaller share of people of
color than the national average, but my State has seen a
similar trend to national statistics where communities of color
are hit the hardest by COVID-19. So data from last May show
that though Utah is about 14 percent Hispanic, Hispanic Utahans
make up more than 38 percent of my State's COVID cases.
Hispanic, native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander, native and
black communities all face disproportionately high shares of
COVID cases relative to their share of Utah's population.
In addition to the novel virus and summertime heat, the
season also brings worsened air quality to Utah with high
levels of ground ozone. So I introduced legislation that would
direct the EPA and National Academies to examine the issue of
background ozone and its impact on human health, but we need to
do a lot more to examine both the health effect of each of
these factors, as well as the risks from their interaction.
Even in normal times worsened air quality has a notable
impact on our health, particularly for vulnerable populations
like those with asthma and the elderly. And now on top of that
we're grappling with a virus with greater risk for people with
respiratory issues.
So my question for the panelists would be in addition to
the negative effects of pollution on physical health, I think
we need to examine the impact of higher exposure of pollution
on a community's mental health. And so, anyone on the panel,
what are some of the documented effects of heightened exposure
to pollution and excess heat on people's mental health,
particularly for children and their brain and behavioral
development, and how does that combine to affect our minority
communities?
Ms. Toney. Thank you, Congressman, for that question. I
think it's something that is on the mind of a lot of mothers.
And while I can't point to a specific study, I can tell you
certainly we've heard from a number of our members that are
balancing children who are at home, being on the frontline, but
also, you know, seeing the higher rates of things like domestic
violence that are taking place unfortunately in communities
that are grappling with coronavirus, health impacts, air
pollution, and all of these burdens. And we're seeing those
instances take place in higher rates in communities of color.
Now, I don't want [inaudible], you know, anyone to think
that people are--or certainly that we are making--asking people
to make certain decisions. People have to make these decisions
for themselves whether they keep their kids home, whether they
send them to school. You know, they are making these decisions
based upon what is the best for their families. But what we do
know, what we are seeing is that it is a drain on--when people
who are disproportionately in a space where they cannot escape.
They cannot leave their place of residence because they are
living in a polluted area, so they don't have the means to just
go somewhere else, visit a family member. That's where they
are, and they're burdened on all sides by that. I hope and look
forward to studies on that, and that's something that EPA
should be looking at and researching.
Mr. Kelley. This is Hilton Kelley, Port Arthur, Texas. You
know, what we're seeing here on the ground in the southeast
Texas area is a large number of families that are being broken
up due to the stress level of unemployment, due to the stress
levels of the unhealthy conditions in which they live, and now
we have the threat of COVID-19, which is starting to really
plague the Jefferson County area in high numbers. We have a
long way to go before everyone can even think about getting
tested, and now we have people that are suffering from cancer.
I was just watching a news report this morning where many
cancer patients cannot even go to the doctor to have their
mammogram test. They cannot get their chemo on schedule because
so many hospitals are dedicated to COVID-19. And of course that
creates a large amount of stress upon that particular person
and the family as a whole. But yet when you think about your
family's survival and you're looking at, you know, your bills
that are piling up and you're looking at all the issues you
have to deal with when it comes to the high heat and energy
costs and not to mention COVID-19 having an impact on low-
income communities and people of color, well, it's a major
stress factor.
And people are really, really dealing with it as best they
can, but yet it's doing a lot of damage in many low-income,
people-of-color communities. And I'm seeing it here in the city
of Port Arthur and Beaumont. I know at least three families
that have basically broken up due to the stress level of
unemployment and illnesses within the family that just
financially they can no longer deal with.
Dr. Ali. This is Mustafa. Just let me say something very
quickly as we're closing out here. Both pollution and extreme
heat increases violence. It increases violence on the
interpersonal level and on group effects. There are a number of
studies that reference that. It also exacerbates existing
mental health conditions. There are studies that have shown
that as well. And it also, as was shared at the onset of this
hearing, that it also exacerbates suicides, so there is a
direct correlation between increased heat and suicides or
attempted suicides.
And, I'm sorry, if I could just say this last part because
I feel like we keep getting away from why we are dealing with
extreme heat situations. If we continue to burn fossil fuels,
we will continue to increase the heat in our atmosphere, in our
oceans. So that is one of the places we have to be focused on
if we're looking at long-term solutions to address some of the
things we've been discussing.
Mr. McAdams. Thank you. I see we're out of time. Thank you
for those--that information, and I yield back.
Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. Before we bring
this hearing to a close, I want to thank our witnesses, but I
also want to welcome our new Committee Members, Mr. Garcia and
Mr. Tiffany, and to say to Mr. Lucas and Mr. Biggs that we look
forward to having your input for any continuing plan for this
subject matter in hearings. We want to be sure that we are open
to all testimony and as bipartisan as we can be. What we are
looking for is solutions.
And so I want to say that the record will remain open for
2 weeks. I want to thank our witnesses for being here. You were
phenomenal. And if you have any additional questions for the
Committee or any additional testimony, it can be submitted. Our
witnesses are now excused, and our hearing is adjourned. Thank
you.
[Whereupon, at 4:31 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
Appendix I
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Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Ms. Heather McTeer Toney
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Responses by Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Responses by Mr. Hilton Kelley
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Appendix II
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Additional Material for the Record
Documents submitted by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Reports submitted by Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T0802.065
[For full report, see www.nwf.org/protective-value-of-nature]
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