[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
POLLUTION AND PANDEMICS: COVID-19'S DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT ON
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITIES
=======================================================================
VIRTUAL HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JUNE 9, 2020
__________
Serial No. 116-112
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce
govinfo.gov/committee/house-energy
energycommerce.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
44-852 WASHINGTON : 2021
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
Chairman
BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois GREG WALDEN, Oregon
ANNA G. ESHOO, California Ranking Member
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York FRED UPTON, Michigan
DIANA DeGETTE, Colorado JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois
MIKE DOYLE, Pennsylvania MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas
JAN SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana
G. K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio
DORIS O. MATSUI, California CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington
KATHY CASTOR, Florida BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky
JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland PETE OLSON, Texas
JERRY McNERNEY, California DAVID B. McKINLEY, West Virginia
PETER WELCH, Vermont ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia
PAUL TONKO, New York GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York, Vice BILL JOHNSON, Ohio
Chair BILLY LONG, Missouri
DAVID LOEBSACK, Iowa LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana
KURT SCHRADER, Oregon BILL FLORES, Texas
JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, SUSAN W. BROOKS, Indiana
Massachusetts MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
TONY CARDENAS, California RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina
RAUL RUIZ, California TIM WALBERG, Michigan
SCOTT H. PETERS, California EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia
DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
MARC A. VEASEY, Texas GREG GIANFORTE, Montana
ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
NANETTE DIAZ BARRAGAN, California
A. DONALD McEACHIN, Virginia
LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER, Delaware
DARREN SOTO, Florida
TOM O'HALLERAN, Arizona
------
Professional Staff
JEFFREY C. CARROLL, Staff Director
TIFFANY GUARASCIO, Deputy Staff Director
MIKE BLOOMQUIST, Minority Staff Director
Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change
PAUL TONKO, New York
Chairman
YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois
SCOTT H. PETERS, California Ranking Member
NANETTE DIAZ BARRAGAN, California CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington
A. DONALD McEACHIN, Virginia DAVID B. McKINLEY, West Virginia
LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER, Delaware BILL JOHNSON, Ohio
DARREN SOTO, Florida BILLY LONG, Missouri
DIANA DeGETTE, Colorado BILL FLORES, Texas
JAN SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
DORIS O. MATSUI, California EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia
JERRY McNERNEY, California JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
RAUL RUIZ, California, Vice Chair GREG WALDEN, Oregon (ex officio)
DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan
FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey (ex
officio)
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hon. Paul Tonko, a Representative in Congress from the State of
New York, opening statement.................................... 2
Prepared statement........................................... 3
Hon. John Shimkus, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Illinois, opening statement.................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the
State of New Jersey, opening statement......................... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 8
Hon. Greg Walden, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Oregon, opening statement...................................... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 12
Witnesses
Jacqueline Patterson, Senior Director, Environmental and Climate
Justice Program, National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People................................................. 13
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Answers to submitted questions............................... 100
Mustafa Santiago Ali, Vice President, National Wildlife
Federation..................................................... 18
Prepared statement........................................... 20
Answers to submitted questions............................... 101
Shay Hawkins, President, Opportunity Funds Association........... 25
Prepared statement........................................... 27
Answers to submitted questions \1\........................... 104
Submitted Material
Letter of June 8, 2020, from Andrew R. Wheeler, Administrator,
Environmental Protection Administration, to Mr. Pallone, et
al., submitted by Mr. Shimkus.................................. 75
Letter of May 13, 2020, from Susan Parker Bodine, Assistant
Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance,
Environmental Protection Administration, to Letitia James,
Attorney General of New York, submitted by Mr. Shimkus......... 78
Letter of June 8, 2020, from Andrew R. Wheeler, Administrator,
Environmental Protection Administration, to Members of
Congress, submitted by Mr. Shimkus............................. 84
Letter of August 23, 2018, from Steve Benjamin, President, and
Tom Cochran, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director,
U.S. Conference of Mayors, to David J. Kautter, Acting
Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service, submitted by Mr.
Shimkus........................................................ 86
Report of the Association of Air Pollution Control
Agencies,``State Air Trends & Successes: The StATS Report, 2020
Edition,'' submitted by Mr. Shimkus \2\
----------
\1\ Mr. Hawkins did not answer submitted questions for the record by
the time of publication.
\2\ The report has been retained in committee files and also is
available at https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF18/20200609/110773/
HHRG-116-IF18-20200609-SD011.pdf.
Letter of June 9,2020, from Kerene N. Taylor, Esq., Director of
Federal Legislative Affairs, and Caitlin Buchanan, Federal
Policy Associate, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, to Mr.
Pallone, et al., submitted by Mr. Tonko........................ 90
Letter of June 9, 2020, from Omega Wilson, West End
Revitalization Association, to Mr. Pallone, et al., submitted
by Mr. Tonko................................................... 93
Report of the Environmental Protection Agency, ``Our Nation's
Air: EPA Celebrates 50 Years!,'' June 2020, submitted by Mr.
Tonko \3\
Letter of May 20, 2020, from Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Senator, and
Ms. Blunt Rochester, et al., to Andrew R. Wheeler,
Administrator, Environmental Protection Administration,
submitted by Mr. Tonko......................................... 95
----------
\3\ The report has been retained in committee files and also is
available at https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF18/20200609/110773/
HHRG-116-IF18-20200609-SD004.pdf.
POLLUTION AND PANDEMICS: COVID-19'S DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT ON
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITIES
----------
TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2020
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change,
Committee on Energy and Commerce,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 12:00 p.m., via
Cisco Webex online video conferencing, Hon. Paul Tonko
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Members present: Representatives Tonko, Clarke, Peters,
Barragan, McEachin, Blunt Rochester, Soto, DeGette, Schakowsky,
Matsui, McNerney, Ruiz, Dingell, Pallone (ex officio), Shimkus
(subcommittee ranking member), Rodgers, McKinley, Johnson,
Flores, Mullin, Carter, Duncan, and Walden (ex officio).
Also present: Representatives Rush, Castor, Sarbanes,
Kennedy, and Burgess.
Staff present: Jeffrey C. Carroll, Staff Director;
Jacqueline Cohen, Chief Environment Counsel; Adam Fischer,
Policy Analyst; Waverly Gordon, Deputy Chief Counsel; Tiffany
Guarascio, Deputy Staff Director; Anthony Gutierrez,
Professional Staff Member; Caitlin Haberman, Professional Staff
Member; Rick Kessler, Senior Advisor and Staff Director, Energy
and Environment; Brendan Larkin, Policy Coordinator; Dustin J.
Maghamfar, Air and Climate Counsel; Elysa Montfort, Press
Secretary; Joe Orlando, Executive Assistant; Kaitlyn Peel,
Digital Director; Tim Robinson, Chief Counsel; Nikki Roy,
Policy Coordinator; Jen Barblan, Minority Chief Counsel,
Oversight and Investigations; Mike Bloomquist, Minority Staff
Director; Jerry Couri, Minority Deputy Chief Counsel,
Environment and Climate Change; Jordan Davis, Minority Senior
Advisor; Theresa Gambo, Minority Financial and Office
Administrator; Tyler Greenberg, Minority Staff Assistant;
Tiffany Haverly, Minority Communications Director; Peter
Kielty, Minority General Counsel; Mary Martin, Minority Chief
Counsel, Environment and Climate Change; Brandon Mooney,
Minority Deputy Chief Counsel, Energy; and Brannon Rains,
Minority Legislative Clerk.
Mr. Tonko. Good afternoon.
The Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change will now
come to order. Today, the subcommittee is holding a hearing
entitled ``Pollution and Pandemics: COVID-19's Disproportionate
Impacts on Environmental Justice Communities.''
Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, today's
hearing is being held remotely. All Members and witnesses will
be participating via video conferencing. As part of our
hearing, microphones will be set on mute for purposes of
eliminating inadvertent background noise. Members and
witnesses, you will need to unmute your microphone each time
you wish to speak. Documents for the record can be sent to Adam
Fischer at the email address we have provided to staff. All
documents will be entered into the record at the conclusion of
the hearing.
I now recognize myself for 5 minutes for an opening
statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL TONKO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COVID-19 obviously has drawn a lot of attention, and as an
epidemic, we know that it has exposed and, in many cases,
worsened long-standing environmental injustices. Communities
exposed to particulate matter and other air pollutants that
cause asthma, COPD, and other respiratory illnesses are now at
even greater risk of death from COVID-19, a devastating illness
that we know is disproportionately impacting communities and
affecting minority and low-income communities.
According to a recent CDC analysis, African Americans
represented 33 percent of COVID-hospitalized patients and
nearly a quarter of COVID deaths, despite only comprising 18
percent of the communities studied. These disparities are even
greater in certain communities. EPA has taken numerous
deregulatory actions over the past 3\1/2\ years, including
adopting a nonenforcement policy during the pandemic, leaving
many communities wondering who, if anyone, will stand up to
protect their health and their safety from very real and
lasting harm.
Our members of this subcommittee have made environmental
justice a top priority, and we are committed to ensuring
environmental justice is central to our work moving forward.
I want to recognize and thank several of our subcommittee
members, in particular, Dr. Ruiz and Mr. McEachin, who fought
to include language in the HEROES Act to codify EPA's
environmental justice grants program, and provide up to $50
million to build capacity of environmental justice community
groups. The HEROES Act also requires States and utilities
receiving Federal emergency funds to take steps to prevent
water and energy shutoffs for the duration of the COVID-19
emergency and establishes a new program to help people with
payments for drinking water and wastewater expenses. I want to
recognize Mrs. Dingell for her leadership on these vital
measures.
These are good and important policies, but this work is
nowhere close to done. Communities that have long faced the
worst injustices continue to suffer more air pollution and
vulnerability to our changing climate. Our approach must be
equal to this challenge, building a comprehensive strategy that
works to restore environmental justice for communities of color
and low-income neighborhoods.
Today, we will hear from experts on how COVID is impacting
communities that already face disproportionate harms from
pollution. We welcome Ms. Patterson and Mr. Shay to the
subcommittee, and welcome back Mr. Ali. Thank you for grounding
us in this timely and necessary discussion as we grapple with
our national history and presence of systemic racism. We need
to deepen our awareness of our environmental policies and their
disproportional consequences.
There is a reason we call this convening a hearing. As
Members of Congress, we need to listen, listen to the
communities who have felt these unfair, unjust impacts for
decades, listen to the experts who have done the work for years
and are best prepared to offer meaningful perspectives and
material solutions. And we must resolve to hear them, and then
act accordingly to address these longstanding harms.
I look forward to hearing your perspectives on the
intersection of environmental justice and COVID-19.
And I yield the remaining time to one of the great leaders
in Congress on this issue, the subcommittee vice chair, Dr.
Ruiz.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Tonko follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Paul Tonko
We know the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and, in many
cases, worsened longstanding environmental injustices.
Communities exposed to particulate matter and other air
pollutants that cause asthma, C.O.P.D., and other respiratory
illnesses are now at even greater risk of death from COVID-19,
a devastating illness that we know is disproportionately
affecting minority and low-income communities.
According to a recent CDC analysis, African Americans
represented 33 percent of COVID hospitalized patients, and
nearly a quarter of COVID deaths, despite only comprising 18
percent of the communities studied. These disparities are even
greater in certain communities.
EPA has taken numerous deregulatory actions over the past
three and a half years, including adopting a nonenforcement
policy during the pandemic, leaving many communities wondering
who, if anyone, will stand up to protect their health and
safety from very real and lasting harm.
Our members of this subcommittee have made environmental
justice a top priority, and we are committed to ensuring
environmental justice is central to our work moving forward.
I want to recognize and thank several of our subcommittee
members. In particular, Dr. Ruiz and Mr. McEachin, who fought
to include language in the HEROES Act to codify EPA's
environmental justice grant program and provide up to $50
million to build capacity of environmental justice community
groups.
The HEROES Act also requires States and utilities receiving
federal emergency funds to take steps to prevent water and
energy shutoffs for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency and
establishes a new program to help people with payments for
drinking water and wastewater expenses. I want to recognize
Mrs. Dingell for her leadership on these vital measures.
These are good and important policies, but this work is
nowhere close to done.
Communities that have long faced the worst injustices
continue to suffer more air pollution and vulnerability to our
changing climate.
Our approach must be equal to this challenge, building a
comprehensive strategy that works to restore environmental
justice for communities of color and low-income neighborhoods.
Today, we will hear from experts on how COVID is impacting
communities that already face disproportionate harms from
pollution.
We welcome Ms. Patterson and Mr. Shays to the subcommittee,
and welcome back Mr. Ali.
Thank you for grounding us in this timely and necessary
discussion.
As we grapple with our national history--and present--of
systemic racism, we need to deepen our awareness of our
environmental policies and their disproportional consequences.
There is a reason we call this convening a ``hearing.'' As
Members of Congress, we need to listen. Listen to the
communities who have felt these unfair, unjust impacts for
decades. Listen to the experts who have done this work for
years and are best prepared to offer meaningful perspectives
and material solutions.
And we must resolve to hear them and then act accordingly
to address these longstanding harms.
I look forward to hearing your perspectives on the
intersection of environmental justice and COVID-19, and I yield
the remaining time to one of the great leaders in Congress on
these issues, the subcommittee vice chair, Dr. Ruiz.
Mr. Tonko. Dr. Ruiz.
Mr. Ruiz. Thank you, Chairman Tonko and the witnesses, for
joining us today.
COVID-19 has exacerbated what we have known all along, that
low-income rural communities and minority communities have
greater disparities in health. One reason is because they are
more likely to experience environmental justice
disproportionately, breathing polluted air, and drinking dirty
water due to neglect or decisions by others that affect their
environment. That is why I introduced H.R. 6692, the
Environmental Justice COVID-19 Act, which would authorize $50
million for EPA EJ grant programs to monitor pollution and
investigate the impact of COVID-19 on environmental justice
communities.
I also introduced the comprehensive H.R. 3923, the
Environmental Justice Act of 2019, which requires agencies to
consider the environmental justice implications of their
programs, policies and activities to help protect our
communities and vulnerable populations. I want to thank Mr.
Ali, one of our witnesses here today, who worked with us on
this bill.
As a physician and someone who represents constituents who
have experience too many environmental injustices, I am
committed to working with members of this committee to create a
cleaner and healthier environment for all.
Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman, you are on mute.
Mr. Tonko. I will learn this thing eventually.
The Chair now recognizes Mr. Shimkus, ranking member of the
Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change. Good to see
you, Mr. Ranking Member, and the floor is yours for 5 minutes
for an opening statement.
You need to unmute.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN SHIMKUS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
Mr. Shimkus. Thank you.
I am in DC with Congress Member McKinley and Congressman
Johnson. I did check the doors to 2123. You did have them
locked this time, so that is why we are down here, and it is
great to be with you.
An important hearing. I know Doc Burgess also asked for
racial disparities on health outcomes, so this kind of merges
along with Dr. Burgess's request, and he is joining us and
waiving on to the hearing today.
Today's hearing topic is especially timely, given all that
the Nation has confronted in recent weeks. Amid the human toil
of the pandemic from disease and deaths and unprecedented
economic shutdown, our Nation is now having raw and necessary
conversations in response to George Floyd's tragic and
unnecessary death.
Against this backdrop, this hearing aims to explore the
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on minority, low-income and
other disadvantaged communities around the Nation. I agree with
the chairman's comments announcing the hearing that we should
focus on the resources to address the environmental and
economic hardships the pandemic has laid bare. Nobody should
dispute the human toll when economic opportunity abandons
communities.
February's testimony this year from the United Utility
Workers Union in America described how harmful effects on
family and the economic social and physical collapse of
communities that followed the loss of good blue-collar and
middle-class jobs, as factories pull out or power plants close
down.
Whether community collapses from losing economic
opportunity or not having the opportunity in the first place,
the solution is the same: Remove barriers and provide
incentives to lift economic prospects for those most in need.
This is the surest way to help people, their health, and their
environment.
The good news is there are practical policies and resources
available to address some of the environmental issues,
revitalization needs, and barriers to increasing economic
opportunity for disadvantaged communities. During the
subcommittee's hearing on this subject last fall, we examined
how EPA works to help ensure these communities have the
information, the know-how to participate in local and State
planning. Witnesses provided compelling examples how EPA's
technical assistance, EJ grants, and Land Revitalization and
Brownfields Program improved environmental quality and economic
prospect for communities, in large part, providing the front-
end improvements that leveraged tremendous amount of additional
private economic investment.
It is a credit to this committee's bipartisan work of
updating the Brownfields Program that today we can look forward
to increased economic progress for low-income, minority, and
other disadvantaged communities across the Nation that use
these tools.
In terms of the pandemic and the environment, we are a long
way from having a full picture of the relationship of COVID and
pollution on low-income and minority communities. To be sure,
CDC's official data shows that there has been a
disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black mortality overall
in many States, but not all States. It is widely understood
that pollution burdens can have a disproportionate impact on
people with chronic underlying health problems, like diabetes,
asthma, cardiovascular disease, and on disadvantaged
communities, given all of these other factors that impact
welfare and healthcare access. A one-off study should not
prioritize how we address the problems. Congressional critics
of the administration have cited a widely reported and
criticized Harvard University study in early April to say EPA
air quality decisions are off track. This study hypothesized
that particulate matter levels increased COVID-19 risk. But
even the unpublished paper's senior author told The Washington
Post that this was preliminary and the study should not be used
for policymaking.
For committee purposes, it is more helpful to take lessons
from EPA's official annual air trends report, which was
released yesterday, and I ask for unanimous consent that that
be submitted for the record. This shows continued reduction in
air pollution around the Nation. It reports 40 percent
reduction in the number of days listed as unhealthy for
sensitive groups. This demonstrates that allowing States to
implement existing standards continues to drive cleaner air and
is positive news for everyone. Let's focus on what worked.
In the same way, programs to accelerate economic
opportunities should also be allowed to make a difference. For
that reason, I would like to welcome Shay Hawkins today,
president of the Opportunity Funds Association. Mr. Hawkins
will talk about the great potential for bipartisan
establishment of Opportunity Zones enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts
and Jobs Act, to tie into existing programs in low-income and
disadvantaged communities to attract the private capital
necessary to assist economic development and jobs creation. Mr.
Hawkins can talk about how the program works, how it can work
with existing EPA programs, and what can be done to improve and
expand it to better address the pressing issues confronting
disadvantaged communities today.
This is the kind of bipartisan program we should work with
to the benefit of all people and communities in need as we seek
economic recovery. And I look forward to discussion.
I also have with me, Mr. Chairman, a list of the economic
zones in Illinois. There are 326 of them throughout the State,
many in my district in rural, poor areas, but also 180 in Cook
County.
And with that, I yield back my time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Shimkus follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. John Shimkus
Mr. Chairman, today's hearing topic is especially timely
given all the Nation has confronted in recent weeks.
Amid the human toll of the pandemic, from disease and
deaths and the unprecedented economic shutdown, our Nation is
now having raw and necessary conversations in response to
George Floyd's tragic and unnecessary death.
Against this backdrop, this hearing aims to explore the
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on minority, low-income, and
other disadvantaged communities around the Nation.
I agree with the chairman's comments announcing the hearing
that we should focus on the resources to address the
environmental and economic hardships the pandemic has laid
bare.
Nobody should dispute the human toll when economic
opportunity abandons communities.
February testimony this year from the Utility Workers Union
of America described the harmful effects on families from the
economic, social, and physical collapse of communities that
follow the loss of good blue-collar, middle-class jobs, as
factories pull out or power plants close.
Whether community collapse is from losing economic
opportunity or not having the opportunity in the first place,
the solution is the same: Remove barriers and provide
incentives to lift economic prospects for those most in need.
This is the surest way to help people, their health, their
environment.
The good news is there are practical policies and resources
available to address some of the environmental issues,
revitalization needs, and barriers to increasing economic
opportunity for disadvantaged communities.
During the subcommittee's hearing on this subject last
fall, we examined how EPA works to help ensure these
communities have the information and know-how to participate in
local and State planning.
Witnesses provided compelling examples how EPA's technical
assistance, EJ grants, and Land Revitalization and Brownfields
programs improve environmental quality and the economic
prospects for communities--in large part by providing the
front-end improvements that leverage tremendous amounts of
additional, private economic investment.
It is a credit to this committee's bipartisan work updating
the Brownfields Program that today we can look forward to
increased economic progress for low-income, minority and other
disadvantaged communities across the Nation that use these
tools.
In terms of the pandemic and the environment: We are a long
way from having a full picture of the relationship of COVID and
pollution on low-income or minority communities.
To be sure, CDC's official data show that there has been a
disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black mortality overall,
and in many States (but not all States). And it is widely
understood that pollution burdens can have a disproportionate
impact on people with chronic underlying health problems like
diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and on disadvantaged
communities-given all the other factors that impact welfare and
healthcare access.
But one-off studies should not prioritize how we address
the problems.
Congressional critics of the administration have cited a
widely reported, and criticized, Harvard University study in
early April to say EPA air quality decisions are off track.
This study hypothesized that particulate matter levels
increased COVID-19 risk, but even the unpublished paper's
senior author told The Washington Post that this was
preliminary and the study should not be used for policymaking.
For committee purposes, it is more helpful to take lessons
from EPA's official annual air trends report, which was
released yesterday. This shows continued reduction in air
pollution around the Nation. It reports a 40 percent reduction
in the number of days listed as unhealthy for sensitive groups.
This demonstrates that allowing States to implement
existing standards continues to drive cleaner air and is
positive news for everyone. Let's focus on what works.
In the same way, programs to accelerate economic
opportunity should also be allowed to make a difference.
For that reason, I would like to welcome Shay Hawkins
today, president of the Opportunity Funds Association. Mr.
Hawkins will talk about the great potential for the bipartisan
establishment of Opportunity Zones, enacted in the 2017 Tax
Cuts and Jobs Act to tie into existing programs in low-income
and disadvantaged communities to attract the private capital
necessary to assist economic development and jobs creation.
Mr. Hawkins can talk about how the program works, how it
can work with existing EPA programs, and what can be done to
improve and expand it to better address the pressing issues
confronting disadvantaged communities today.
The is the kind of bipartisan program we should work with,
to the benefit of all people and communities in need as we seek
economic recovery. I look forward to the discussion.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Chairman Pallone, chair of the
full Committee of Energy and Commerce for 5 minutes for your
opening statement, please.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, Jr., A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Chairman Tonko.
Today, we are continuing the committee's work to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic by looking at its disproportionate impact on
environmental justice communities, and it is heartbreaking to
think that more than 100,000 Americans have died from this
horrible virus.
It is also alarming to see the devastatingly high rates of
infection and death for communities of color, low-income
communities, Native American communities, and fence-line
communities, those that--for example, the communities adjacent
to chemical plants or Superfund sites, of which we have many in
my home State of New Jersey. And we often refer to these
committees as environmental justice committees, because they
are the ones most in need of environmental justice. For too
long, the people living in these communities have borne a
disproportionate share of pollution and its health risks. It is
these risks that are contributing to people of color dying from
the coronavirus at significantly higher rates than others. And
we have long known that particulate matter and other forms of
air pollution cause respiratory disease, including asthma. We
have also known that low-income communities and communities of
color are exposed to higher concentrations of air pollution,
because for years, polluters have chosen to build their
facilities in these communities, and as a result, low-income
people and people of color suffer greater incidence of
respiratory disease and other adverse effects.
And now we have scientific evidence showing a direct link
between communities living with more air pollution and high
rates of COVID-19 deaths.
So we simply can't allow this to continue. And,
unfortunately, the Trump administration is only making the
public health and environmental crisis worse. When the Trump
administration rolls back protections under the Clean Air Act,
it hurts these communities most. When this administration
announces that it will not enforce some environmental laws and
regulations during the pandemic, that hurts these communities,
too. And when President Trump issues an Executive order
circumventing the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA,
that completely cuts the voices of these communities out of the
decision-making process.
So this subcommittee continues to focus on fighting for
environmental justice, and Representative Ruiz, who already
spoke, led the efforts to increase environmental justice grants
in response to COVID-19 as part of the HEROES Act, which passed
the House last month. Representative McEachin, the coauthor of
that bill, has also been a leader in developing other
comprehensive legislation on environmental and climate justice.
And I also wanted to thank Chairmen Tonko and Rush for
working with me to include an environmental justice section in
our CLEAN Future Act that we unveiled in January.
So this hearing is happening at a truly crucial moment in
our Nation's history. We are fighting a global pandemic, tens
of millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and, of course,
peaceful protestors are demanding racial justice following the
murder of George Floyd. So, we have a lot of work to do.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Pallone follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr.
Today, we're continuing this committee's work to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic by looking at its disproportionate impact on
environmental justice communities. It's heartbreaking to think
that more than 100,000 Americans have died from this horrible
virus.
It's also alarming to see the devastatingly high rates of
infection and death for communities of color, low-income
communities, Native American communities, and fence-line
communities. For example, communities that are adjacent to
chemical plants or superfund sites.
We often refer to these communities as environmental
justice communities, because they are the ones most in need of
environmental justice. For too long, the people living in these
communities have borne a disproportionate share of pollution
and its health risks. It is these risks that are contributing
to people of color dying from the coronavirus at significantly
higher rates than others.
We have long known that particulate matter and other forms
of air pollution cause respiratory disease, including asthma.
We have also known that low-income communities and communities
of color are exposed to higher concentrations of air pollution
because, for years, polluters have chosen to build their
facilities in these communities. As a result, low-income
Americans and people of color suffer greater incidence of
respiratory disease and other adverse health effects. And now,
we have scientific evidence showing a direct link between
communities living with more air pollution and high rates of
COVID-19 deaths.
We simply cannot allow this to continue, and unfortunately,
the Trump administration is only making this public health and
environmental crisis worse. When the Trump administration rolls
back protections under the Clean Air Act it hurts these
communities most. When this administration announces that it
will not enforce some environmental laws and regulations during
the pandemic, that hurts these communities, too. And when
President Trump issues an Executive order circumventing the
National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, that completely
cuts the voices of these communities out of the decision-making
process.
This subcommittee continues to focus on fighting for
environmental justice. Representative Ruiz led the effort to
increase environmental justice grants in response to COVID-19
as part of the HEROES Act, which passed the House last month.
Representative McEachin, the coauthor of that bill, has also
been a leader in developing other comprehensive legislation on
environmental and climate justice.
I also want to thank Chairmen Tonko and Rush for working
with me to include an environmental justice section in our
CLEAN Future Act that we unveiled in January.
This hearing is happening at a truly crucial moment in our
Nation's history. We're fighting a global pandemic, while tens
of millions of Americans have lost their jobs and peaceful
protestors are demanding racial justice following the murder of
George Floyd. We have a lot of work to do.
I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today. It is
imperative that we listen to the needs of environmental justice
communities as part of our ongoing response to the COVID-19
pandemic. We should all be committed to pursuing environmental
justice and ensuring a safe environment for all Americans.
Mr. Pallone. I just want to thank the witnesses for joining
us today, and I wanted to yield the 2 minutes I have left, Mr.
Tonko. First, a minute to Mr. McEachin, and then 1 minute to
Representative Rush. So I yield now to Representative McEachin
first.
Mr. McEachin. Thank you, Chairman Pallone, and thank you
for yielding your time and lending us your leadership.
As people across our country come together to pray for
peace and demand action, I am proud to serve with you on a
committee that recognizes its role and its responsibility to
fight injustice. The pain and anger brought about by the deaths
of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and too many
other Black Americans has forced our Nation to have a real and
urgent discussion about systematic racism and inequality.
Like those before me, I know firsthand the dissonance of a
lived experience that does reflect the inalienable rights of
every American. Like those before me, I have hoped and prayed
that swift action will finally be taken to protect Black lives
from violence.
In watching Americans of all races and backgrounds take to
the streets, it has shown me that our Nation is at a critical
point. We can, must, and we are, rising together to fight for
justice in all its forms. For too long, Black and brown and
underserved communities have suffered the devastating impacts
of environmental justice living on the front lines of our
climate crisis and fence lines of polluting industries, also
without the necessary resources to respond to the impacts, nor
the influence in the political process to promote equitable
outcomes.
The fact that Black Americans disproportionately die of
COVID-19 exposes the deadly consequences of this truth. It is a
truth that we cannot and will not accept.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Pallone. If there is any time left, Mr. Chairman, I
would like to give it to Mr. Rush.
Mr. Tonko. We will yield a few--or half a minute to Mr.
Rush, please.
Mr. Rush. Mr. Chairman, can you hear me?
Mr. Tonko. I can hear you.
The chairman has yielded to you, Representative Rush.
[No audio.]
Mr. Rush. Can you hear me now?
Mr. Tonko. We can hear you now. Sorry, Bobby.
Mr. Rush. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank
Chairman Pallone for yielding to me.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought our Nation to a
screeching halt. Where we place our most vulnerable
communities, especially the Black and brown communities, these
wounds have not in fact diminished and they have not waned at
all. These communities remain ever present in our healthcare
system, our criminal justice system, and even in the air that
we breathe and the water that we drink.
While our Nation mourns the loss of George Floyd and other
victims of systemic racism, we must not forget the myriad of
other injustices that are facing our communities. We must use
this increased focus as an opportunity to shine a bright light
on important issues, such as environmental justice issues and
issues of the environmental justice community.
With that, I thank Chairman Pallone, and I thank you, Mr.
Chairman, for your extraordinary leadership and for convening
today's critical hearing.
And I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. The chair
yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Mr. Walden, ranking member of the
full committee, for 5 minutes for your opening statement.
Representative Walden.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GREG WALDEN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON
Mr. Walden. Thank, Chairman Tonko. Thank you to Chairman
Pallone as well.
I know Mr. Flores was trying to get back into the system.
He got knocked out, just for our technical folks.
The last 3 months have exposed the deep challenges our
country faces. The coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe.
It left in its wake tremendous loss of life, including more
than 110,000 of our citizens who lost their lives in the United
States alone, massive economic upheaval with tens of millions
of American workers losing their jobs, and drastic adjustments
to each of our daily lives.
And then recently, our Nation was rocked again by the
senseless and unjust death of George Floyd. This incident
highlighted the systemic challenges facing the Black community
in America, and I join those who have raised their voices to
protest the deadly brutality imposed on George Floyd and other
instances of shocking, unacceptable violence against minority
communities in the United States.
I share everyone on this committee's call for real and
sustained work to pursue reforms that will actually make a
difference to successfully address these difficult and these
complex issues. Listen, learn, act.
As a country, we should be listening to others with
different viewpoints and backgrounds, learning about their
experiences and feelings, and taking action to form a more
perfect union that ensures justice and equality are available
to all Americans regardless of skin colors.
In many ways, today's hearing seems to touch upon all of
these different circumstances. There is bipartisan desire to
explore how COVID-19 disproportionately impacted minority
communities, whether it be socially, environmentally, or
economically.
Indeed, last month, Dr. Burgess, the Republican leader on
the Health Subcommittee, sent a letter to the Democrat majority
requesting a hearing on racial disparities related to COVID-19
and how Congress can reduce these disparities. More examination
is needed to understand those health outcomes and how to
improve them, and I hope the majority will take Dr. Burgess up
on his request.
Whether it is healthcare or the environment, one of the
most important keys to addressing the challenges of community
of color, including COVID-19, is economic development. Economic
prosperity can bring employment opportunities, better
healthcare, improved education, a healthier environment, more
efficient emergency services, stronger tax base, and new
infrastructure. We have seen this work in our committee that is
done to help spur economic development across American
communities.
For example, last Congress, we worked together to
reauthorize and improve the EPA's Brownfields Program. Under
this program, EPA awards grants to local communities to
repurpose abandoned, closed, or underutilized sites into new
infrastructure, such as parks and sports stadiums. It is
estimated that $100,000 of Brownfields grant money on average
be leveraged into 8\1/2\ jobs. Real dollars, real jobs, real
change.
There are also Opportunity Zones programs, which was a
bipartisan effort enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act.
Opportunity zones are economically distressed communities
located in urban, rural, and Tribal areas, selected by
Governors of each State and territory and the mayor of DC. The
Opportunity Zones program aims to encourage economic
development in these areas through tax incentives, and we have
seen encouraging results from this initiative.
So I look forward to hearing more about the program today,
and how it can improve and enrich communities all across
America.
According to one of our witnesses, Mr. Hawkins, the head of
the Opportunity Funds Association, nearly $10.8 billion has
been secured by the Opportunity Funds prior to COVID-19. Again,
real dollars, real change, and that will result in real jobs
and real economic opportunities. Everyone sacrificed during
this economic shutdown, but without question, hourly workers
and distressed economic communities have suffered the most.
Construction workers alone lost almost a million jobs just in
April. Workers that can telecommute have been inconvenienced
but have not felt the economic pain suffered by these other
groups.
That is why, if we care about these communities, we need to
reopen the economy and do it safely.
We also need to reject overly burdensome regulations that
might sound good in a sound bite but do little to help the
environment while keeping workers from finding good-paying
jobs.
Throughout my congressional career, I have focused on
solutions, on identifying and understanding challenges and then
working together to find bipartisan, effective solutions to
those challenges. My Republican colleagues and I sincerely
believe that economic development, as well as employment and
educational opportunities, are key solutions to addressing many
of the disparities for rural, minority, and economically
distressed communities. Those are foundational tools for a
prosperous society and a vital community. Translation: Real
dollars, real jobs, real change.
So I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today, and
I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Walden follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Greg Walden
The last three months have exposed the deep challenges our
country faces. The coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe.
It left in its wake a tremendous loss of life including more
than 105,000 deaths in the United States alone, massive
economic upheaval with more than 40 million Americans out of
work, and drastic adjustments to each of our daily lives.
Recently our Nation was rocked again by the senseless and
unjust death of George Floyd. This incident highlighted the
systematic challenges facing the Black community in America. I
join those who have raised their voices to protest the deadly
brutality imposed on George Floyd and other instances of
shocking, unacceptable violence against minority communities in
the U.S. I share everyone on this committee's call for real and
sustained work to pursue reforms that will actually make a
difference to successfully addressing these difficult and
complex issues.
Listen, learn, act. As a country, we should be listening to
others with different viewpoints and backgrounds, learning
about their experiences and feelings, and taking action to form
a more perfect Union that ensures justice and equality are
available to all Americans, regardless of skin color.
In many ways, today's hearing seems to touch upon all these
different circumstances. There is a bipartisan desire to
explore how COVID-19 disproportionately impacted minority
communities--whether it be socially, environmentally, or
economically.
Indeed, last month, Dr. Burgess, the Republican Leader on
the Health Subcommittee, sent a letter to the Democrat majority
requesting a hearing on racial disparities related to COVID-19,
and how Congress can reduce those disparities. More examination
is needed to understand those health outcomes and how to
improve them, and I hope that the majority will take Dr.
Burgess up on his request.
Whether it is healthcare or the environment, one of the
most important keys to addressing the challenges of communities
of color, including COVID-19, is economic development. Economic
prosperity can bring employment opportunities, better
healthcare, improved education, a healthier environment, more
efficient emergency services, a stronger tax base, and new
infrastructure.
We have seen this in the work our committee has done to
help spur economic development across American communities. For
example, last Congress we reauthorized and improved EPA's
Brownfields Program. Under this program, EPA awards grants to
local communities to repurpose abandoned, closed or
underutilized sites into new infrastructure, such as parks and
sports stadiums. It is estimated that $100,000 of Brownfields
grant money, on average, can be leveraged into 8.5 jobs. Real
dollars, real jobs, real change.
There is also the Opportunity Zones program, which was a
bipartisan effort enacted through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act. Opportunity Zones are economically distressed communities,
located in urban, rural and Tribal areas, selected by Governors
of each State and territory and the mayor of DC. The
Opportunity Zones program aims to encourage economic
development in these areas through tax incentives, and we have
seen encouraging results from this initiative.
I look forward to hearing more about this important program
today, and how it can improve and enrich communities across
America. According to one of our witnesses--Mr. Hawkins, the
head of the Opportunity Funds Association--nearly $10.8 billion
dollars had been secured by Opportunity Funds prior to COVID-
19. Again, real dollars, real change that will result in real
jobs and economic opportunity.
Everyone has sacrificed during the economic shutdown, but
without question hourly workers and distressed economic
communities have suffered the most. Construction workers alone
lost almost a million jobs in April. Workers that can
telecommute have been inconvenienced but have not felt the
economic pain suffered by these other groups. That is why if we
care about these communities, we need to reopen the economy and
we can do it safely. We also need to reject overly burdensome
regulations that might sound good in a sound bite but do little
to help the environment while keeping workers from finding good
paying jobs.
Throughout my congressional career, I have focused on
solutions--identifying and understanding challenges and then
finding bipartisan, effective solutions to those challenges. My
Republican colleagues and I sincerely believe that economic
development as well as employment and education opportunities
are key solutions to addressing disparities for rural, minority
and economically distressed communities. Those are foundational
tools for a prosperous society and a vital community.
Translation--real dollars, real jobs, real change.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today on this
important topic, and I thank the chairman for having this
hearing. With that, I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. You are most welcome. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair would like to remind Members that, pursuant to
committee rules, all Members' written and opening statements
shall be made part of the record.
We now move to our witnesses, and I will now introduce the
witnesses for today's hearing.
First we have Ms. Jacqueline Patterson, senior director of
the Climate and Environmental Justice Program at the NAACP.
Next, we have Mr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of
Environmental Justice Climate and Community Revitalization of
the National Wildlife Federation. And then, finally, we have
Mr. Shay Hawkins, who serves as president of the Opportunity
Funds Association.
I now recognize Mr. Patterson--excuse me, Ms. Patterson--
for 5 minutes, to provide an opening statement.
STATEMENTS OF JACQUELINE PATTERSON, SENIOR DIRECTOR,
ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE JUSTICE PROGRAM, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE; MUSTAFA SANTIAGO ALI,
VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION; AND SHAY HAWKINS,
PRESIDENT, OPPORTUNITY FUNDS ASSOCIATION
STATEMENT OF JACQUELINE PATTERSON
Ms. Patterson. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Thank
you so much to the Committee on Energy Commerce and its
Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change. A special thank
you to Anthony and Adam, who stuck with me in spite of my
noncompliance with all logistical directions leading up to
these remarks. Anyway, thank you all for your leadership and
convening this critical conversation, particularly in these
times when the chronic and systemic racial disparities are in
the spotlight for our Nation.
As we all know, the same systemic inequities that make
certain populations differentially vulnerable to various
impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic are the same systemic
underpinnings that comprise the root causes driving
environmental injustice, including climate change. Racism,
xenophobia, sexism, combined with poverty, housing insecurity,
racial profiling, differential access to healthcare,
underresourced education, privatized criminal justice, and
disproportionate exposure to pollution that attacks the lungs,
rendering communities even more vulnerable to COVID-19 that
also targets the lungs, these are all critical commonalities.
One recent study found that even small increases in fine
particulate matter, such as PM2.5, have an outsized
effect on COVID-19 in the United States. An increase of just 1
microgram per cubic meter corresponded to a 15 percent increase
in COVID-19 deaths. Evidence shows that people who have been
living in places that are more polluted over time, they are
more likely to die from the coronavirus. In one study--in the
same study, which looked at 3,080 counties in the United
States, people who had lived in counties with long-term
pollution exposure for 15 to 20 years had significantly higher
mortality rates, likely due to the higher risk of existing
respiratory and heart diseases in the areas of high pollution,
and these are our communities.
To add to the injustice, African-American and Latino-
American people are typically exposed to 56 and 63 percent more
PM2.5 pollution than they produce through
consumption and daily activities, yet another dimension to the
injustice.
Furthermore, the health effects associated with indoor air
pollution include respiratory illnesses, heart disease, and
cancer, each of which have been linked to increased
vulnerability to mortality due to COVID-19. And, once again,
African Americans are more likely to have respiratory
conditions exacerbated by indoor air pollution.
Once again, we have a response by the administration that
prioritizes protecting the profits of big corporations while
comparatively neglecting to advance action at the scale and
depth that truly upholds the well-being of people.
As we talked about in our NAACP Fossil Fueled Foolery
report last year, the tie between corporate interests and some
of our policymakers and our policies are far too enmeshed. And
so, instead of strengthening regulations to reinforce
protections for our communities that are made vulnerable by
poor air quality, we have an administration that has rolled
back over 100 regulations in the context of COVID-19, thereby
paving the pathway to poisoning of our communities.
All of this combines to ensure that black, indigenous, and
other communities are facing the harshest fallout of direct
impacts of COVID-19, just as we in the EJ community saw in
Hurricane Katrina, the BP oil drilling disaster, and more, in
each and every one of these disasters, including the COVID-19
pandemic.
With racism as a through-line that imperils us at every
turn, not just in extreme circumstances such as disasters, but
merely when we are walking in a park, making a purchase in a
store, jogging down the streets, sleeping in a dorm hallway,
sleeping in our own bedrooms, in our own homes, or merely just
breathing air. These are simple actions that white American
people take for granted that is not as risky to their very
existence, but time and time again, we have seen how structural
inequities lead to inequities in health, well-being, and our
very existence on Earth.
Modern-day redlining leads to underresourced infrastructure
and lack of choices in our communities. We have 71 percent of
African Americans living in counties in violation of Federal
air pollution standards. We have the domination of policies by
big agriculture, and domination of our markets with foods high
in sodium, sugar, and preservatives. We are more likely to get
a Cheeto or a Dorito than quinoa or kale.
The lack of green space has made us less likely to
exercise, and the combination of these factors leads to the
very illnesses that have made us more vulnerable to COVID-19 at
worst, and shortens our lifespan and quality of life even in
the absence of this pandemic. At every turn, the deck is
stacked against us, and the very people who pay the price
include people like Louisiana matriarch Antoinette Franklin and
her three sons, living in one of our Nation's most polluted
petrochemical corridors. They all died within days of each
other of COVID-19.
To pivot to solutions, the good news is that our
communities are organizing ourselves to build solutions to what
is before us now with COVID-19, and including the challenge of
climate change, given the common underpinnings and impacts.
Frontline communities are rising up and putting together
platforms of reforms at the Federal, State, and local levels.
At the same time, we are implementing changes on the front
lines, forging linkages, organization to government entity,
nonprofit to nonprofit, and so forth.
Communities are demanding reinstatement and strengthening
of environmental regulations. We are demanding research and
policy on racial impact analysis. We are doing our own testing
and monitoring of air, water, and soil quality. We are calling
for stronger regulations on household products and a more
inclusive toxic-release inventory. Communities want policies
that support localism and regenerative design, as well as clean
energy and building and vehicle electrification.
Communities are calling for the retirement of coal debt of
rural electric co-ops that are struggling to survive and serve
their members only, and we are rising up against systemic
racism.
Thank you so much. I will end by saying the people in power
must get behind those on the front lines. Again, get behind the
leadership of frontline communities to scale up, scale deep,
and scale forward.
Thank you so much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Patterson follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Tonko. Thank you for joining us, Ms. Patterson, and for
your statement.
Next, we will recognize Mr. Ali. You are recognized for 5
minutes, sir.
Mr. Ali, you might have to unmute.
Mr. Ali. How's that? Can you hear me now?
Mr. Tonko. We can hear you now. Thank you.
You have 5 minutes, please.
STATEMENT OF MUSTAFA SANTIAGO ALI
Mr. Ali. All right. Well, you missed the best parts in that
first 3 seconds.
Chairman Tonko, Ranking Member Shimkus, and members of the
committee, on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation, our
52 State and territorial affiliates and more than 6 million
members, and environmental justice communities across the
country, thank you for the honor of testifying before you
today.
I was thinking about this testimony, and I was raised in a
family of Baptist and Pentecostal ministers, deacons, and
deaconesses, so my grandmother came to my mind, and she used to
have a favorite verse, and it is Amos 5:24: ``Do you know what
I want? I want justice, oceans of it. I want fairness, rivers
of it. That is what I want. That is all I want.'' My
grandmother used to say, ``When you know better, do better.''
Today's hearing comes at a critical moment in the history
of our country. Frontline communities are under attack for
multiple emergencies happening at the same time. Black
communities are dealing with the systemic racism that has
infected the policing in our communities that is literally
choking us to death.
The rolling back of environmental rules and regulations has
us gasping for air, due to the cumulative public health impacts
of the burning of fossil fuels in our communities. COVID-19
continues to devastate Black and brown and indigenous
communities, both in infections and deaths. So when we say, ``I
can't breathe,'' we literally can't breathe.
Over 2 million Americans have been infected with the
coronavirus and over 113,000 have died. Communities of color
across our Nation's health and wealth are being impacted by the
burning of fossil fuels that is a significant driver in the
climate crisis, and the impacts from the coronavirus that we
find ourselves dealing with.
We have over 500,000 homeless citizens in our country, and
many of them are at risk, both from air pollution and the lack
of clean, accessible water, which is critical to both personal
hygiene and the ability to protect oneself from COVID-19
infections.
The last time I joined you, I shared that
disproportionately the majority of fossil fuel facilities are
located in communities of color, lower-wealth communities, and
on indigenous lands. Two-point-four million miles of pipeline
is crisscrossing our country, traveling to indigenous land
through farm country, and ends up on the Gulf Coast in
vulnerable communities who often have to bear the burdens of
the toxic exposures.
As has been mentioned earlier, in our country we have over
100,000 people who are losing their lives each year prematurely
to air pollution. That is more folks that are dying from toxic
air than are dying from gun violence. We have 25 million with
asthma and 7 million kids, and many of our communities of color
and lower-income and lower-wealth communities are literally
dying for a breath of fresh air.
We know that many of our communities are closely located to
toxic facilities, and they are suffering from chronic medical
conditions, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, and
lung diseases, as well as the cancer clusters that we find
across our country. We also know that these chronic medical
conditions make people more susceptible to the coronavirus.
Unfortunately, we have communities who are also in
medically underserved areas, which compounds the impacts by
making it difficult to access proper medical advice and
treatment.
To add additional insult to injury, the Trump
administration decided to stop enforcing environmental laws,
due to the pandemic. The current administration has also
diligently been weak in U.S. environmental protections, even
amid the coronavirus crisis, by rolling back the Clean Car Rule
and instituting the Executive order rollback that we saw as
weakening the National Environmental Policy Act, known as NEPA.
Each of these current actions and a list of previous actions
makes overburdened communities more vulnerable today and in the
future.
I just want to hit a couple of quick facts that I want to
make sure folks are aware of as I close out. In 2018, EPA's own
National Center for Environmental Assessment shared a study
focusing on particulate matter in our country that highlighted
the fact that people of color are much more likely to live near
pollution and breathe polluted air. The study went on to share
that people in poverty are exposed to more fine particulate
matter than people above poverty. And the International Agency
for Research on Cancer named particulate matter as a known
definite carcinogen, and has been named by the EPA as a
contributor to a number of significant health conditions, along
with heart disease, lung conditions, high blood pressure, low
birth weight for babies, and asthma.
So I know I am about to run out of time, but I just want to
mention a couple of quick things that we have to pay attention
to. We have got 80 million people in our country who are
uninsured and underinsured, which is creating an additional set
of challenges. We talked about the medically underserved areas
which are often also located in what we call frontline
communities, or our most vulnerable communities. And we also
know we have a wealth gap that exists inside of our country.
So I am thankful to this committee that you are thinking
critically, one, about addressing the environmental and public
health impacts that continue to happen, and how we also make
sure that we are merging economic opportunities, and I am one
who believes that we have an incredible amount in the clean
energy space.
So I am looking forward to our conversation today and
unpacking many of these challenges that still exist in a
pathway forward.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ali follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Tonko. Thank you, Mr. Ali, and thank you for your
presentation. We look forward to the conversation.
And now, Mr. Hawkins, welcome again. Thank you for joining
us. You are now recognized for 5 minutes, and please unmute if
you haven't.
STATEMENT OF SHAY HAWKINS
Mr. Hawkins. All right. Well, Chairman Tonko, Ranking
Member Shimkus, and the members of the committee, it is a
pleasure to be with you today. I am the president of the
Opportunity Funds Association, a trade association whose
members are entrepreneurs, investors, developers, and fund
managers operating in Opportunity Zones.
The Opportunity Funds Association is an advocacy,
education, and communications organization established to
enable our members to participate in public policy, share best
practices, and communicate the industry's contributions to
distressed rural and urban communities across the country.
So, through our members, we connect capital to overlooked
areas, improving lives, creating opportunities, and ensuring
the long-term economic growth in America's most vulnerable
communities.
So, prior to co-founding the Opportunity Funds Association,
I was tax counsel for Senator Tim Scott, representing South
Carolina, and while working for Senator Scott I was helping him
to champion the Investing and Opportunity Act. The Investing
and Opportunity Act was a bipartisan piece of legislation that
was authored on the Senate side by Senator Cory Booker and
Senator Tim Scott, and the House-side version was authored by
Representative Ron Kind and Representative Pat Tiberi.
This legislation allows individuals or corporations with a
capital gain to defer payment of taxes on that capital gain
provided that they reinvest that capital gain in one of 8,700
distressed communities across the 50 States, five territories,
and the District of Columbia. The areas that are eligible for
this benefit were selected by Governors. Every Governor was
able to designate 25 percent of the economically distressed
census tracts in their State or territory as Opportunity Zones.
And so, that selection process happened shortly after the
Opportunity Zone provision, which was based on the Investing
and Opportunity Act, was passed and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
And so, when we are looking at the residents of these
designated Opportunity Zones, we are looking at areas that have
a higher than normal population of African Americans, a higher
than average population of nonwhites overall. We are looking at
areas with a higher poverty rate, obviously. We are looking at
areas that also have lower median incomes and higher rates of
brownfields.
So, of the Opportunity Zones that were selected, about 10
percent of those--you know, those represented by 10 percent of
U.S. census tracts overall, but they represent over 30 percent
of America's brownfields are found in these areas and in these
census tracts. And so, you know, the Opportunity Zone provision
provides a special chance that we have to help create jobs in
areas for folks who are disproportionately affected by COVID-
19.
So as of April 30, 2020, $10 billion have been attracted
into opportunity funds, which are the vehicles that invest in
Opportunity Zones, and Secretary Mnuchin estimates that over
$100 billion will come into Opportunity Zones over the next
decade. So it is a great tool.
Of the $65 million that have gone into brownfields
remediation programs and those grants, of the 150 designated
areas and designated grant projects, 118 of those are in areas
that overlap with Opportunity Zones, so that the folks who are
dealing with those remediation dollars will be able to also
take advantage of the Opportunity Zone provision as well.
So, again, great potential here to help alleviate the
conditions for folks who are living in Opportunity Zones that
directly overlap with economic justice communities, and I look
forward to talking to the committee about it.
[The statement of Mr. Hawkins follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Tonko. Thank you very much, Mr. Hawkins. Thank you for
joining us and thank you for your inputs.
That concludes our witnesses' statements. We will now move
to Member questions. I will now begin by recognizing myself for
5 minutes.
Again, let me thank our witnesses for their testimony. I
believe it is critically important that we measure our response
to the COVID pandemic by how we respond to the needs of our
most vulnerable and most impacted citizens.
So, Ms. Patterson, from your perspective, why should
environmental justice be an important component of addressing
COVID-19?
Ms. Patterson. Thank you so much.
Yes, both from the direct connections that we see in terms
of the places with high levels of pollution being the places
where we see more of COVID-19 impacts, that is a direct
correlation that calls on us to address air quality as a way of
mitigating the impact of COVID-19. And then also, as I was
saying before, the systemic underpinnings that make communities
much more vulnerable to COVID-19 and to environmental
injustices are something that we have to very explicitly
address, or we are going to see ourselves in the same position
time and time again going forward.
Thank you.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you so much.
And, Mr. Ali, why do you think it is necessary that our
COVID response and recovery efforts be centered around righting
what have been historic injustices?
Mr. Ali. Well, you know, there are a number of reasons why
we have to do that. One, these injustices cost our country a
huge amount of money in relationship to the healthcare impacts
that are going on. It also affects a number of other things
that go on in people's lives in the communities that have been
disinvested in everything from education, to housing, to a
number of the other components that stop communities from being
able to move from surviving to thriving, if you will.
So we have a huge amount of opportunity right now to
redirect and reinvest in these communities, because the reality
of this situation is that this is not the only pandemic that we
are going to face, and if we are not willing to help these
communities to become resilient and to build the foundation
that are going to be necessary to deal with future pandemics,
to deal with, you know, what we are going to have happening
today and tomorrow in relationship to the climate emergency,
then it is going to end up costing us much more. So it just
makes sense to invest today and not wait until tomorrow.
Mr. Tonko. And many Members and stakeholders, including
businesses, are talking about building back better. So, Mr. Ali
and Ms. Patterson, do you think we can truly claim to be
building back better if we don't address historic and
disproportionate pollution burdens?
Ms. Patterson. Hi. Thank you.
Very good question. Yes, I think it is impossible. We have
to address the pollution burdens or we won't be able to aid the
people who should be leading in the building will have such a
compromised existence in health that we won't be able to build,
and better is not possible when you have a whole swath of
society that is suffering under the myriad impacts of
pollution. And the very fact that, without addressing
pollution, then the whole planet suffers, so how is it possible
to build back better?
Thank you.
Mr. Tonko. You are welcome. Thank you.
And, Mr. Ali?
Mr. Ali. Yes. You know, my father was an engineer and a
builder and, you know, he used to often talk about foundations,
and if you leave a foundation that is not properly built and
that is not dealing with all of the aspects of the weight that
it has to hold, then it will crumble.
So we have an opportunity to actually build strong
foundations inside of our country. We have the resources. We
have the ingenuity. We have the information that is necessary.
What we need to have is the will to prioritize, you know,
addressing our past mistakes. You know, sometimes we get
anchored to the past and, you know, the egregious things that
have happened. Well, yes, we should understand our history, but
we should also be focused on the moment now and in the future
that we can actually make real change happen.
Mr. Tonko. Well, I am certain that we will hear many good,
specific solutions this afternoon on how to instill
environmental justice in COVID response and economic recovery
packages. So can you provide some perspectives on how we should
think about environmental justice more broadly? How is it
connected to racial justice and economic justice?
Mr. Ali?
Mr. Ali. Oh, I am sorry. I thought that that was for Ms.
Patterson.
Mr. Tonko. No, no. That is for you.
Mr. Ali. Well, no. So first, let's make sure we are setting
the table correctly. Environmental justice is an environmental
issue, but it is also a transportation issue, it is a housing
justice issue, it is a public health issue, and it is an
economic justice issue and a few other elements.
So, when we understand that and we take a holistic approach
to making positive change happen, then we find the intersection
points for numbers of different people who have expertise and
resources coming from different directions.
So that is where, I think, we should be starting. Lots of
times we will silo these issues. And, of course, committees
have responsibility for certain items, but I will raise up the
fact that at the Environmental Protection Agency, when I was
there, I ran the interagency working group that had 17 Federal
agencies and a couple of White House offices that we could be
utilizing at this time to actually make sure that, one, we are
better understanding the impacts that are happening from COVID-
19 on our most vulnerable communities, but also how do we begin
to marshal both all the actions that you all have been moving
forward on, and the additional things that frontline
communities and others have been asking for to actually
holistically make our communities stronger and more resilient.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you so much.
The Chair now recognizes Mr. Shimkus, our subcommittee
ranking member, for 5 minutes, please, you may ask questions.
Mr. Shimkus.
Mr. Shimkus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And it is again great
to be with all my colleagues and friends again.
You know, it is important to talk about our past mistakes,
but I also think it is important to talk about past successes,
and that is why I am glad that Mr. Hawkins is joining us today.
Mr. Hawkins, you were a Senate tax and trade counsel for
Senator Scott and helped him draft the Opportunity Zone
provisions in the 2017 tax cut law. My understanding is that
these provisions had wide bipartisan support. Can you talk
about that bipartisanship briefly?
Mr. Hawkins. Sure, sure, absolutely. So the original
Investing and Opportunity Act, which the Opportunity Zones
provision and tax reform was based off of, that Act had 44
House Democrats, 44 House Republicans, you know, by design. You
know, folks were brought on to the bill two by two. And it also
had 16 Senators: eight Republicans, eight Democrats. And,
again, it was led on the Senate side by Senators Booker and
Scott, and on the House side by Representatives Tiberi and
Kind, and so we saw that bipartisanship there.
Mr. Shimkus. What was the reaction of local communities and
governments to these provisions of the law?
Mr. Hawkins. We saw a great reaction. One huge difference
between this policy and, you know, pretty much every other
community development program that is developed to this point
is that we put so much in the hands of local Governors to
select the zones, to select the areas that would benefit from
this policy. And so, you know, the Governors, you know, across
the country, you know, rose to the challenge, and they chose
zones, you know, based on nonbinding criteria. We asked them to
look for areas that had a great need, areas where there was
great opportunity, and areas where there were mutually
reinforcing Federal, State, and local policy.
So, to a large extent, on the local level you see local
municipalities and State governments stepping up to introduce
complementary legislation to support the Opportunity Zones
policy and really sort of put it on steroids, as it were. And
so there has been great excitement on the State and local
level.
Mr. Shimkus. And this included minority communities, Tribal
communities, and economically distressed communities, didn't
it?
Mr. Hawkins. Yes, absolutely. So the Opportunity Zones that
were chosen, you know, the basic criteria, you know, you had to
have a poverty rate above 20 percent and, you know, an average
income, average median family income that is less than 80
percent of the State average, or, if you are near a large city,
then 80 percent of the metro average.
So just in the basic criteria of what can be selected, you
know, you are looking at distressed areas, but in what was
ultimately selected, you know, you are looking at areas that
are more heavily minority than normal. You are looking at areas
that are lower median income than normal, and you are looking
at areas that, you know, from an environmental standpoint, you
know, encapsulate 30 percent of the Nation's brownfields.
Mr. Shimkus. Right. And that is the convergence of what
this committee of jurisdiction has done, too, is that
brownfield reauthorization.
Mr. Hawkins. Yes.
Mr. Shimkus. So, when you marry the two. In my opening
statement, I did mention the Opportunity Zones in the State of
Illinois--and we have 326 of them, some of them in my
congressional district--they are rural poor. But again, out of
that 326, 180 are found in Cook County. Obviously, Illinois is
a big State where we have Cook County and everything north of
I-80 and all the rest of us, so we look forward to that and
trying to address the debate about how you rise people up, the
best way to do that is jobs and empowering them. Then they can
pay taxes to local community and economic development, and that
has been our approach. So, as much as we want to take time
about our failures in the past, I do think we need to take a
timeout and say the Opportunity Zones legislation in H.R. 1,
married with brownfield redevelopment, is doing a lot to help
these communities. Wouldn't you agree?
Mr. Hawkins. Absolutely. There are a lot of problems that
could be solved with a good job, problems that affect all of
us. And so, the goal of the policy is that everyone who has the
ability to work had the opportunity to work.
Mr. Shimkus. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Chairman Pallone of the Energy and
Commerce Committee for 5 minutes, please.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Chairman Tonko.
And I am so excited with the incredible optimism coming
from these witnesses. I can't ask Mr. Hawkins a question
because I have so many questions to ask of my other two
witnesses, but I do want to say, Mr. Hawkins, first of all, I
like the fact that you seem to have a picture of Teddy
Roosevelt on the wall there, who's one of my favorite
Republicans.
Mr. Hawkins. Yes, yes.
Mr. Pallone. You also mentioned my favorite presidential
candidate in Senator Cory Booker, and, finally, you mentioned
the Brownfields Program, which truly is, as Mr. Shimkus knows,
bipartisan, and I was very fortunate to start the program with
a bill when Christie Whitman, who was the Republican Governor
of New Jersey, was the EPA Administrator. I worked on it with
Paul Gillmor, and then we reauthorized it with John Shimkus.
So thank you for all of that, but I am moving on to my
other two witnesses with my questions.
But I wanted to say, Mr. Ali, when you talked about--you
did that biblical reference to the oceans and rivers associated
with justice and fairness, that was so wonderful, from Amos, I
think. You know, I live at the Jersey Shore, and I go down to
the ocean sometimes at the end of the day, and I think of the
ocean as a great equalizer, I really do. But at the same time,
I know there is a lot of people, particularly minorities, that
live near toxic waste sites, you know, don't have the
opportunity maybe to look at the ocean and enjoy it the way
that I do.
And I also wanted to say to Jacqueline Patterson, thank you
so much for stressing the need for legislation in the advent of
what we face today, that we have to concentrate on what we can
do legislatively because we are legislators.
So my questions are about legislation and also input from
the community. As I think you know--and I will ask both Mr. Ali
and Ms. Patterson--we introduced in the HEROES Act, we had
provisions to ensure access to affordable drinking water and to
fund environmental justice grants. We also have been responding
to environmental justice by putting these grants, which I
mentioned before, in the HEROES Act for environmental justice
communities.
So I wanted to ask you: Is this a good idea, what we have
done? Are there other legislative initiatives that we should
try to initiate? And then, secondly, impact from the
communities, I am critical of President Trump because he has
done all of these things to circumvent NEPA and cut funding for
impacted communities and not enforce environmental regulations,
and some of that is going to make it more difficult for those
communities to have input into decision making. You know, we
have the right to know. Senator Lautenberg always talked about
the right to know. We have tag grants.
So my question is, legislation, what should we be doing and
to have more input in the community and how, you know, some of
these Trump actions are circumventing NEPA and making it more
difficult for the communities to be heard, if you will. I know
I took up a lot of time, but if you could just answer those two
questions about legislation and getting input from the
communities that might be limited now with Trump's actions.
I will start with Ms. Patterson.
Ms. Patterson. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
Yes, certainly, there are a number of actions legislatively
that we are putting forward. I think the ones that you
mentioned were definitely good in terms of provisions in the
HEROES Act, and I specifically mentioned them. I actually don't
know whether this would be legislative or administrative, but I
talked about the retirement of the coal debt that is being held
by the rural electric co-ops who are really suffering during
these times, for sure, as the member owners have compromised
livelihoods.
Also, not only in terms of not restoring the regulations
back, but also strengthening those regulations because they are
always compromised by struggles to really have them be as
strong as they should be. We also need to be making sure that
we have--I know that in the HEROES Act, I believe there is a
provision in terms of a moratorium on utility shutoffs.
We also need to be thinking about how do we make sure that
we are ensuring reducing energy burden and ensuring
affordability of energy across the board and what does that
look like, and also making sure we are moving away from
subsidizing fossil fuel energy that is causing so much of the
pollution that is harming the health and well-being of
frontline communities as well as the planet, which also causes
harm as well.
And then I would just say, because I want to yield space
for other folks, is that we need to be focusing now, you know,
hurricane season started last Monday. We need to be focusing on
predisaster mitigation because, as this combines with the
disaster that we are dealing with now with COVID-19, we need to
be making sure that we have civil and human rights at the
center of emergency management. We've seen past failures in
that, and we've seen that come a long way, and we need to go
further in terms of making sure that we have a standard, a new
standard, that goes beyond returning homes to predisaster
states that are so challenging, whether it is from indoor air
quality, and otherwise, that we actually build back better, as
we said earlier.
So those are just a few examples. I will yield the floor
back. Thank you.
Mr. Ali. I would share that one of the other things that we
need to also continue to expand upon is natural infrastructure.
There are literally millions of jobs from a CCC type of
paradigm that we could institute to actually help our country
get back to work. So that is one of the areas.
The other one is around food deserts and food insecurity
that we find in many of our communities of color and lower-
wealth White communities. So we need to also be focused there
because we have to have a healthy population.
You know, we talk a lot about jobs. When somebody is not
healthy, they are not going to be able to work efficiently and
effectively. So we have got to do that.
And then there is one that sometimes probably makes people
a little nervous, but I have to share it anyway. We need to
have stronger enforcement where needed.
And here is the interesting dynamic that we find.
Mr. Tonko. I think we are done with the 5 minutes there. I
am sorry to cut you off. Maybe we can catch you in the next
round of questioning.
Next, we recognize Mr. Walden, ranking member of the full
Committee on Energy and Commerce, for 5 minutes of questioning,
sir.
Mr. Walden. Well, thank you very much, Chairman Tonko.
And thanks again to all of our witnesses for your
presentations, your answers to questions. Really helpful,
especially for those of us out here in the West--where, by the
way, it is pouring rain today. And so, anyway, we are glad you
are here.
I want to say a couple of things before we get into the
questions on the NEPA reform. As somebody that represents a
district where over 55 percent of the landmass is controlled by
the Federal Government, I have got a tiny, little, rural,
impoverished community literally with probably two dozen people
in it that took more than 3 years to go through the NEPA
process to plant four power poles so they could finally get
three-phase power into this low-income, rural part of my
district. They had to put those power poles on BLM land, and it
took them 3 years to go through a process. NEPA was never
intended to cause that kind of delay. And so I am glad they are
making some reforms in NEPA.
And I also want to say the Trump administration, frankly,
in the economic policies that they have put in place, have
given us, prior to COVID, the strongest economy and the lowest
unemployment for every sector of America's economy we have
seen. And so I think good-paying jobs, low-cost energy put
America back on its feet. And, unfortunately, we had to shut
everything down with COVID, as did everybody across the globe.
I want to ask Mr. Hawkins about the Opportunity Zones
program. You have done a lot of work in this space. I think it
has done a lot of good. There has been some criticism in the
press, however, that the program just benefits wealthy real
estate investors and doesn't really help those in need. And I
would love to get your take on that.
Mr. Hawkins. Sure. The policy primarily supports two
different types of projects. You have real estate projects, and
then you have operating businesses.
And so what we found is, once we passed the Opportunity
Zones provision, from an implementation standpoint the rules
that govern real estate were produced much, much more quickly
than the rules that govern operating businesses. And that is
because it is a little bit simpler, right? Real estate is all
located within the census tract. All of the income comes from
within the census tract, et cetera.
And so, because those regulations were out first, the real
estate projects were the first to take off. They are kind of,
again, that low-hanging fruit. And, again, all of these are
beneficial.
The real sort of meat of the program, where the real long-
term job creation comes, is with those operating businesses
developing down the line. And so we don't have a transparency
and reporting bill that gives us a very clear look into the
types of businesses that are created and the direct job
creation within the zones. And so that kind of hinders us.
So you have a lot of folks in the media who are kind of
speculating. They know that you can use the policy to turn a
dollar into 10 dollars, and they know rich people have capital
gains, so they just sort of speculate that it has only
benefited rich people, but that is not the case.
Mr. Walden. All right. So tell me what you are seeing
actually happen on the ground then in these real estate
Opportunity Zone agreements. Give us an example or two.
Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Absolutely. So we have members that
specialize in things like luxury hotels. But they had a heart
for impact even before Opportunity Zones were passed into law.
One of our--our charter member, in fact, has a policy where
they do one luxury hotel, one affordable housing facility, one
luxury hotel, one affordable housing facility. So they have
that balanced portfolio in order to get the best out of the
policy while at the same time doing good.
And that same charter member has actually been partnering
with organizations like Chicanos Por La Causa and the Urban
League and others to sort of reproduce this model across the
country in areas that have less sort of on-the-ground knowledge
of the community.
So that makes sure that the development that occurs is
developing in line and in a way that is going to have a
positive impact on that local community.
Mr. Walden. All right. I see my time has expired. I want to
thank again all of our witnesses for your energy, your
presentations today.
And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Peters for 5
minutes, please.
Will you unmute, please?
Mr. Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you to the witnesses for coming out today and
joining us.
I want to thank Mr. Ali for coming back. Last time we met
was before this committee. We were discussing challenges facing
communities on the front line of climate change, and we talked
about environmental and health risks that disproportionately
harm communities of color and low-income communities. We talked
about coastal floods forcing planned relocations in Louisiana
and Alaska and about exposure to air pollution increasing the
risk of asthma attacks in communities of color. And today, of
course, we are talking about the same disparities following the
same frontline communities and this time in the context of an
infectious disease pandemic.
Growing data show the extent to which COVID-19 is
disproportionately affecting poor and minority communities.
Poor air quality in these communities is strongly associated
with a higher risk of death from COVID-19, and a recent Harvard
study shows that the long-term exposure to air pollution, such
as particulate matter and ozone and other hazardous air
pollutants, leads to a large increase in COVID-19 cases and
related deaths. So weakening clean air protections and rolling
back regulatory protections, again, threatens to cost more
lives.
The most vulnerable Americans are the hardest hit by
climate change. To right these environmental injustices, we
have to prepare our State, Tribal, local, and territorial
public agencies to adapt to an already changed climate. And we
also talk often about what will we spend on adapting to climate
change that we know is going to happen.
But I think we also have need to recognize that anything we
do to mitigate climate change--because climate change has the
biggest negative effect on these disadvantaged communities--
anything we do to mitigate climate change will have the
greatest effect and the most benefit to those same communities.
I wanted to ask a couple of questions to Mr. Hawkins about
some of the job losses, and particularly in the context of
clean energy. According to the latest analysis of clean energy
job losses, we lost almost 600,000 clean energy jobs in April,
and in your testimony you describe the important role that
clean energy plays in Opportunity Zones. What role do you see
for clean energy investments in the economic recovery?
Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Well, I definitely appreciate that.
So, while the designated Opportunity Zones have
disproportionately high numbers of poverty and things along
those lines, they have actually seen some real leadership on
the clean energy side of things. So when we look at
particularly solar, the Opportunity Zones have 475, I believe--
I was just double-checking my testimony--but I believe 475, and
I can----
Mr. Peters. Yes, 475 solar installations producing more
than 1 megawatt of activity, and 127 wind farms, and 15 battery
plants.
Mr. Hawkins. Yes, absolutely.
And so we have seen that because the entire policy draws in
innovation. And so we have seen a lot around clean energy. We
have seen a lot around solar. We haven't seen as much on the
wind side. But, again, we are looking at $100 billion that are
coming to these communities over the next 10 years.
And what is important is that every business doesn't have
to be necessarily organic to an Opportunity Zone. It can be a
business that was placed anywhere, and they can build a
subsidiary in an Opportunity Zone. So what it does is it lowers
the cost of capital for those clean energy projects, and when
you put that and overlay that with some of the other works that
you guys did, have done around clean energy and around the
various clean energy tax credits, those are mutually
reinforcing to what you see in Opportunity Zones.
Mr. Peters. I am going run out of time. But I just want to
say, I hope that our committee thinks about, as we recover from
the pandemic, investing in things that both create jobs and
reduce carbon emissions. And I think that there are
opportunities around that too.
And finally I just want to say to Mr. Walden, who told you
that it was raining in the West, at least in areas in San Diego
represented by Democrats, it is a sunny day here.
I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. OK. We are getting the updated weather reports
from the West Coast. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Rodgers, please,
for 5 minutes.
And I will remind our Representative to unmute. And 5
minutes is yours.
Mrs. Rodgers. Hi. Good morning, everyone. Continuing from
the West Coast. It is partly cloudy, partly sunny here.
Anyway, it is good to be with all of you. I want to thank
our panelists for your presentations and appreciate the focus
on this important topic today.
Certainly our vulnerable communities have borne an
unproportionate share of the current health and economic
crisis, and I am glad that we have an opportunity to discuss
some specific steps as to what we can do to improve people's
lives and to continue our pursuit for a more perfect Union.
I appreciated what Congressman Shimkus, the ranking member,
had to say about reflecting on past mistakes but also past
successes as we seek to live up to our American ideals. And
economic revitalization programs can have a significant impact
on areas of the country that are experiencing economic
stagnation, and especially in these former industrial areas. I
have seen it in eastern Washington. I have seen it in Spokane.
And these areas can have a particular negative impact on both a
community's health and economic potential.
So cleaning up these areas has the positive impact of
improving the environmental health of a community, along with
the amazing potential of creating more jobs. And as others have
mentioned, a job is so foundational to both addressing
environmental issues in this case, but also improving people's
health, providing housing, and creating that foundation for a
better life.
In Spokane, we have had an incredible amount of success and
economic growth in the last decade, and part of it is due to
some former industrial sites that have had tremendous economic
development. EPA's Brownfields Program has been an essential
tool that Spokane has used to realize the economic benefits of
these former industrial zones.
So the last Congress this committee reauthorized the
Brownfields Program. It was led by Mr. McKinley. And I am proud
of the bipartisan support of this important program. The
Opportunity Zones that have been discussed this morning,
including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act--another tool that is being
used to encourage these distressed communities and encourage
the investment that we need so that we can transform these
areas into more prosperous and more healthy areas.
So, Mr. Hawkins, first I want to thank you for your work
developing the Opportunity Zones program during your time with
Senator Scott. As you know, the Members on this panel are proud
of what EPA's Brownfields Program and related technical
assistance can do to prepare communities for economic
development.
I just wanted you to describe again how many of the
Opportunity Zones also overlap with brownfields sites and just
talk to the significance of this overlap.
Mr. Hawkins. Sure. Sure.
So, of the 151 communities that that have been designated
for those remediation funds, for that $65 million-plus, 118 of
those are also overlapping Opportunity Zones. And so folks will
be able to leverage both.
And we look at that focus, that is actually part of an
initiative. The White House Opportunity Revitalization Council
was structured to bend every resource of the Federal Government
from a community development perspective to, sort of, you can
look at it as favor Opportunity Zones. So when you are looking
at permitting, when you are looking at anything, you go to the
top of the stack if you are in an Opportunity Zone.
And the point is to leverage the policy as much as
possible. And we see it with brownfield remediation, we see it
with other areas, the FCC and rural broadband. And it is just
very exciting.
Mrs. Rodgers. How does that track with what your initial
prediction was?
Mr. Hawkins. Well, again, we are on track to get the funds
in. The real focus for you all on Capitol Hill and the focus
for State and local governments is not so much making sure the
capital goes in. The leverage of the policy guarantees that. We
just have to make sure that the capital benefits the existing
resident of distressed communities, and so far it seems to be.
Mr. Tonko. The gentlelady yields back, I believe.
And the Chair now recognizes Representative Barragan for 5
minutes, please.
Please unmute.
Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Chair Tonko.
This is a very timely hearing, given the protests calling
attention to the systematic racism in our country. Systematic
racism is widespread and includes housing and environmental
policies that have disproportionately impacted our Black and
brown communities. An important part of achieving racial
justice is addressing environmental justice.
Black and brown communities in my district have suffered
greatly from the current pandemic. Our air pollution levels are
among the worst in the country, which has caused high rates of
asthma and respiratory diseases.
Those ailments have been shown to make COVID-19 deadlier to
those who have them because of how the infection attacks the
lungs and the respiratory system. This makes communities in my
district more vulnerable to the coronavirus. It is a
preexisting health and environmental crisis made worse by the
coronavirus. So we need action.
There has been a lot of talk about Opportunity Zones. I
supported Opportunity Zones to help create jobs. But that is
not going to help our Black and brown communities that have to
live in these communities right next to air pollution.
So, Mr. Ali, one of the legacies of redlining, the
government-sanctioned denial of home loans and insurance to
communities of color, is that our housing is disproportionately
located near polluting industries; for example, oil refineries
in my district.
Can you talk about how the systematic racism from our
housing policy is part of the reason our communities are
disproportionately exposed to air pollution and solutions we
can implement to overcome this?
Mr. Ali. Most definitely.
You know, historically we have with our housing stock moved
people into certain locations, into Sacrifice Zones. And then
many of the negative things that were brought in were attracted
to these places because of the disinvestments that were
actually going on in those spaces.
So, as you said, we can travel across the country and you
can find where certain actions in relationship to bad housing
practices have put people's lives in danger, whether we are
talking about, as Ms. Patterson raised earlier, Cancer Alley
there in Louisiana running between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
If you look at folks in North Carolina, in Princeville,
founded by freed slaves and moved into certain areas, and then
the disinvestment. So there you have folks who have been hit by
major hurricanes back to back and can't rebuild.
If you go down to South Carolina, to near the Little Pee
Dee River that is there, you actually have seniors, seniors of
color, and lower-wealth White communities also, who, because of
the housing stock that they have been in and placed in, they
are in greater danger.
Unfortunately, also now we have these processes in place
where they can't even rebuild their homes. They have to lift
them up a certain distance to meet code, but there are no
resources to help these seniors to actually be able to do that.
We can literally travel around the country and see how
redlining, restrictive covenants, and a number of things have
actually pushed people of color--and sometimes lower-wealth
communities, but primarily folks of color--into these areas and
then all of the negatives that come with that.
Ms. Barragan. Well, thank you.
Ms. Patterson, thank you for all your work with the NAACP
combating environmental racism in our country. Many years ago,
as a college student, I was an intern at the Washington Bureau
with Hilary Shelton fighting racial health disparities. So I
appreciate all the work that your organization does on that
issue, on civil rights issues across the country.
We have seen newly published studies linking exposure to
particulate matter pollution to an increase in deaths from
coronavirus. Ms. Patterson, what investments can we be making
in our Black and brown communities to reduce these pollutants,
and do you believe that includes addressing the pollution that
comes from vehicles?
Ms. Patterson. Thank you so much. Absolutely. And I
appreciate your service with the Washington Bureau.
So, yes, absolutely in terms of reducing pollution from
vehicles, including one of the projects we are working on is
our transit equity, clean air, helping communities initiative
which really looks to do just that by working on passing
ordinances to transition bus and truck fleets to
electrification to remove that hazard from communities.
We also need much stronger, again, air pollution standards
from the Clean Air Act and its rulemaking, and also we are
working on advances clean air ordinances at the local level so
that, whether it is refineries or coal-fired power plants or
other types of production plants, are not there causing--you
know, emitting those pollutants.
We also need to really be thinking not just about what we
are stopping but what we are advancing. So, in addition to
advancing bus and truck electrification, we need to be thinking
about building electrification, greater energy efficiency and
clean energy, and how do we invest in that transition as an
alternative to the harmful ways that we are generating energy
now, as well as shifting to zero waste, because we know the
incinerators are also burning waste and putting
PM2.5 and other pollutants into the air.
So thank you. Those are the types of investments I would
recommend.
Ms. Barragan. Well, thank you for your response.
With respect to the investments in transportation, I just
want to quickly mention I have introduced the Climate Smart
Ports Act to invest billions of dollars into reducing emissions
in and around ports, where we see a lot of communities of color
live and suffer from air pollution.
With that, Mr. Chairman, thank you. And I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentlewoman yields back.
And we now recognize Representative McKinley for 5 minutes.
Representative McKinley, just unmute, and you have your 5
minutes.
Mr. McKinley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Look, last November this subcommittee held a similar
hearing on challenges facing frontline communities as they
transition away from fossil fuels. We highlighted towns like
Welch, West Virginia; Gillette, Wyoming; Harlan, Kentucky; and
Petersburg, Indiana, all of which depend on fossil fuels for
their livelihood and existence.
Now, 8 months later, let's revisit Welch in McDowell
County. Welch is unique. It has a minority population, the
largest in West Virginia, at 35 percent minority. It is now
experiencing a poverty rate of 27 percent. Unemployment had
grown to 15 percent. And this lack of jobs has led McDowell
County to having the highest drug overdose rate among all the
counties in America.
In a conversation with the mayor of Welch last week, he
implied that the repercussions of COVID create short-term
problems, but the anti-fossil-fuel agenda from the left is a
long-term threat for communities like Welch and would
completely destroy the economy of the city of Welch and the
entire region.
So, Mr. Chairman, tying air pollution to COVID-19? Really?
Seriously? It is a simplistic answer to a complicated question.
Once again, you are taking advantage of a public health crisis
to justify your party's agenda against fossil fuels.
We shouldn't jump to conclusions. Some have advocated that
preexisting conditions such as hypertension and diabetes are
linked to COVID-19, but a recent study from Oxford University
has concluded otherwise.
We have already been studying this issue for 5 months. I
agree that this is a complicated situation, but we need more
data. For example, Welch, in McDowell County, with all its
problems, has only experienced six cases of COVID and no--
zero--no deaths.
In the meantime, in the middle of villainizing fossil
fuels, why aren't we researching and developing technologies to
capture carbon emissions and provide a lifeline to distressed
communities like Welch, Gillette, Harlan, and Petersburg?
Now, those communities are all hearing the same stories
that you and I are hearing, that Biden has already said fossil
fuels will have no part in his administration. Therefore, are
frontline communities like Welch expendable? Are the people of
Welch among the 10 to 15 percent of Americans that Biden thinks
are not very good people? Are they the deplorables?
Our frontline communities like Welch with a heavy minority
population should not be collateral damage to your war on
fossil fuels. We have a moral obligation to not write them off,
but to help them.
Mr. Hawkins, if I could to you, a question. Some will call
fossil fuels pollution, but in West Virginia we call them jobs.
You helped author the legislation for Opportunity Zones to
benefit frontline communities like Welch, but for whatever
reason it is not included in an Opportunity Zone in West
Virginia.
So my question to you is, primarily, how can we modify the
Opportunity Zones--they are locked in for 10 years--how can we
modify those Opportunity Zones so that towns like Welch can
benefit and prosper and diversify their economy?
Mr. Hawkins. What we would love is for Congress to first
pass a transparency and reporting bill, because the initial
legislation had provisions that would allow us to record the
types of businesses, the amount of jobs created, and the
locations of those jobs. That reporting will give us the data
that we need to say, ``Look, Opportunity Zones are working,
there are certain people we want to serve, and now it is time
to expand them.''
Because we would love to give the Governor of West Virginia
the ability to designate an additional 10 percent of zones,
let's say, so going from 25 percent designations to 35 percent.
You know, in my State of Ohio, that would be an additional 120
zones that could be designated.
And so if we can allow--if we can get the data once, first
of all, to see if the policy is working and then use that to
enable legislation to expand the policy and allow additional
zones to be designated, then we can pull those areas of West
Virginia in that could benefit from the policy and that could
benefit from the jobs that will be created.
Mr. McKinley. Thank you.
And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative McEachin for 5
minutes, please.
And unmute, please.
Mr. McEachin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As our Nation continues to navigate the crisis caused by,
in some cases exacerbated by, COVID-19, I cannot think of a
more important time to be working together to ensure that
environmental justice communities are centered in our work.
I want to thank our witnesses for their time and their
expertise. I have had occasion to work with both of them over
the past few years, and I am deeply gratified by their
leadership and their commitment to equity and justice.
The COVID-19 pandemic is harming communities of color
disproportionately. The burden of pollution in these
communities is a big part of the reason. The pandemic is
another burden accumulating on top of pollution in our air,
lead in our water, and carcinogens in our soil. Many of our
environmental laws call for the protection of vulnerable or
high-risk populations, but no one can look at the
disproportionate burden of disease in our country, including
COVID-19, and say that we are protecting those communities.
Now, this is a little bit off of what I intend to ask in
the first instance, but given the previous member's remarks,
Ms. Patterson, do you care to comment on the assertions made by
Mr. McKinley about Welch and their view of the leftist war on
fossil fuels?
Ms. Patterson. Thank you. I appreciate that.
I would more frame that as the frontline communities' quest
for health and survival. And we have seen just how--we put out
a report called ``Fumes Across the Fence-Line'' that talked
about the extreme negative impacts of the oil and gas industry
and refineries on our communities. We put out our ``Coal
Blooded'' report where we talked about how the Department of
Labor's own statistics, talks about the 76,000 coal miners who
have died of black lung disease since 1968 as they toil to
create energy for our Nation.
So for us, we don't frame it as anything but we are looking
out for the health and well-being of our communities and our
planet. And for us, we put together this group called the Black
Labor Initiative on Just Transition, which includes groups like
the United Mine Workers of America, the U.S. Steel Workers, and
so forth, so that we could all come together and say, given the
necessity of this transition away from fossil fuels that are
harming communities and the planet, how can we do this in a way
where your livelihoods are maintained and where you are not in
the fossil fuel industry but in an industry that really
maintains your pensions, your healthcare, and the income that
you need to move forward.
So that is the kind of conversation that we would like to
be having so that we can--so we have all. We have energy. We
have the income and livelihoods people need. And we have health
and well-being for communities. And we have the survival of the
planet.
Thank you.
Mr. McEachin. Thank you, Ms. Patterson.
Let me just follow up again with one more question. Are you
essentially saying that clean air and clean water and a
greening of our economy actually equals good-paying jobs?
Ms. Patterson. That is exactly what I am saying. We know
from past statistics that the solar industry is in the top 10
growing industries in our country. Wind turbine technicians are
the number one fastest-growing profession in our country.
And we also know we have seen where economic well-being can
flourish in the new energy economy and we can actually have a
concentration of wealth building and ownership at the community
level so that all can thrive, as opposed to a wealthy few.
Mr. McEachin. Thank you.
Mr. Ali, I just have a minute left, and I apologize to you
for that. But can you help us understand how we can assure that
communities of color are actually at the table when we are
dealing with standards being set and permits being issued?
Mr. Ali. Yes. I mean, there are a number of opportunities,
whether it is in our public comment periods and making sure
those are open and transparent and that they are handled in a
way that is actually inviting of people's participation and the
knowledge that they bring.
We can also make sure that both on the Federal level and on
the State level that we are really, truly engaging in an
authentic and transparent way with folks as we are framing out
really what will either be a positive or negative in their
lives. We have a number of opportunities to really engage with
frontline communities to make real change happen.
Mr. McEachin. Thank you. I appreciate it, my friend.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you.
The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Johnson for 5
minutes of questioning.
Please unmute.
Mr. Johnson. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And before I get into my questions, let me give another
warm welcome to my fellow Buckeye, Shay Hawkins from Cleveland.
Shay, we appreciate you being here today and offering your
very important perspective on these issues.
Mr. Hawkins. Thank you.
Mr. Johnson. You are most welcome.
You know, bringing new investment to economically
distressed communities is key to improving the quality of life
for local residents and weathering disruptions like we have
seen with the shuttering of much of our economy as a result of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
In my district in eastern and southeastern Ohio, we have
been blessed with an oil and gas boom which has provided a
variety of good-paying jobs for thousands of blue-collar
workers. The American energy renaissance has benefited millions
of families across the country and across all socioeconomic
levels. In fact, according to the American Petroleum Institute,
by the year 2030, over 32 percent of the oil and gas workforce
across the country, over 400,000 workers, will be from members
of minority communities.
But today I want to focus on another promising development,
helping underserved communities, and Mr. Hawkins is an expert
on this. You have already heard him speak on it a little bit.
And I am talking about returning to Opportunity Zones, which I
was pleased to support as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
While utilizing Opportunity Zones can be an effective way
to address financial and social challenges in urban areas like
Cleveland, they can also improve economic conditions in
historically distressed rural areas, like Appalachia, where I
live.
Mr. Hawkins, I understand there was over $10 billion raised
into Opportunity funds as of March 2020. What role do you see
Opportunity Zones playing in the economic recovery from the
COVID-19 lockdown?
Mr. Hawkins. I think they are going to play a critical
role, an absolutely critical role. And the reason is because
these communities, whether they be urban Opportunity Zones or
whether they be rural Opportunity Zones, these areas are always
the first to get hit when we go into a recession, and they are
hit the hardest, and they are always the last to recover.
And so the difference between past recessions and the
economic disruption that we are seeing from COVID-19 is that,
in previous recessions, we did not have Opportunity Zones.
Opportunity zones aren't a panacea, but they are a very sharp
tool in the community development toolbox.
Mr. Johnson. Well, I am glad you said that. Let me change
the direction for just a second, because we have got 18
Opportunity Zones in my district alone in Ohio. So how large do
you expect the investment potential to be in these Opportunity
Zones? Because we need them where I live.
Mr. Hawkins. Yes, absolutely. Like I said, we have got
$10.8 billion, I believe, raised as of April 30, and Secretary
Mnuchin estimates that $100 billion will come into these zones
over the next 10 years.
And so we are excited. The rural zones provide great
opportunities for things like rural broadband, things like
clean technology, and that is what we have been seeing. And we
have been seeing it in areas that are as rural as northern
Alaska. So we are very excited to see what develops.
Mr. Johnson. OK. As we have seen the implementation of the
Opportunity Zones, are there any outstanding regulations that
are needed in connection with Opportunity Zones to make them
work more effectively?
Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Absolutely. The initial Investing in
Opportunity Act included reporting and transparency provisions.
So, because of parliamentary reasons, we had to strip those
out. We passed it in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
But there is a bill right now on the Senate side that
Senator Scott and Senator Sinema, along with Chairman Grassley,
introduced to add those reporting and transparency requirements
back. And so we would love to introduce a version of that on
the House side and to have you guys get it passed.
Mr. Johnson. All right. Well, thank you.
I had some other questions, but I will submit those for the
record.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Thanks, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Blunt Rochester for
5 minutes for questions.
And, Representative, unmute, please.
Ms. Blunt Rochester. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And to our witnesses, thank you so much for your time.
As we are having this hearing, George Floyd is being laid
to rest in his final ceremony. And I think it is only fitting
that, as we talk about COVID-19, a disease that is a
respiratory one, and to link it to all of the different issues
that we have talked about here, just even the ability to be
able to breathe is something that is heavy on my heart.
And I have prepared remarks. I am a little bit off script
here as well because I am the kind of person, as many of you
know, I like to celebrate our successes. But I feel that, at
this moment, part of what each of us individually and
collectively have to do is hold up a mirror to ourselves and
say, ``What can we do differently?''
And I appreciate this hearing because I think it is shining
a light, just like COVID-19 has magnified the inequities that
we already knew existed in our society.
And so, as we move forward--I appreciated Mr. Walden's
comments as well--I hope that we will hold up an individual
mirror, as well as a collective mirror, and maybe put aside
some of even the phrases and terms that we use to politicize
things, because what we are experiencing right now is something
different.
And like I said, I had remarks here that really just talk
about the fact that racism and injustice are built into the
foundation, as Mr. Ali said. And it is not just about the
foundation crumbling and the house being destroyed. It is about
the fact that sometimes you can have a shaky foundation and the
house stays the same, but you continue to do repairs and upkeep
and it becomes a money pit.
And, until we start dealing with root issues, until we
start really having courageous conversations with each other,
we will continue to have a money pit where we are just dumping
money into programs. It is not that these individual programs
aren't great, but it has to be systemic, and we have to see
outcomes. We have to see real outcomes.
So those communities that we call vulnerable, those
communities that we call distressed, I call them superhuman
that people are even still existing when they are placed next
to toxic sites and when they don't have food and healthcare and
transportation.
And so I am proud to be a member of this committee because
we have the ability to do incredible things, and I am looking
forward to that.
I have got questions here, and I am going to try to go very
quickly, but I want to hold a mirror to myself and all of us to
commit, separate and apart from these hearings, that we are
going to work together to change outcomes that we are seeing.
To George Floyd and his family, my prayers.
Studies show that there is a disproportionate and
cumulative impact that pollution has had on communities of
color and, as Mr. Ali calls, low-wealth and rural communities
as well, and we have seen the staggering mortality rates from
COVID-19 on those communities.
And in the 1 minute I have left, Mr. Ali, if you could talk
a little bit about how more data and better data would be
helpful. We know that there are monitoring systems that have
either not been updated or are not working. We have written to
Administrator Wheeler, and I thank those who signed on to that
letter. But, if you could talk a little bit about the use of
data that would help fence-line communities particularly.
Mr. Ali. Yes. Thank you, Representative.
I mean, that is one of the critical elements that we need.
When I first started working on these issues, I remember
walking down the hallways of the EPA, and there were two folks
who were in front of me, and they said, ``I don't know why we
are going to this meeting on environmental equities, because
what these people are sharing can't possibly be true.''
So, if you are just dealing with the narratives, the
stories that are incredibly important from frontline
communities, without being able to lock that down with the
data, then people can make those types of statements. That was
over 25 years ago.
Today we have to make sure that the monitors are in the
right locations, that the information that is coming out of
that is accessible both to regulators, to policymakers, but
also to frontline communities.
We also have to--as we shared earlier--we need to make sure
that we are also getting the data that needs to exist in
relationship to COVID-19, that is closely aligned with these
hot spots that we find across the country.
When we don't do that, then it is easy for folks to say,
``Well, that sounds like a story that you are telling,''
instead of something that is rooted in facts. As the Agency has
kind of moved away from capturing the relevant data, we have to
move back in that direction so that we can anchor everything in
facts.
Ms. Blunt Rochester. Thank you.
And, Ms. Patterson, I have a question for you that we will
ask afterwards.
And we would like to submit that letter to Administrator
Wheeler for the record.
And, again, to my colleagues: Together, let's do this
together.
I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. Good message, Congresswoman.
And the gentlelady yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Flores for 5
minutes for questions, please.
And please unmute.
Mr. Flores. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And I appreciate the witnesses for joining us today.
I would encourage us to reassess having these online
hearings. I think that Congress is an essential service and
that the American people would be better served by us doing
this in person.
Mr. Hawkins, I have a couple of questions for you. I would
like to expand the Opportunity Zone discussion and talk a
little bit about rural communities. We have all heard today
that stronger economic employment opportunities can lead to
numerous other benefits, such as environmental protections,
healthcare, education, emergency services, greater tax base,
and on and on.
Opportunity Zones were created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act, and the predecessor of that was the work that you and
Senator Scott had done. They were done to stimulate economic
development and job creation by incentivizing long-term
investments in low-income, often overlooked neighborhoods and
communities.
These zones also overlap often with what we call--with what
some call environmental justice communities. Today there are
more than 8,760 of these designated Qualified Opportunity Zones
that are located in the 50 States, the District of Columbia,
and the five United States territories.
So question one is this: Can you tell me roughly how many
or what percentage of these Opportunity Zones are in rural
areas? And can you also provide a few examples of successful
active projects that are underway today?
Mr. Hawkins. Sure. So about 23 percent of the zones that
were designated would fall into the category of rural areas.
And then the remainder are in urban areas or what we call
suburban areas, suburban areas being about 10 percent and then
the remainder being in urban areas. And so there is a
significant potential impact there.
When we look at concrete examples of some of the things
that we have seen in urban areas--I mean, in rural areas--we
can look to rural broadband. And I can look to one of my
members who has been operating to expand rural broadband in
rural Alaska.
And so, as you can imagine, because of the terrain in
Alaska, it is very difficult to get fiber penetrated into the
interior of the State. But Opportunity Zones have lowered the
cost of capital to the point where it has made it feasible.
So one of our members, along with their existing investors,
along with an Opportunity Fund that focuses on broadband, and
along with additional support from one of the Tribal
corporations, has been expanding rural broadband in Alaska and
laying that fiber. And so, if you can lay the fiber up there
and expand rural broadband in Alaska, then you can expand it
anywhere.
Mr. Flores. OK. Well, thank you.
I am glad you brought up rural broadband. Are there any
other specific obstacles to broadband internet access that
aren't being addressed today by statute or by the Opportunity
Zone legislation that we passed earlier?
Mr. Hawkins. Well, one of the things we have seen, again
with that White House Revitalization and Opportunity Council,
some of those resources that have been bent to favor
Opportunity Zones have included a $26 billion fund to support
rural broadband at the FCC. And so we have seen that.
And then we have also seen some sort of interesting
legislation out there to possibly create a gigabit Opportunity
Zone that is focused on building out rural broadband
infrastructure along the same concept of traditional
Opportunity Zones.
Mr. Flores. OK. And then, lastly, back to rural Opportunity
Zones writ large, are there any other particular obstacles to
robust investment in those rural zones? And, if so, what are
they?
Mr. Hawkins. So we haven't identified any particular
obstacles. One thing from a regulatory standpoint, the
regulations from Treasury that would govern operating
businesses took longer to come out than those that would cover
real estate. So operating businesses are what you are going to
see developing in the rural areas. So we had those final
regulations completed as of December 2019.
Mr. Flores. OK.
Mr. Hawkins. Now that those regulations are out, that was
the primary obstacle that we saw to operating business
development in rural areas. So we are just looking forward to
seeing the money flow.
Mr. Flores. OK. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins.
I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Soto for 5 minutes
of questioning.
And, Representative Soto, please unmute.
Mr. Soto. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Climate change, polluted air and water, social injustice,
and COVID-19, they are all interrelated.
As COVID-19 swept across our Nation, President Trump hid
the truth from the American people. He politicized the issue,
and, worst of all, he did nothing for weeks, from January
through February and early March, as the coronavirus swept
across our Nation.
President Trump's failed COVID-19 response has greatly
contributed to the death of over 113,000 Americans, over 2
million Americans contracting the virus as well. President
Trump's failed COVID-19 response also left 40 million Americans
seeking unemployment and the worst economic recession since the
Great Depression.
Now add his dismal failure to protect clean air and water,
and he has created the perfect disaster for the American
people. This especially affects frontline communities of color
and low-income communities.
And, as my home State of Florida faces another dangerous
hurricane season, rising seas, even a Miami seawall of 13 feet
high, we know that we have to do something.
In central Florida, in my home area of Florida's Ninth
Congressional District, we see in the Hispanic community, in
our community, higher cases because we have many essential
workers in Osceola County, which is why we need to pass the
HEROES Act to help provide hazard pay for these essential
workers.
The African-American communities in Polk County in our
district, we saw higher levels of deaths in addition to a
higher level of cases among Hispanics. And also we saw similar
trends in poor rural Anglo communities in the district.
My question to Ms. Patterson and Mr. Ali, some folks want
us to study more, to delay more before enacting environmental
justice reforms. Do we have enough data on the effect of air
pollution on COVID-19 to move forward with certain
environmental justice reforms already? If so, what would they
be? To both Mr. Ali and Ms. Patterson.
Ms. Patterson. I will let Mr. Ali go first. Thank you.
Mr. Ali. We have more than enough data. So let me give just
a quick historical point for folks who may not know.
In 1992, John Lewis, an esteemed Member with your family
there, actually introduced the first piece of environmental
justice legislation, reintroduced it in 1993, and I believe
tried also in 1994. And at that time he was trying to put a
spotlight on the hot spots that exist around the country so
that we could then make the investments that were necessary and
also make sure that not only the investments, that we also had
the legislation that would help to make sure that that didn't
happen in the future.
So now we are 28 years later and during that time there
have been a number of institutions that have done all kinds of
critical research, both public health organizations,
environmental organizations, and a number of others, that have
pinpointed the fact of the impacts that are happening from this
pollution and the disproportionate impact on communities of
color, lower-wealth communities, and on indigenous lands.
So it is not a matter of being able to have to prove any of
this anymore. The question is, Are we willing to prioritize
these communities to address both the past impacts and also, as
many of you have been sharing, think critically about how do we
help these communities also be able to rebuild?
I appreciate the conversation that is going on about the
Opportunity Zones. I have my own set of questions that I am
always curious about, about are they uplifting people, are they
causing gentrification, a number of other things. And if those
can be answered, then that is fantastic. But we should also be
focused on the fact that frontline communities have been doing
their own revitalizing of vulnerable communities.
I hope this committee, when the time is right, that we
actually go out and visit firsthand these communities to see
how they have actually been able to transform their communities
to be able to create jobs, to be able to create healthy
housing, to be able to create new transportation.
Mr. Soto. Mr. Ali, my time is limited. So I want to turn to
Ms. Patterson.
Do you believe boosting fossil fuel production in
communities of color and low-income communities is in the long-
term best interest of those communities?
Ms. Patterson. Did you say boosting?
Mr. Soto. Boosting fossil fuel and chemical production, is
that in the best interest of low-income communities and
communities of color communities?
Ms. Patterson. Yes. Thank you. Sorry. Just didn't catch
that one word.
No, I do not. Studies, experiences have all shown how, in
communities that are exposed to fossil fuel, pollution from
coal to oil and gas and so forth, have shown the myriad public
health challenges that those communities face. So it definitely
isn't in their long-term interest.
As well as when we turn on the other side and see the
connection between fossil fuel emissions and climate change,
that we know that the climate change disproportionately impacts
those communities, from the sea level rise you talked about and
the displacement that they face to the disaster impacts that we
saw in Hurricane Katrina and beyond, to the shifts in
agricultural yields when these communities are already food
insecure and suffer the many health challenges as a result.
So in every way the--and not to mention the actual harms to
the workers in those industries with 76,000 coal miners and
counting dying of black lung disease since 1968. And we know
the many accidents and fatalities that have happened that are
tied to the fossil fuel industry.
So, no, in no way is it in the best interest of communities
of color and frontline community. Thank you for asking.
Mr. Soto. Thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Mullin for 5
minutes for questions.
And, Representative, unmute, please.
Mr. Mullin. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you for this
opportunity.
You know, I have got to address something real quick. And I
want to talk to Mr. Hawkins about Opportunity Zones.
But the idea of these meetings is to make sure we try to
leave politics out of it as much as possible. I mean, if we are
really going to have a hearing that is going to be able to move
the ball forward and try to advance opportunities for all of
our constituents, then we drag in politics like our colleague
from Florida just did, it is absolutely absurd. For blaming the
President for everything?
If I am not mistaken, it was not too long ago that I
believe our colleague from Florida was trying to limit
innovation in pharmaceuticals. That was before COVID,
obviously. And now we are going to walk down this path, and you
are going to blame him for everything?
Guys, as a committee we are better than this. Our committee
has had a long history of trying to do bipartisanship, and
there is no way we can have bipartisanship if we continue to
blame everybody for it.
It doesn't make any difference. We are in a pandemic. Let's
figure out a way to move the ball forward. I don't think any of
us are intentionally trying to hurt anybody. But we all have
unique challenges in our district, and my district is no
different.
I mean, one thing that has been exposed in my district is
broadband. I have a very rural district. In fact, just recently
the only reason why I am able to even be on this hearing is
because I got internet at my house. Until just recently, that
didn't exist. When I say I live in the middle of nowhere, I
truly do. And when we start talking about Opportunity Zones, we
need to pay attention to that.
Mr. Hawkins, that is what I was wanting to talk to you
about a little bit. I know you have had experience working
inside Indian Country, to some degree, but all my district is
Indian Country. I am in Oklahoma.
Mr. Hawkins. Yes.
Mr. Mullin. So, when we start looking at Opportunity Zones
in particular, how can broadband be part of that conversation?
Mr. Hawkins. Yes, absolutely. And this goes to the
flexibility that is built into the policy itself.
So the way the policy works is, every dollar doesn't
necessarily have to be derived from within the Opportunity Zone
in order for the company in the Opportunity Zone to derive the
tax benefit.
So this is just to say that, as long as the nucleus of the
operation--you know, the employees, the leaders of the company,
the management team, et cetera--as long as they are located in
the zone and the jobs are created in the zone, the actual
infrastructure can spread out outside the zone, because it is
natural--it is expected that the revenues are going to come
from outside of the distressed area.
Mr. Mullin. And Opportunity----
Mr. Hawkins. And it is particularly set up to lay fiber
over a broad geography and still be able to benefit from that
lower cost of capital.
Mr. Mullin. And Opportunity Zones, we talked about jobs
too, because with technology also comes job opportunities.
Mr. Hawkins. Yes.
Mr. Mullin. In rural parts of the areas, which is why
Opportunity Zones existed, it was helped to spur along those
jobs. Being in rural America, you know, for a lot of young
people, the only opportunity for them to have a really good-
paying job is to move, and we don't want that to happen.
Mr. Hawkins. Right.
Mr. Mullin. I want my kids to live out on the ranch. I want
my kids to live around us. I have got six of them, so one of
these days, I am going to have a handful of grandkids, too.
Mr. Hawkins. It is. We all want that.
Mr. Mullin. Yes, absolutely. And we want to keep that
family unit close, but Opportunity Zones can--and I am
assuming, in your opinion--can help create those jobs that are
good, sustainable, long-paying jobs, right?
Mr. Hawkins. Absolutely. They not only create jobs for the
companies that come, but, again, as you look at things like
rural broadband being built out, that provides the
technological connection with the rest of the world that allow
people to remain to stay put and still do what they need to do.
It also helps in terms of things like telehealth, so telehealth
is something that is compromised if you don't have a robust
broadband infrastructure, and Opportunity Zones can be a key
part of building that infrastructure out.
Mr. Mullin. Thank you.
And with that, I will yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative DeGette for 5
minutes, and----
Ms. DeGette. Thank you.
Mr. Tonko. And you did unmute. OK, great.
Ms. DeGette. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
Some of you on this subcommittee have heard me talk about
the Suncor Refinery, which is adjacent to the Denver
communities of Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, which have a
longstanding pattern of air quality violations, and, frankly,
putting the surrounding community at health risk. And just for
an example: In a 6-month period last year, the company violated
key emission limits nearly 3,000 times, sometimes for more than
a week in a row. Now, significantly, Swansea-Elyria and
Globeville have a predominantly Latino population, where even
before the COVID crisis, some of my colleagues, Representative
Barragan, were talking about issues like this. A third of the
residents lived below poverty level, and they also have food
insecurity.
So I don't think anybody will be surprised, given the
testimony we heard today, that these communities have also been
one of the areas hardest hit by the coronavirus.
Ms. Patterson, I want to ask you: Could you elaborate about
how social and environmental injustices are compounded by
COVID-19 in environmental justice communities like Swansea-
Elyria?
Ms. Patterson. Certainly. Thank you so much for the
question.
Yes, so, unfortunately, when we have a situation where
communities are already facing food insecurity, and,
therefore--that contributes to these poor health conditions
that they are already facing, the level of function that we
talked about that leads to poor health conditions, as well as
ties to other challenges around, whether it is being out of
school, long poor air quality days, or kids being in school and
having a hard time paying attention because of the pollutants
that they are exposed to, and then you add a pandemic on top of
it all.
So it is just the cumulative and compounded social,
educational, and health factors, not to mention even the
economic--certainly we see how the COVID-19 has affected the
economy in general, but even before that, when people were--
when kids are out of school and people have to stay home with
their kids, then their financial well-being suffers, and then--
--
Ms. DeGette. That is fine. I hate to stop you, but I have a
couple more questions, and it does, it just compounds it, which
is why we see the infection rates and the death rates higher in
communities of color and in at-risk communities. And also, Ms.
Blunt Rochester talked about the air quality monitoring
stations being down, and in some places the Trump
administration is not even enforcing the laws. So, many of us
have been trying to raise maximum fines for air quality
violations, like with Suncor, and we have also been trying to
require robust community-level air toxins.
Now, Mr. Ali, something that I think you could tell us
about is how important enforcement of these environmental laws
would be towards protecting health in these communities.
Mr. Ali. Yes. You know, enforcement is really interesting,
you know, especially the time we are in. You know, we pump huge
amounts of money into enforcement and policing of Black and
brown communities, but when it comes to enforcing those same
industries that are there, for some reason, we want to push
back against that, and I have never been real clear why we do
that, but--well, I do have some ideas.
Ms. DeGette. Yes.
Mr. Ali. So----
Ms. DeGette. Oh, go ahead.
Mr. Ali. No, I was going to say, we know there has been
less enforcement actions happening over the last few years. We
also know there are less inspectors going out, and that creates
a very dangerous scenario, especially for our most vulnerable
communities.
So I believe in human nature and the goodness that exists
there, and I hope that most businesses and industries will do
the right thing. But we know through history that there have
been some who have not, who have been significant noncompliers,
and we have to make sure that there is a cop on the job, if you
want to label it that way, to make sure people are doing the
right thing.
Ms. DeGette. Thank you.
And you know, Mr. Hawkins, I want to say to you, I really
appreciate your work over many years on issues like
opportunities under brownfield. Way back in the mist of times,
I actually worked on a brownfields spill in Colorado, which led
to thousands of sites being cleaned up. But here is the thing--
and I think you will agree with this--without robust
enforcement of the environmental laws, you are not going to
clean up the air in these communities just with Opportunity
Zones and brownfields. It can help, but you have to have
enforcement of the laws. Wouldn't you agree with that?
Mr. Hawkins. That sounds reasonable.
Ms. DeGette. OK. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Great hearing.
And I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. OK. The gentlelady yields back. You are most
welcome.
We now recognize Representative Carter for 5 minutes for
questioning, and please unmute, Representative.
Mr. Carter. OK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank all of
our speakers for being here. We appreciate your participation.
I want to start off by saying something about the EPA,
because I think it has been somewhat misrepresented about their
actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EPA has continued to
enforce our Nation's environmental laws and work with the
Federal, State, and the Tribal communities. So, you know, their
temporary policy has responded to inquiries from the States,
and many of them with stay-at-home orders trying to regulate
the community in those States, trying to protect its employees
from the viruses. The policy lets the agency prioritize its
resources to respond to acute risk and immense threats.
So, again, under the temporary policy, no one is excused
from exceeding pollution limitations, and the only major change
is that the EPA is not seeking penalties for noncompliance
related to routine monitoring and reporting requirements. You
know, over 40 States have adopted COVID-19-related enforcement
discretion, including agencies in New York and New Jersey. That
is all--I say all of that to say that the EPA and the
environmental regulations continue to be enforced, and the
EPA's work continues. So I just want to set the record straight
on that before we go any further.
Mr. Hawkins, I really do appreciate you being here, and I
appreciate the work that you have done, particularly on these
Opportunity Zones. You know, one of the things we have
discovered during this pandemic is that we are too dependent on
foreign countries, particularly China, for some of our
pharmaceutical needs, our pharmaceutical manufacturing. And
this is similar to what we experienced back in the late 1970s,
when we realized that we were too dependent on the Middle East
for our energy needs and we realized we needed to have energy
independence, and we achieved that. We realize now that we need
to have pharmaceutical independence. Too much of the active
pharmaceutical ingredients are coming from other countries,
particularly China.
One of the bills that I have introduced is legislation that
will incentivize these companies to come back to America, and I
am actually working with Senator Scott in utilizing these
Opportunity Zones as a tax incentive for these companies to
come back and invest in our communities like this.
Is this what you were--is this what the intent of the
Opportunity Zones were, to create jobs like this?
Mr. Hawkins. Yes, absolutely. And there is so much that is
being done abroad that can be done, you know, in these
distressed communities. Just a couple quick examples. One,
Puerto Rico is obviously--you know, we had bipartisan
legislation just after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the first
spending bill after--in February, bipartisan legislation that
allowed Puerto Rico to designate 100 percent of their
distressed census tracts as Opportunity Zones.
As you know, Puerto Rico is a major hub for pharmaceutical
development, and so, we have one of our members there that is
specifically starting us a pharmaceutical subsidiary in order
to bring back drug manufacturing that is currently done in
China to Puerto Rico. So that is one area.
We have another area--another member, I am sorry--in South
Carolina that is actually bringing machines from Taiwan to
America that can build face masks. You know, you literally put
an input in the front of the machine, it spits out on the other
end a packaged face mask that can wholesale for $2, retail for
$5, and that is something that can be utilized because, right
now, 85 percent of our face masks are made outside the country.
And, finally, we have got a member who creates small
buildings out of shipping containers. They are in Opportunity
Zones, and they build these buildings. They design them. They
can do seven-story buildings or individual buildings. Right now
they are building small scale aligned with--small scale
buildings where folks can do testing, and they are importing
testing kits from South Korea. They are making them for $14 a
kit, where normally it is $40 a kit, and the kits are much more
accurate than what we use right now. So this policy can bring a
lot more manufacturing, distribution, and jobs back to the U.S.
Mr. Carter. Well, and thank you for that, Mr. Hawkins. And,
you know, the economic impact is obvious and very important,
but it also has an environmental impact as well, and you
touched on that a number of times during this meeting, and I
appreciate that.
I am sorry I have run out of time, but I want to point out
that not only does it have an economic impact, it can have an
environmental impact as well.
Mr. Hawkins. Absolutely, absolutely.
Mr. Carter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. You are most welcome. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes the representative from
California, Representative Matsui, for 5 minutes.
And, Representative, unmute, please.
Ms. Matsui. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and a huge
thank you for all of the witnesses that are with us today,
taking the time to share with us some of the stories that are
happening on the ground in communities that are often
overlooked, despite the disproportionate burden they have to
share.
The pain experienced by Black and brown low-income
communities has come to the forefront of the national attention
in the recent weeks. We know these communities have faced
injustices for years with little cohesive action taken to right
these wrongs. The hearing represents an important step in
hearing stories, looking at the facts, and assessing what the
most effective Federal solutions will be in ensuring a more
just society for all.
So let's, first of all, get some facts straight. About a
month ago, the Harvard School of Public Health released a study
highlighting how frontline communities and those living in the
areas of the country where the worst air pollution are facing
disproportionate risk of health complications and death from
COVID-19.
Mr. Ali, is it true that, if you are non-White, you are
more likely to live in an area with higher air pollution?
Mr. Ali. Yes.
Ms. Matsui. OK. Is it true that some studies have
demonstrated that there is a link between living in areas with
higher air pollution specifically, and fine particulate matter
and a mortality rate of COVID-19?
Mr. Ali. Yes.
Ms. Matsui. Now, is it also true that a recent study
determined that air pollution particles had active vectors for
the coronavirus in the air?
Mr. Ali. Yes.
Ms. Matsui. OK. Now, in spite of the significant findings
of many of these studies, EPA is charging forward with a number
of harmful deregulatory actions, including the Clean Air, Clean
Cars rollback, and Administrator Wheeler's refusal to update
the standard for regulating particulate matter pollution.
Mr. Ali, how many lives are lost each year as a result of
air pollution?
Mr. Ali. A minimum of 100,000.
Ms. Matsui. Do you know what percentage of these deaths
occur in communities of color or low-income communities?
Mr. Ali. I know they are disproportionately impacting. We
need additional resources to know the exact number.
Ms. Matsui. Do you think the standards ought to be set
higher?
Mr. Ali. Most definitely, and communities have asked us to
do that.
Ms. Matsui. OK. Can you speak to the number of lives saved
if we were to strengthen rather than maintain particulate
matter standards?
Mr. Ali. Tens of thousands of lives would be saved.
Ms. Matsui. OK. Mr. Ali, you worked at the Environmental
Protection Agency for 24 years, specifically focusing on
environmental justice. How can we strengthen EPA's Office of
Environmental Justice to have the tools, authority, and funding
it needs to better accomplish its mission?
Mr. Ali. We can elevate it to a national program office,
just as we have the Office of Air and the Office of Water. Many
of you talked about brownfields and Superfunds. We can make
sure that office is at that level. We can make sure that it has
the staffing and expertise that is necessary. We can also make
sure that we are honoring the interagency working group that
runs through that office so that we can leverage the resources
and expertise that exists in all of the other Federal agencies
also, so that we can achieve the goals that many folks on the
call today have said that they would like to see.
Ms. Matsui. OK. Thank you.
Ms. Patterson, you wrote in your article ``Climate Change
and Civil Rights Issues'' that the Black community tends to
have a greater dependence on public transportation, that Black
individuals are more likely to live in inner cities, and are
disproportionately affected in rises in home energy costs.
I would imagine all of these factors play a role in how
COVID-19 is impacting the Black community. Is that true? And if
yes, how so?
Ms. Patterson. Yes, that is absolutely true. Just in the
early days of COVID-19, as they were restricting bus routes, I
was driving on an essential trip to the grocery store and
noticed a bus going by that was chock-full of people in
Washington, DC, all African-American, none with masks on. And I
wondered, you know, about these essential workers, whose work
was being deemed essential that put them on that bus, but whose
lives weren't deemed essential in terms of actually putting in
the precautions that would protect them from the transmission
of COVID-19 in that context, absolutely.
Ms. Matsui. I am hearing more and more stories about
polluting facilities moving into or near communities of color
or low-income neighborhoods with little fear of opposition or
retaliation for the negative impact they have on the people who
live there. What would you say are some of the top factors
preventing communities from being able to stop polluting
facilities from moving into the neighborhoods?
Ms. Patterson. Thank you.
Definitely the inequities, in terms of access democracy, in
terms that we see a lot of in the way of decisions being swayed
by the financial ways that folks are contributing, either to
campaigns or otherwise. And so we see what decision making
happens in ways that are unfortunate. We also see where there
aren't enough public engagement processes where people are
actually part of decision making. So things happen to our
communities disproportionately versus us actually having
control.
One example--I saw it on the BP oil drilling disaster--was
when the waste from the--the toxic waste that included
chemicals that were banned in 90 countries, Corexit, the one
community that would be able to fight back from having that
toxic waste come to their community was the one community that
was predominantly a White American community, and all of the
other communities that were hosts to that toxic waste were ones
that were--had a higher than the population of communities of
color.
Ms. Matsui. Thank you very much for your testimony.
I yield back.
Ms. Patterson. Thank you.
Mr. Tonko. The gentlelady yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Duncan for 5
minutes for questions. And unmute, please.
Mr. Duncan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As I think about the last thing that we had on the
frontline communities and the one that we are having today, I
believe we need to be focused on creating the type of
atmosphere that welcomes more income opportunities and brings
investment into the communities that need it the most.
When President Trump took office, the national unemployment
rate at the time was 4.7 percent. That employment rate among
African Americans was 8.1 percent, and it was 5.8 percent among
Hispanic Americans. In February of this year, prior to the
COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, the national unemployment was 3.5
percent. African-American unemployment had dropped to 5.8
percent. Hispanic American unemployment was down to 4.4
percent.
We got there by opening opportunities to all Americans,
focusing on innovation and maximizing synergies in both
Federal, State, and local governments, as well as the private
sector, in order to make progress in areas that previously had
not been the focus of prosperity.
Unfortunately, today the national unemployment rate is 13.3
percent. African-American and Hispanic unemployment has
ballooned to 16.8 and 17.7 percent, respectively. We need to be
focused on solutions and return to previously growing
employment opportunity to people.
History shows that rising incomes increase standards of
living, offer communities choices and possibilities, and
attract new opportunities. Part of this administration's policy
that I agree with has been to modernize and clarify regulations
and facilitate a more efficient, effective, and timely review
process. This includes revising Federal regulations to reflect
current technologies and agency practices, eliminate obsolete
provisions, and improve the format and clarity of regulations.
Many of the environmental permitting laws have strayed from
their intended objective and instead appear to have been
weaponized for political motives. Unending litigation now
defines and delays the permitting process for many
infrastructure and energy projects. The pandemics [inaudible]
the necessity of a reliable grid, and the ability to timely
permit infrastructure is critical to maintaining that. The
inability to move projects forward imposes national security
risks on the U.S. Our country has become entirely dependent on
other countries for supplies of rare minerals, which is central
to the clean energy development.
So I want to address my comments to Shay Hawkins. Shay, my
staff and I enjoyed working with you when you were at Senator
Scott's office. I appreciate what you are doing with the
Opportunity Zones, and my question is this: Low-income
communities will be the last to recover from this economic
instability. As the U.S. begins to reopen this year, we need to
capitalize on Opportunity Zones as a tool to help the most
economically distressed communities. In order to bring benefits
to disadvantaged communities, how important is modernization of
and certainty in Federal permitting requirements?
Mr. Hawkins. It is absolutely critical. You know, when you
look at the issue with permitting, both at the Federal level
but then also in the State and local level, you know, the key
is not necessarily a matter of moving so quickly that somehow,
something from a safety standpoint is put aside. Sometimes it
is just a matter of having a quick yes or no, so that the
decision makers can make adjustments to get, you know, the
project done, to get the business built back out, you know,
accordingly. So permitting and streamlining that process to a
quick ``yes,'' ``no,'' or ``this is what is needed to move
forward'' is critical.
Mr. Duncan. I mean, the folks that are doing infrastructure
and economic development projects, they need timely decisions
in order to create jobs. And the bureaucratic delays that we
have seen--and everyone on this committee, regardless of what
side of the aisle you are on, understands there are
bureaucratic delays that have affected projects in your
district. Whether that is economic development projects or
whether that is water, rural infrastructure projects, it
doesn't matter. Bureaucratic delays are hampering the process.
So a yes or no answer in a timely manner is so important.
And, Shay, I appreciate you bringing that point.
Let me just go back to what Markwayne Mullin was saying
about broadband. I think it is important that this committee
and Congress address rural broadband. In my district during the
pandemic, schoolchildren didn't have access to the internet, so
our school districts were bringing WiFi buses into the
communities to provide the WiFi. Parents could bring their kids
to where the bus was parked, access WiFi in order for them to
finish their studies for the school year. It is important for
telemedicine, that we have seen the importance of telemedicine
in the pandemic.
These are issues that this committee ought to focus on and
ought to address. I want to thank the panelists for being here
today, and I appreciate the hearing.
And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative McNerney for 5
minutes of questions.
And, Representative, unmute, please.
Mr. McNerney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the
ranking member and the panelists, good discussion so far this
morning.
The city of Stockton, California, which is the biggest city
in my district, has one of the largest environmental justice
communities in the State of California. Our community has
historically borne disproportionate pollution burden as a
result of redlining and other discriminatory policies, such as
illegal dumping and air pollution near schools. We know all too
well the connection between environmental injustice and public
health, and South Stockton has one of the highest rates of
asthma in the United States as a result of breathing polluted
air.
Ms. Patterson, throughout the global coronavirus pandemic,
the EPA has continued to aggressively move forward with a
number of rulemaking procedures, including ones that would
jeopardize the public health and environmental health. That is
why this past April I cowrote a letter that was signed by 77 of
my colleagues urging the EPA to extend their public comment
periods by at least 45 days after the end of the declared
emergency. Doing so would ensure that all Americans have an
opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process. That is
the expectation of the law.
Do you see any way for the EPA to change course and engage
our frontline communities on a fair and meaningful basis during
the pandemic and beyond?
Ms. Patterson.
Ms. Patterson. I am so sorry, I forgot to unmute here.
Yes, I mean, certainly the EPA has--historically, we have
engaged extensively with them on their rulemaking hearings and
comments, opportunities, and so forth, to ensure that there is
access. And we have had success with making sure that they
are--that they happen in different places, and so that there is
greater access. And I think that, given the COVID-19 reality,
one key step that the EPA will have to take is to engage with
local--with organizations that represent frontline communities
to ensure that, if there are Zoom calls or if there are other
ways to give input, that those conversations continue to really
maximize input. And in some ways, the in-person meetings can
actually be--will be supplemented by the virtual meetings where
people who aren't able to be mobile or people who can't afford
to go to these places can actually have other means for
participation.
Mr. McNerney. Thank you. These are positive
recommendations. I appreciate it.
Also, as summer approaches, I am concerned about what will
be the impacts of extreme heat, which disproportionately
impacts environmental justice communities, along with the
COVID-19 and the social distancing that it requires. Would you
discuss the issues, as well as the need for expansive long-term
solutions to addressing the impact of extreme heat on the
vulnerable population?
Ms. Patterson. Yes, certainly. So, coming from Chicago,
where we all know, unfortunately, of the deadly heat wave that
took place in 1995, I am all too well aware. And in doing the
work now with organizations like the Union of Concerned
Scientists and many frontline communities around the urban heat
island effect, we are making sure that community-led solutions
around the urban heat island are being advanced, both in terms
of research, policymaking, and implementation at the local
level.
So, again, it really goes back to making sure that those
doors are open in terms of dialogue, so that we have aggressive
policymaking and aggressive funding and implementation of the
measures to protect communities, everything from building
retrofits that will provide better opportunities for--or better
infrastructure for families, to having cooling centers and
making sure that, again, in this COVID reality, that we
structure cooling centers in a way that allows for social
distancing and more.
Thank you.
Mr. McNerney. Thank you.
When environmental justice communities traditionally exist
in food deserts as well, which create food insecurity and can
have damaging impacts on the human body and its ability to
fight disease, can you speak to how these two issues, food
insecurity and lack of access to medical care, are impacting
environmental justice communities?
Ms. Patterson. Absolutely, yes. Unfortunately, we have seen
even with COVID-19 how the tie between both food insecurity, in
terms of the differential vulnerability, because food
insecurity definitely exacerbates conditions like diabetes,
high blood pressure, heart conditions, and so forth, that,
again, makes folks more vulnerable to COVID-19. And then also,
on the other side, with COVID-19 affecting our economy, that
people who were already food insecure aren't able to access
food in the way that they should.
So for us, we actually launched an initiative called Seeds
of Resistance and Resilience to actually provide seeds to
communities as well as supplies for raised-bed gardens, and
then also providing demos for recipes for folks so that we can
really bridge that gap in both kind of food sovereignties so
people aren't reliant on a grocery store that isn't actually
there, so they can actually start to grow their own food and
have a reliable, affordable source of consistent nutrition.
So, yes, thank you.
Mr. McNerney. All right. Thank you. My time is expired.
And I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representatives Ruiz for questions
for 5 minutes.
And, Representative, please unmute.
Mr. Ruiz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all of
the witnesses for testifying.
I am looking forward to eventually also discussing my
Environmental Justice Act, which addresses many of the issues
brought up today. It would account for the cumulative impact of
pollution, provide capacity support for low-income communities,
and alleviate systemic barriers.
Today, we are discussing how environmental justice
communities, their exposure to pollution increases underlying
pulmonary illnesses and therefore increases their risk of dying
from COVID-19. Consider the fact that COVID-19 is primarily a
respiratory illness that severely impacts lung function. My
constituents in EJ communities already face some of the highest
rates of asthma, which is linked to the poor air quality from
the chemical-laden dust blowing from the receding shores of the
salt and sea, dust from underdeveloped neighborhoods from years
of neglecting infrastructure development investments in these
underserved communities, and toxic airborne hazards from
companies, even without proper permits to function.
Consider that hand washing is key for prevention, yet some
privately owned, independent water systems contain toxic levels
of arsenic in their water. COVID-19 is intensifying the threat
of environmental injustices to public health.
A study from Harvard published in April of 2020 found that
long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with higher
COVID-19 mortality rates. And what did the EPA do? It announced
a nonenforcement policy under all environmental laws during the
COVID-19 pandemic for monitoring and recordkeeping
requirements.
Mr. Ali, after working with the EPA for 24 years, you are
keenly familiar with the risks environmental justice
communities face. What do you think will be the impact of EPA's
decision on environmental justice communities during the
pandemic?
Mr. Ali. I think more people are going to get sick and more
people are going to lose their lives.
Mr. Ruiz. OK. And I agree with your assessment, which is
why I worked with Representative McEachin to introduce H.R.
6692, the Environmental Justice COVID-19 Act, which was
included in the HEROES Act and passed the House last month.
This bill would provide $50 million for EPA environmental
justice programs to monitor pollution, investigate the impact
of COVID-19 on environmental justice communities.
The EPA's Environmental Justice Small Grant Program is a
grant that local groups can apply for to mitigate instances of
environmental injustices, and the EPA's CARE Grant Programs
provide support to help communities form collaborative
partnerships, many like the ones that were formed here in my
district, develop comprehensive understandings of risks from
toxic and environmental pollutants, set priorities, identify
and carry out projects to reduce risks through collaborative
action at the local level. And then, finally, the EJ
Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program
helps community-based organizations partner with the experts
and local stakeholders to develop and implement solutions and
address environmental and public health issues for underserved
communities.
Mr. Ali, in your experience working with the EPA, have any
of these EJ grant programs helped equip EJ communities to
better advocate for themselves? And how important would these
grants be for them in the context of COVID-19?
Mr. Ali. These grants are extremely important in
relationship to COVID-19. We created a similar program during
the BP oil spill, to specifically make sure that folks had the
resources and information so that they could make the best
decisions for themselves, and to also be fully a part of the
work that was going on at that time.
We need to continue to fund these programs in this COVID-19
moment and beyond, so that communities can build
infrastructure, so that they can build stronger foundations
underneath of themselves.
And if I could, I would just also like to highlight, the
programs that you mentioned have also been extremely important
in actually transforming communities. So we have heard a lot
about the Opportunity Zones that are doing some positive work.
The collaborative problem-solving model in the environmental
justice small grants program was a part of the ReGenesis
Project, which took a $20,000 grant and has now leveraged into
$300 million in changes. So we often talk about investments. If
we can invest $20,000 in a community and get a return of $300
million in changes, that seems like something we should be
continuing to expand.
Mr. Ruiz. You know, many people try to define, what do you
mean by systemic racial injustice. Can you talk about how the
EJ community experience, especially with COVID-19, is a racial
injustice, systemic injustice?
Mr. Ali. Well, without a doubt. It runs throughout almost
all of the components.
On the medical side, we know that there are biases in the
medical system where many times, if you are a person of color
and you go to the doctor, you get, you know, some type of a
lesser diagnosis, which then can have all sorts of problems
that follow afterwards.
We also know, of course, on the environmental side, there
is a racial component. We can't get away from that, but we can
change it in the decision making that has happened in the past,
and where we have located our most toxic facilities. That is
just the reality of the situation, but we can fix that problem.
And then we run down through many of the other items that
we have talked about today that are directly tied to a history
of systemic racism. If we look at our housing, housing has
often been placed in the most dangerous locations, the lower
locations in floodplains, so forth and so on. So we have seen
this play out.
The message today is that we can change that, that each of
the Members who are here and who are in the esteemed bodies on
Capitol Hill, we can decide that we want----
Mr. Ruiz. If we change it, we must change it so that no
matter the ZIP Code, race or age, everyone has access to clean
water and clean air.
Yield back my time.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes Representative Dingell for 5
minutes for questions. And, Representative, unmute, please.
Mrs. Dingell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
important hearing today, and to all of the witnesses for being
here on this critical subject on disproportional impacts on
frontline communities of color and low-income families.
In Michigan, we have been particularly hit hard. We are
fourth in the number of deaths in the country. We have nearly 2
million unemployed, and lives have been forever changed. And
what is most troubling is that African Americans make up 40
percent of the COVID deaths in Michigan, and they are only 14
percent of the population.
For too long, these communities have had to bear the brunt
of the burden during the worst of times, and as people are
bravely marching peacefully against injustice across this
country, we have to renew our fight for greater environmental
justice. Every bill that Congress considers now must take these
issues into account.
But today, I want to focus my questions on access to clean
drinking water. I thank Chairman Tonko for recognizing the
issue at the very beginning of this, its affordability and why
it is so important for environmental justice communities during
a pandemic. But I worry about it when we are done too, because
I believe that water is a basic human right. Because COVID
didn't create a water crisis, it exacerbated the existing one.
Mr. Hawkins, I love you even though you are from Ohio
State, or from Ohio, but, hey, I am going to--hey, we have got
to keep a little sports humor in all of this or we are done. I
miss sports. But I want to address my questions to Mr. Ali and
Ms. Patterson.
According to the CDC, one of the most effective ways to
prevent the spread of COVID is just wash your hands for 20
seconds regularly with soap and water. Well, you can't do that
if you don't have any running water. Access to clean water is a
basic human right, and it is critical for hygiene and safety.
I would like to first start with you, Mr. Ali--I am going
to ask you to be short--and then Ms. Patterson. Could both of
you give this community an overview of how COVID-19 has
impacted the access to clean water in environmental justice
communities, and would you tell us or highlight what we can do
as a Federal Government as far as things stand today for water
shutoffs nationally, and what do we need to do to make sure it
continues to flow?
Mr. Ali. Well, the first thing we need to do is to make
sure that we are strengthening our infrastructure and making
sure that, in the strengthening of the infrastructure, that we
are also making sure that our most vulnerable communities as in
relationship to the pricing of water, we need to make sure that
there is actually equity that is a part of that process. We
also have to make sure that with the--extend the moratorium on
water shutoffs.
Now, there are, in Detroit and across the country, folks
like Ms. Monica Patrick with We the People of Detroit and
others have been working diligently to make sure that that is
brought to the attention of folks both in the State House and
the Federal House, so we have to do that.
We also have got to make sure we are making investments in
our natural infrastructure, which helps to clean water and
helps to take the burden off of many of the water filtration
systems that are out there.
So those are just a couple of things, and I will turn it
over to Ms. Patterson.
Mrs. Dingell. Ms. Patterson.
Ms. Patterson. Thank you so much.
Yes, so definitely echoing what Mr. Ali said and just to
add that we also need to make sure that we are pushing back
against water privatization, and so that we don't have water
systems that are run for profit, that we make sure that we have
water systems that are meant to serve people and uphold human
rights.
We definitely have to increase our investments, as Mr. Ali
said, in water infrastructure so that we don't--because even
now, one of the things that was exacerbated by COVID-19 is to
the extent that there are some folks who don't trust their
water, and they have to access through water bottles and so
forth. So having to do that when you don't even have a grocery
store nearby and given the weight of water, and so people are
in harm's way just trying to get the water that they can drink
because the water coming out of their pipes isn't safe.
So we need to make sure that we don't have--especially as
we know that, by all accounts, the COVID-19 is going to
resurge. It is still going on now, and we are going to have a
resurgence of it. So we need to have permanent solutions and
not just temporary moratoriums on water shutoffs, but no one
should be deprived of the essential resource of water.
And so, definitely following in the footsteps, as Mr. Ali
said, that the folks of We the People of Detroit to have a
community government structure around water systems is
something that we should definitely institute.
Thank you.
Mrs. Dingell. Sure. So I am out of time, but I would like
to thank the committee leadership, because water is a basic
human right, which is the bill that I introduced with my
colleague, was included in the most recent bill passed by the
House, the HEROES bill. And there are 15 million people in the
United States that don't have running water or have had a water
shutoff. We all need to really think about that, One in 20
households in this country.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Tonko. You are most welcome, and the gentlelady yields
back.
I believe we next have Representative Burgess available for
5 minutes for questions.
Representative, unmute, please.
Mr. Burgess. Yes, sure. Thanks. Thanks for letting me waive
on to the subcommittee. It has been a fascinating discussion
during the day.
Mr. Hawkins, if I could ask you, in regards to Opportunity
Zones, I was intrigued, I actually pulled the Opportunity Zone
for the congressional district that I represent.
Mr. Hawkins. Yes.
Mr. Burgess. In my former life as a physician and my
medical practice was actually located smack dab in the middle
of an Opportunity Zone, and had I only known, perhaps I could
have accessed some significant help. But that--so what is the--
in your experience, with healthcare facilities in Opportunity
Zones, what are some of the possibilities, what are some of the
opportunities there?
Mr. Hawkins. Sure. And, so, just as a quick note, had you
had your practice in an Opportunity Zone, you wouldn't have
been able to draw the benefit just from existing there. You
actually had to make a substantial improvement on your
practice, which is to say you would have had to invest the full
cost basis of your business in improving that business in order
to access the benefits.
So, you know, let's say that you have a business that is
worth a half million dollars. In order to benefit from the
policy, you have to invest an additional half a million dollars
on new employees, a better facility, or other significant
improvements in order to draw on the policy. So that is one of
the things.
So you can look at every existing healthcare business in an
Opportunity Zone as benefiting. You can also look at building
out rural broadband, building out urban broadband, so that
telehealth is a broader option.
We can look at, again--you know, when we are looking at one
of our members, they are going to be distributing test kits but
then also building modular testing facilities so that folks can
do the tests separate and apart from the broader hospital
facility, but still within an accessible distance.
And so, all of those are things that we have seen built
out, because in the healthcare space----
Mr. Burgess. OK.
Mr. Hawkins [continuing]. The communities that are
designated as Opportunity Zones do suffer from worse health
outcomes, but also worse health conditions than the population
at large, obviously.
Mr. Burgess. Just as a point, a data point, my medical
practice in the late 1980s, when the savings and loans imploded
across the country--you are probably too young to remember
that--the Resolution Trust Corporation came to town. I
attempted to get an SBA loan back then and was unsuccessful,
but that is a different story for a different time.
Can you speak to the same issues in the energy sector? Are
there places where the Opportunity Zones intersect with
businesses that provide and distribute energy?
Mr. Hawkins. Sure. Well, as I note in my testimony, there
is already sort of a jump that the designated Opportunity Zones
has on clean energy with, you know, 475 solar facilities being
built out, you know, so far. So anything that involves
significant innovation, any energy space you are going to see,
but beyond that, there are two elements for more traditional
energy where we have seen a lot of growth.
One is folks who are providing services to existing energy
companies. So, you know, again, we have members up in Alaska,
and there are folks who provide, you know, for BP and others
operating in the north of the country, there are folks that
provide services for them, everything from uniforms to lunches
and food for the workers, and things along those lines. But
then, for the larger energy companies, they can benefit from
the policy and benefit by building out a subsidiary within an
Opportunity Zone.
Mr. Burgess. OK.
Mr. Hawkins. The idea is, if you are going to be hiring
folks, if you are going to be bringing new workers in, and if
you are going to be bringing more resources to these areas,
then we don't mind if you are an existing company, you just
drop a subsidiary down in a zone and you are good to go.
Mr. Burgess. All right. Thank you.
Mr. Ali, I apologize. I wanted to get to you and give you
an opportunity to address the issue about enforcement that you
started to earlier, and I don't guess we have the chance, but I
would like to hear your thoughts on that before this concludes
today.
I yield back.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
And we now recognize Representative Clarke for 5 minutes of
questioning. And unmute, please, Representative.
Ms. Clarke. Thank you so much, Chairman Tonko and Ranking
Member Shimkus, for holding this hearing today on environmental
justice, and thank you to all three of our witnesses for
joining and offering your testimony.
Let me just begin by saying that I think this is both an
extremely important and extremely relevant hearing for us to be
having in this particular moment in our Nation's history, as we
grapple with the long legacy of systemic racism and injustice
that continues to permeate the many echelons of our society and
its institutions.
The protests and public outcry during this past couple of
weeks over the killing and abuse of black women and men at the
hands of those sworn to protect and serve them, add to this the
disparities that have been laid bare in recent months regarding
the impacts of the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic are, in my
eyes, highly related events. They have served to bring those
deep and pervasive injustices to the foreground of the national
conversation. This intersectionality is undeniable.
I also believe that the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular,
has shown us perhaps more clearly than ever that issues of
environmental justice do not simply exist alone amongst
themselves in a vacuum. To the contrary, environmental
injustices have wide-ranging impacts that manifest themselves
in all manner of social, economic, and health-related ways, and
the times of great crisis tend to both amplify and be amplified
by environmental injustices within most vulnerable communities.
My first question shows to begin my line of questioning, I
would like to first focus on the issue of air pollution that
continues to be a major source of environmental justice in my
Brooklyn community. In fact, Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of the
neighborhoods within my congressional district, actually has
the highest rates of adult asthma out of any neighborhood in
New York City.
We know from years upon years of research that reveals that
Black, Latinx, and Native American communities in this country
suffer disproportionately from respiratory and cardiovascular
conditions, including asthma, as a direct result of
environmental factors, such as high levels of local air
pollution.
We also know that COVID-19, which is predominantly a
respiratory virus, adds impact to the Black, Latinx, and Native
American communities at rates that far exceed their share of
the population.
So my first question is to Dr. Ali. Can you first please
share with us your thoughts on the connection between air
pollution and the disparities that we have seen with COVID-19?
And can you also tell us, from an environmental justice
perspective, where you think our focus should be when it comes
to addressing this major issue of air pollution in communities
like Brooklyn?
Mr. Ali. Definitely. Thank you, Congresswoman.
You know, we all know now that the data is out there that
there is a direct connection between the air pollution,
PM2.5, PM10, and also ultrafine
particulates in relationship to communities of color and lower
wealth communities and on indigenous land. And we also know
that there are chronic medical conditions that come from the
exposure to this air pollution. We also know that as the
temperature rises that air pollution also becomes more deadly.
So, knowing that we have these factors coming together
along with those chronic medical conditions that make us more
susceptible to the coronavirus, would lead one to believe that
we should be doing everything that we can to lessen the
emissions that are happening inside of these communities of
color, and that can be done by making sure that we are not only
honoring the Clean Air Act and all of the respective parts that
are there, but also that enforcement is actually happening
inside of these communities to make sure that folks are living
up to the letter of the law.
Ms. Clarke. Thank you so much for that.
I want to just turn quickly to the issue of housing. Here
in Brooklyn, New York, we have had a lead paint scandal, with
thousands of adults and children living in public housing
exposed to toxic levels of lead paint. After Superstorm Sandy,
right here in New York, we saw that the worst impact took place
among our low-income communities and communities of color, who
did not have the resources to receive the assistance quickly to
rebuild or relocate their homes. Now, again, with the
coronavirus pandemic, we see how important it is to have a home
environment that is both safe and affordable.
Ms. Patterson, do you believe that having access to safe
and affordable housing goes hand in hand with achieving
environmental justice? And what do you think can be done on the
Federal level to achieve greater environmental justice when it
comes to housing in our Nation?
Ms. Patterson. Thank you for the question. Yes, absolutely.
Housing justice is integral to environmental justice and the
safety and well-being of our families, communities,
individuals. And so, yes, we absolutely need the--we need
better subsidies for housing retrofits and improvements, not
just in terms of energy efficiency, but also in terms of lead
remediation and because we are seeing disproportionately,
whether it is lead, asbestos, radon, all of these indoor air
pollutants that are compounding the other toxins that are
affecting homes.
We also need to be thinking about not just improving core
housing, but we need to be thinking about land security and
housing security as a whole, and thinking about how do we put
more folks on the pathway towards home ownership. We know that
Black land loss is something that is historic and present day,
and we also know that land ownership and housing ownership is
key to climate resilience and economic security in general.
So we need to have much more in the way of programs that
lead to a pathway of home ownership and housing security.
Thank you.
Ms. Clarke. I thank you all, and I yield back, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Tonko. The gentlelady yields back.
And the Chair now recognizes Representative Schakowsky for
5 minutes of questioning.
And, Representative, unmute, please.
Ms. Schakowsky. I think I am unmuted. Can you hear me?
Mr. Tonko. We can hear you, so you are doing fine.
Ms. Schakowsky. OK. Very good. Thank you.
This has been an amazing, amazing hearing, I really
appreciate it.
The City of Chicago has been deeply affected by
environmental injustice, and we know that, in Chicago, African
Americans account for 60 percent of the city's COVID-19-related
deaths, despite the fact that they represent about 30 percent
of the population of the City of Chicago.
And I think that this has really made clearly the point
that EJ communities have been double deeply affected by the
virus and all of the existing problems that have come before
it, and that it is a public health as well as an environmental
health issue.
This administration has rolled back or plans to reverse
over 100 environmental rules. It must be particularly painful
to you, Mr. Ali, to see that happening. And, in fact, just this
week, we have seen the President sign an Executive order to
accelerate permitting of major infrastructure programs and
projects waiving environmental review for pipeline and highways
and other projects.
Experts warn that this action will have a
disproportionately negative impact on the communities that we
have been talking about.
So, Mr. Ali, what I want to ask you, you know, the
President had talked about warm weather is going to get rid of
this virus, but I just heard you say that you thought that the
summer temperatures, the higher temperatures, are actually
going to exacerbate the problems. Is that true?
Mr. Ali. Well, warmer weather exacerbates air pollution.
Ms. Schakowsky. Yes.
Mr. Ali. The finding of smog and many of the other things
that you see, that also impacts ozone. So all of that coming
together just causes additional burdens in these communities.
Ms. Schakowsky. Thank you for that.
You know, I wanted to read something from--the United
States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental
justice as, quote, ``the fair treatment and meaningful
involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national
origin, or income.'' And I am just wondering, Mr. Ali--and I
would also like to ask Ms. Patterson about that--if you really
see that happening, particularly the issue of meaningful
involvement of those communities.
Mr. Ali. Well, I will start very quickly. With both of
those aspects, because I was around when we created that
definition: fair treatment, most definitely not. If there was
fair treatment, there would be honest analysis about these
additional impacts that are going on in our most vulnerable
communities, in communities of color, lower-wealth communities,
and on indigenous land. Meaningful involvement. If there was
true, meaningful involvement, then we would be engaging with
the individuals, before these decisions are being made, to be
able to mitigate the impacts that are happening. And, you know,
the interesting thing is that the Environmental Protection
Agency has even said with some of the actions that they have
done, some of the rolling back, if you will, that there are
going to be less lives that are protected.
So I am not sure how you can make a statement that says
``Less people are going to be protected, but I am OK with
that.'' These are our tax dollars that are literally being
utilized to impact these communities, and that is unacceptable.
Ms. Schakowsky. Do I have any moments left for Ms.
Patterson to speak to that?
Ms. Patterson. OK. So, yes, I will just reiterate what Mr.
Ali said in terms of certainly fair treatment wouldn't mean
that we have kids who are two to three times more times likely
to die of an asthma attack and three or more times likely to
enter in the hospital from an asthma attack. Their treatment
wouldn't mean that we would have adults who are more likely to
die of lung cancer but less likely to smoke. Their treatment
would mean that we are disproportionately located in cancer
clusters throughout the Nation. And if we had equal engagement,
then these things wouldn't be happening in the first place,
because we--our communities know the solutions that are going
to protect our health and wellbeing.
So we--so, in answer to your question, definitely not fair
treatment, and definitely not meaningful engagement, or the
world would look a lot different.
Thank you.
Ms. Schakowsky. Thank you. Thank you so much. Am I out of
time? I can't----
Mr. Tonko. You are out of time.
Ms. Schakowsky. Oh, OK. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Mr. Tonko. OK. The gentlelady yields back.
Now I believe we go to Representative Castor for--oh, I am
sorry. We go to Representative Kennedy for 5 minutes of
questions.
And, Representative Kennedy, ready to go.
Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Tonko, thank you.
And thank you to our witnesses for being here today and for
an extremely important conversation.
The disparate impacts of COVID-19 are obvious and
nationwide. In Massachusetts, they are also undeniable. All of
the communities with the highest rates of COVID-19 in
Massachusetts are also environmental justice communities.
Last month, I sent a letter to President Trump calling for
the appointment of an environmental justice expert to the
Coronavirus Task Force and calling for all future actions to
prioritize communities that are most at risk.
But it is clear that we need to do much more than that. We
need to confront the causes of air pollution that increase
rates of asthma and other comorbidities that leave our
communities uniquely vulnerable not just to pandemics, but to
countless health challenges every single day.
So, Ms. Patterson, I want to start with you. I know you
touched on this a bit. But how do we right this ship, and how
do we give communities of color and people of color more voice
in the Government's response to COVID-19?
Ms. Patterson. Yes. Thank you so much for the question.
So certainly we have to have more of a--more--I am sorry, I
am trying to think how to articulate this--more forums for
community engagement and community decision making. I know it
has been a tough pivot because some of our traditional ways of
having community engagement haven't been available to us in
terms of hearings and so forth. But we have to make that pivot
because, as I said before, communities do know the solutions
that will work for them.
And so we need to engage with the frontline base-building
groups that know how to connect with communities and figure out
how we are going to pave those pathways for dialogue, for
input, and for shared decision making around solutions that
work.
That is my first short answer. I know you have limited
time.
Mr. Kennedy. Thank you.
And, Mr. Ali, what are your thoughts?
Mr. Ali. Well, there are some things that I shared with the
administration when they first came in. One of them is that at
the Environmental Protection Agency they should have a senior
adviser for environmental justice. I don't know how you can
adequately address these issues if you don't have someone who
shared with the Administrator, OK, if you go this way, this is
going to happen; if you go that way, that is going to happen.
In relationship to the White House, they should also have
someone who has expertise in these areas to also help them. So,
if you are working on Opportunity Zones, you should also have
someone who understands environmental justice to help to make
sure that process, it is fully engaging and protecting all the
folks.
And if you really want to get good with it, then you make
sure the 17 Federal agencies that have a responsibility for
environmental justice out of Executive Order 12898 also have
senior leadership who is talking to Ben Carson at HUD and
saying, ``Hey, you know, here is what some of the impacts are,
how can we think critically about our resources to make real
change happen?'' Or at the Department of Energy, how do we make
sure that we are leveraging our resources and expertise to
actually uplift these communities?
So we have been having a conversation about economics and
jobs along with the impacts that are happening from COVID-19.
So let's also make sure that the Department of Labor and the
Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration
also have someone who is having these conversations with them
and they are also opening up the doors to make sure that
frontline communities are helping to lead many of those
conversations since the impacts, whether negative or positive,
are going to come back to their communities.
And that is what representative government should be
looking like, and that is how we actually give real people
something to frame out policy and actions that benefit
everyone.
Mr. Kennedy. So building off of that, Congress and
particularly the Senate, still has serious work to do to
respond to the pandemic and help our country recover. The last
thing we should include in our recovery efforts is a bailout
for big fossil fuel companies.
So, Mr. Ali, how would bailing out oil and gas while
failing to invest in environmental protection or environmental
justice communities hurt Black and Latinx individuals?
Mr. Ali. I mean, in so many ways. You know, it is funny,
the oil companies--so let me say it this way. You know, going
back to my early statement, when my grandmother, when she said,
``When you know better, do better.'' You know, if this was 100
years ago, 75 years ago, of course, fossil fuels played a huge
role and were necessary in helping to build the infrastructure
of our country. We now know that there are other opportunities.
So when we move resources to those entities that are
playing a role in impacting our communities, there is something
wrong with that formula when we are not also equally moving
opportunities to cleaner forms of energy and also rebuilding
these communities that have been impacted by the actions that
we are supporting now with our dollars and that we did in the
past.
Mr. Kennedy. I will have to leave it with that. Thank you
both.
I yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Tonko. The gentleman yields back.
I believe that concludes all of our colleagues that wish to
ask questions of our witnesses?
If so, then I would like to thank our witnesses for joining
us for today's hearing. The input has been very valuable.
I remind Members that, pursuant to committee rules, they
have 10 business days by which to submit additional questions
for the record to be answered by our witnesses. And I ask that
our witnesses to please respond promptly to any such questions
that they may receive.
I now request unanimous consent to enter a number of
documents into the record.
Mr. Shimkus. I am trying. I can't get on.
Oh, Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Tonko. Yes, sir. I have some documents I was going to
announce. Do you have additional ones there?
Mr. Shimkus. I don't know if they are additional. I will
just go through them real quick. I know they have been vetted.
Can I just name them real quick?
Mr. Tonko. Sure.
Mr. Shimkus. The June 8, 2020, letter from EPA
Administrator Wheeler to committee outlining concerns with the
lack of peer review of the Harvard study; May 13, 2020, letter
from EPA to New York Attorney General's Office outlining EPA's
COVID-19 temporary enforcement policy and that the EPA is
continuing to enforce the laws; June 2020 letter from EPA to
Congress with EPA's 2019 Air Trends report showing reductions
in emissions; August 2018 letter from the Conference of Mayors
to the IRS in support of Opportunity Zones; and the last one
being this 2020 Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies
Trends and Success Report showing improvements across the
country.
Those are the five that we had.
Mr. Tonko. OK. I also did have a letter from WE ACT for
Environmental Justice, a letter from the West End
Revitalization Association, and I believe a report by EPA
entitled ``Our Nation's Air 2020.''
Does that conclude all?
Mr. Shimkus. I think that does.
Mr. Tonko. And a bicameral letter to the EPA.
Mr. Shimkus. OK. I think that is--we have all agreed upon
those.
Mr. Tonko. OK. So with all of those--there is a request for
unanimous consent to enter the documents into the record. Any--
--
Mr. Shimkus. Without objection.
Mr. Tonko. No objection. Without objection, so ordered.
[The information appears at the conclusion of the
hearing.1A\1\]
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\1\ The Association of Air Pollution Control Angencies and EPA
reports have been retained in committee files and also are available at
https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=110773.
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Mr. Tonko. So at this time the subcommittee is adjourned.
Mr. Shimkus. Great job, Chairman.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you very much, everybody.
[Whereupon, at 3:11 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
[Material submitted for inclusion in the record follows:]
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[all]