Last week, President-elect Joe Biden began working to re-focus the nation’s attention on his governing plans to address the national public health and economic crises. A review of his $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus proposal reveals a number of important environmentally relevant elements.
Included in its overarching focus on dealing with the pandemic and its economic fallout, the announced Biden-Harris American Rescue Plan includes specifics addressing these health and environmental justice needs:
- Public health and health care access
- Workplace health and safety
- Energy efficiency and clean water access
- Public transit systems support
Biden’s plan recognizes that poorer health care access in general, as well as workplace health threats in particular, are major elements in the environmental racism which disproportionately slams people of color and their families. The plan spends more on community health centers and workplace health measures as part of the fight to control COVID-19.
The plan would also spend more to shore up low-income households’ access to clean energy and energy efficiency measures, as well as access to clean water, both for the public health benefits and to help those families get through the economic crisis. As the Biden-Harris transition office fact sheet (PDF) on the plan points out, “These funds will ensure that the hardest-hit renters and small landlords, including those in disadvantaged communities that have suffered disproportionately in terms of pollution and other environmental harms, aren’t put in the position where they can’t cover their own housing expenses. This program includes a competitive set-aside of funding for states to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency projects that reduce electricity bills for families in disadvantaged communities.”
Finally, the plan recognizes that public transit systems have also been hit hard by the economic downturn, and that boosting federal support for those systems is essential to maintaining their services for the public. Lower-income households tend to be more dependent on public transit to access jobs, and improved transit systems are a key part of building out a greener overall transportation system.
Of course, any presidential proposal is only a starting point for negotiations with Congress, but this Biden-Harris plan represents a worthy approach on a number of environmental factors.
