Critics say Transportation & Climate Initiative would do little for communities already overburdened by pollution
Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight
One of the most prominent environmental organizations in New Jersey is opposing a regional cap-and-trade program being pushed by Northeastern states to curb global-warming emissions from motor vehicles.
Clean Water Action joined the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and Ironbound Community Corporation in urging the Murphy administration to reject joining the Transportation & Climate Initiative, a proposal most clean-energy advocates view as a critical step toward reducing the single largest source of greenhouse gas pollution.
Many environmentalists consider the still emerging climate initiative, modeled after the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — a program that aims to reduce pollution from power plants — as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernize and decarbonize the region’s transportation system.
Not so much though for those who represent environmental justice communities — already overburdened with the cumulative effects of pollution — which have shown a growing voice in the Murphy administration.
Need for ‘bold, visionary solutions’
“TCI to date has been tone deaf at best and racist at worst. The world is on fire and we need bold, visionary solutions that center those most directly impacted to build a just society,’’ said Maria Lopez-Nuñez, deputy director of the Ironbound Community Corporation.
Clean Water Action wants state policymakers to focus the proposed pact on mandatory pollution reductions in overburdened communities, targeted funding and action in those areas.
“We need big bold solutions that the environmental justice communities in New Jersey has been demanding a long time like mandatory pollution reductions in communities of color and low-income communities,’’ said Amy Goldsmith, New Jersey state director of Clean Water Action.
Their concerns include the possibility that a cap-and-trading program is likely to disproportionately impact environmental justice communities and that monies raised by the program would be diverted for other purposes, as has occurred in the past, when more than $ 1 billion in clean-energy funds have been diverted by past administrations in New Jersey.
The Transportation & Climate Initiative envisions funding the programs through a proposal that could boost the price of gasoline at the pump by as much as 5 cents to 17 cents a gallon, according to estimates by the alliance. The alliance is comprised of 12 states, including New Jersey as well as Washington D.C. If implemented, the program could slash tailpipe emissions by 25% over the next decade.
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