Source: The News & Observer
Trump’s return to the White House has put many environmental experts and activists on edge, as the prominent “climate denier” may strip away crucial protections.
Many experts have warned that a second Trump presidency would be a “wrecking ball” to efforts to protect impacted communities, reduce major carbon emitters, and advance clean energy policies.
For North Carolina, another Trump era could set back progress made by local organizations, activists, and the Governor’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
“I still think that we need to assume we’re moving forward in a positive direction. Our work will be a little bit more difficult, but if it were easy everyone would be doing it,” stated James Johnson Jr., a UNC-Chapel Hill business professor and committee co-chair, during a recent council meeting.
The Council serves as a forum for whole-of-government environmental justice concerns and is tasked with providing guidance and recommendations to the Governor and State agencies to advance environmental justice, according to the governor’s website.
While the council will remain in place until 2027, unless repealed, the group has several challenges ahead, particularly with measures touted in the right-wing blueprint, Project 2025.
According to the Conservation Law Foundation, Project 2025 lists plans to eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, and the Inflation Reduction Act – the biggest plan to cut carbon pollution in U.S. history.
The News & Observer reports that under President Joe Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency implemented Justice40, an initiative intended to send energy and infrastructure investments from packages like the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to communities overburdened by pollution.
Crucial investments like the Justice40 could be in jeopardy due to the incoming administration, however, council members are committed to protecting North Carolina communities.
“North Carolina is committed to making sure that Justice40 is still being followed, even if the federal government doesn’t care,” Bailey Recktenwald, a climate change policy adviser for Gov. Cooper, told the council.
Read more at The News & Observer.
