Federal Policy Building Blocks to Support a Just and Prosperous New Climate Economy in the United States

Abstract

The report estimates the socioeconomic impact of federal climate policies under three mitigation scenarios. These mitigation scenarios focus on tax incentives, climate-friendly infrastructure investments, and sector-based performance standards—many of which have been enacted in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

One- to Four-Family Properties with Multiple Losses Insured by the National Flood Insurance Program: Property Characteristics, Community Demographics, and Mitigation Strategies

“…A result of Executive Order 14008, the CEJST tool is intended to support the Justice40 Initiative, in which 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments are apportioned to disadvantaged communities (Biden, 2021). Research has found that 29 percent of Americans are considered to live in a disadvantaged community (Shrestha et al, 2022), and Table 4.11 shows that there does not appear to be a strong relationship between the percentage of structures that are MLPs and the CEJST disadvantaged community indicator. 30 See, for example, Bukvic et al, 2018.…”

Environmental justice policy in the United States: community definition and benefits allocation in underserved and overburdened communities

“…Several critiques from research and environmental justice organizations have pointed out the shortcomings and inequities built into this version of the CEJST-specifically, CEQ's decision to exclude race and ethnicity from the federal definition of disadvantaged communities (Dean et al, 2023;Sadasivam & Aldern, 2022;Shrestha et al, 2022). This decision works against recognition justice, a key tenet of environmental justice, which requires that the cumulative and interconnected impacts of racial injustice, environmental degradation, and economic disenfranchisement imposed on poor communities and communities of color (specifically Black and Indigenous communities and people) are recognized and addressed.…”

“…Many environmental justice advocates have been responding to the Biden Administration's Justice40 Initiative actions by focusing on "who's in and who's out" based on how environmental justice communities are defined (Dean et al, 2023;Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, 2022;Sadasivam & Aldern, 2022;Shrestha et al, 2022). This critique is necessary, especially in considering how race and ethnicity have been left out of the CEJST definition, and how various kinds of injustice have been flattened and equalized, instead of understood cumulatively.…”