Joe Biden is set to announce on Wednesday a radical proposal for tackling climate change, which will emphasize the fact that marginalized communities and ethnic minorities frequently bear the brunt of global warming.
Biden, who rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement on the first day of his presidency, will direct agencies across the federal government to invest in minority communities hardest-hit by pollution, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Two sources told the paper that the president will sign an executive order establishing a White House interagency council on environmental justice.
Joe Biden will announce a series of environmental policies on Wednesday, it has been claimed
A horizontal drilling rig and a pump jack sit on federal land in Lea County, New Mexico, in September. Biden is expected to announce there will be no more leases granted to drill
Biden is focusing attention on how the poorest communities are often hardest hit by environmental issues from industry, landfill or climate change
Biden campaigned on a promise to prioritize the natural environment as president
An airplane flies over caribou from the Porcupine caribou herd on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. The U.S. government held its first-ever oil and gas lease sale January 6 for Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Biden will halt them
He will create an office of health and climate equity at the Health and Human Services Department, and form a separate environmental justice office at the Justice Department.
Biden and his team believe that it is time to right the historic wrongs of having marginalized communities forced to accept debris that wealthier communities fight against: power plants, landfills, trash incinerators, shipping ports, uranium mines and factories.
Biden on Wednesday will also announce a block on any new federal oil and gas leasing.
He will pledge to protect 30 per cent of the nation's public lands and waters by the end of the decade, and direct federal agencies to consider the impact on climate change when looking at a range of issues, including procurement, regulations and legal settlements.
'Our urgent reduction of emissions is compelled by public conscience and by common sense,' said John Kerry, the former secretary of state who is now Biden's climate envoy.
Speaking at a UN forum this week, he said: 'President Biden knows that we have to mobilize in unprecedented ways to meet a challenge that is fast accelerating, and he knows we have limited time to get it under control.'
John Kerry told the UN: 'He knows we have limited time to get it under control'
Kerry also set the stage for Wednesday's expected announcement, saying: 'Every agency is now a part of our climate team.'
Biden's move to emphasize how climate change affects different communities in different ways was praised by academics in the field.
Cathleen Kelly, a fellow who focuses on energy and environment at the Center for American Progress, told the paper Biden was making 'a historic commitment.'
'The executive order will help to lay out a clear path to implementing President Biden's climate and justice commitments,' Kelly said.
'It will get the gears turning in each agency across the federal government. With Biden in the White House and the current leaders we have in Congress, this year represents an unprecedented opportunity to have executive and legislative action.'
The Keystone pipeline in North Dakota, seen in February 2017, has long been contentious
Robert Bullard, a professor at Texas Southern University, said Wednesday's moves sent a strong signal.
'When you have the most powerful legal department in the country saying that environmental justice is a basic right, I think that is a signal being sent across the country to say that this is real at the highest level,' he said.
The new administration is working to bring skeptical Americans on side.
Gina McCarthy, climate coordinator, this week assured local officials from across the country that the administration would work to convince average Americans they will benefit from a transition to clean energy.
'People have been in pain long enough. We are not going to ask for sacrifice,' she said. 'And if we fail to win the heart of middle America, we will lose.'
Port Arthur, Texas is the end of the line for oil that would travel through the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline
The oil and gas industry already begun attacking Biden's plans, including his decisions - made on his first day in office - to rescind the controversial Keystone pipeline.
'The first few days are giving us an indication of what the next four years could look like, and that's elicited some real concern, within the industry and broadly, outside the industry,' said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute.
'We're going to communicate how impactful such a policy would be, to both the administration and on Capitol Hill.'
The top three House Republicans, joined by 17 others, sent a letter to Biden on Tuesday warning him against suspending federal oil and gas auctions.
Taking such a step 'would be as extreme as it is radical, and it would only further divide the country. It would put Americans with good-paying jobs in the energy industry out of work. And, it would seem to conflict directly with federal law.'
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