Donoghoe, M. (2023, June 1). US can’t achieve environmental justice through one size fits all policy. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-us-cant-achieve-environmental-justice-through-one-size-fits-all-climate-policy/
The source talks about how the US governments efforts for environmental pollution reduction in the past haven’t always been the most equitable, with lower income communities having rates of 10-15% higher pollution than other communities. It also talks about how people with lower incomes are more likely to live by areas with more pollution and higher risks of environmental hazard. It states how the US government needs to be more equitable instead of equal because not all commmunities need the same things. Because states and local governments could make these efforts more equitable, it is important to have these smaller governments actually focus on this and not brush it off.
This source was nice because it talked more about how the laws being passed this year still have some downsides, which is not really mentioned in any of the other articles, so it’s nice to have a differing opinion.
I find that really interesting because I imagine the upper-income community to be the most carbon-heavy in usage from heavy energy uses in home and transportation. The lower-income communities are still far more likely to use public transportation, carpool, and use less home energy, yet these communities suffer the most. We see it all the time where these communities are placed near hazardous conditions including pollution from freeways or other industrial zones (like the oil refinery that got investigated by the EPA on hazardous pollutants being released).