Republicans who’ve spent years vehemently opposing progressive environmental justice policies are in an awkward position after the Feb. 3 train derailment in Palestine, Ohio, and its release of toxic chemicals into the community.
Conservatives have enjoyed denouncing environmental proposals, such as the Green New Deal, that have highlighted the need to repair and assist communities damaged by energy and climate disasters. This comes as part of the GOP’s so-called anti-woke agenda.
But theoretically, beneficiaries of the environmental justice agenda include places like Palestine, which has a median household income that falls well below the national median. Republicans are trying to capitalize on the issue by baselessly trying to criticize Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, but they might be better served looking in a mirror.
To this day, many Republicans have sworn against the Biden administration’s policies around environmental justice — policies that could ultimately be vital to Ohio residents and others affected by environmental catastrophes.
(Check out Joy Reid’s excellent primer on the history of environmental justice measures at the start of this video.)
Environmental justice activists on the ground in Ohio know about this right-wing aversion to the president’s policies and are urging Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to declare a federal emergency in order to secure FEMA aid from the Biden administration. (Note: The Federal Emergency Management Agency plays a large investigatory role in the U.S. government’s environmental justice initiatives.)
This request seems to put these activists at odds with the Republican Party, broadly speaking. Just last week, Republicans on the House Budget Committee released a list of budget cuts they would support in an agreement with Democrats to raise the nation’s debt limit. The proposal called the $60 billion allocated for environmental justice in the Inflation Reduction Act “wasteful” and said the…
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