WHYY reports that legislators in New Jersey have introduced a bill that requires applicants for environmental permits to include an environmental justice impact statement on the effects their project would have on nearby overburdened communities. The bill allows the state environmental regulatory agency to reject applications that cause harm to overburdened communities. This legislation could serve as a model for other states.
The bill defines overburdened as any U.S. Census block where at least half of households are low-income and at least 40% are Black, Latino, members of a state-recognized tribal community or have limited English proficiency
This bill acknowledges that our country has practiced environmental racism by locating projects that create pollution near communities of color and lower wealth communities, and seeks to correct that in the future.
State Sen. Troy Singleton who introduced the bill says: “… right now we find that it is the confluence of a lot of factors that have placed this issue of environmental justice more at the forefront than perhaps it has been in the past.”
Read the WHYY story here.
