Exclusion of race in federal climate justice screening tool could worsen disparities, analysis says

A screening tool the federal government is using to decide which neighborhoods have a disproportionate amount of pollution and risk of damage from climate change could worsen air pollution exposure disparities along racial lines, according to a new analysis. When it was released, officials with the Council on Environmental Quality said race was excluded from the tool to make sure that it could survive legal challenges, but said they’d still be able to reflect the reality on the ground that communities of color often experience disproportionate pollution burdens and climate risk. “The finding that air pollution exposure disparities may not improve and may even worsen if the CEJST is used to distribute Justice40 funds is alarming but not surprising,” said David Pellow, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who wasn’t part of the analysis, in an email. “When you when you don’t include race in the CJEST and use income or poverty as a proxy for disadvantage,” Bullard said, “you will leave out populations that are impacted by environmental inequality.” A spokesperson from the White House Council on Environmental Quality said the study does not reflect how Justice40 is being implemented and said the tool will be used to ensure that historic investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act reach communities most in need.