Dem Rep. McEachin: Racial and Environmental Justice 'Intertwined'

Donald McEachin (D-VA) stated that Americans recognize more has to be done to deal with “two critical and intertwined issues in our nation: the unfinished work of racial justice and the need for environmental justice to protect our communities.”.

Americans today are recognizing we must do more to address two critical and intertwined issues in our nation: the unfinished work of racial justice and the need for environmental justice to protect our communities.

To begin to address this reality, I worked alongside Representative Raúl Grijalva, Chair of the Natural Resources Committee and with environmental justice communities across the country to introduce the Environmental Justice for All Act, legislation crafted by the people, for the people to give them a voice and a means to fight back against the pollution that threatens their children and their families.

We make clear that the concerns of communities most affected by pollution and health disparities must be centered in our policymaking and ensure that environmental justice is our future.

And we make clear to the polluters that are poisoning the air and waterways in environmental justice communities that enough is enough.

Together, we will work to protect our environmental laws, to research and address the cumulative impacts of pollution on overburdened communities and to prioritize frontline communities in new federal spending to deploy clean energy and infrastructure.

And together, we can ensure a better, brighter, more sustainable future for Americans across our country, while delivering justice to communities that have long been denied.”