Rev. Dr. Steven C. Bland, Jr. is the Senior Pastor at Detroit’s Liberty Temple Baptist Church and the President of the Michigan Progressive Baptist State Convention.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a glaring and harsh spotlight on the irrefutable fact that unhealthy air and water can become devastating disasters for communities of color. We have always known that clean air and water is necessary for human health. But the COVID-19 pandemic revealed, yet again, the harsh and tragic reality of what decades of pollution does to communities of color. While as a nation we are rightfully focused on addressing the immediate health needs of infected individuals, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the health and well-being of Black and Brown folks must be addressed through pollution reduction.
Under the current deregulatory agenda, water protections are drying up, coal is worth more than human life, and new tailpipe emissions standards may actually cause more deaths. Even the nation’s bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), is under siege. These rollbacks will increase human exposure to pollution that is linked to higher coronavirus death rates. As a pastor concerned with both protecting human life and God’s creation, this is untenable.
Cumulative impacts—a phrase to mean systematic and ongoing poisoning of neighborhoods and communities—need to be addressed if we are ever to truly recover from this pandemic. These cumulative impacts cannot be addressed by rolling back regulations in the name of economic progress. Yet, that is exactly what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing -- including the recent executive order to use a national emergency declaration to waive NEPA’s crucial environmental protections.
The rollback of NEPA is of particular concern since it is credited with protecting communities from the devastating impacts of an unwanted and unneeded freeway expansion in the northeastern part of the state and saving Michigan taxpayers $1.5 billion. Yet, even given its effectiveness in minimizing impacts to the environment and to communities during infrastructure development, the EPA is currently planning to revise and undermine this law. Despite public outcry, the EPA is close to finalizing changes to the entire NEPA process that favor polluting industries.
In a bid to escape the burden of environmental stewardship, the EPA proposed rollbacks aim to change the NEPA review process and pave the way for further degradation of vulnerable communities. We know that these communities—low-wealth neighborhoods and communities of color—often bear the brunt of problems caused by poorly planned infrastructure projects. By rolling back NEPA, the EPA is planning to eliminate one of few environmental protections that these communities have. The changes to NEPA threatens the health of our communities and puts our air and water at risk
My Christian faith calls on me to care for the earth and most importantly to care for my neighbor. This healthy future that my faith envisions and my community deserves demands more than rollbacks designed to pave the way for unsustainable and irresponsible development. Protecting the environment through regulations like NEPA aligns with a vision of vibrant, healthy communities. NEPA has helped us escape some of the more environmentally tragic infrastructure missteps for more than half a century, and it should be regarded as helping us build a pathway to a healthier future.
The impacts of COVID-19 may have uncovered for many the environmental injustice lived daily by communities of color, but it also unearthed a solidarity among us all to care for our neighbor in their time of need. We know more acutely now that pollution left unchecked will severely undermine our ability to respond to pandemics. We must, therefore, ensure that protections such as NEPA that protect human health remain intact, because we depend upon these safeguards to build vibrant and just communities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a glaring and harsh spotlight on the irrefutable fact that unhealthy air and water can become devastating disasters for communities of color. We have always known that clean air and water is necessary for human health. But the COVID-19 pandemic revealed, yet again, the harsh and tragic reality of what decades of pollution does to communities of color. While as a nation we are rightfully focused on addressing the immediate health needs of infected individuals, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the health and well-being of Black and Brown folks must be addressed through pollution reduction.
Under the current deregulatory agenda, water protections are drying up, coal is worth more than human life, and new tailpipe emissions standards may actually cause more deaths. Even the nation’s bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), is under siege. These rollbacks will increase human exposure to pollution that is linked to higher coronavirus death rates. As a pastor concerned with both protecting human life and God’s creation, this is untenable.
Cumulative impacts—a phrase to mean systematic and ongoing poisoning of neighborhoods and communities—need to be addressed if we are ever to truly recover from this pandemic. These cumulative impacts cannot be addressed by rolling back regulations in the name of economic progress. Yet, that is exactly what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing -- including the recent executive order to use a national emergency declaration to waive NEPA’s crucial environmental protections.
The rollback of NEPA is of particular concern since it is credited with protecting communities from the devastating impacts of an unwanted and unneeded freeway expansion in the northeastern part of the state and saving Michigan taxpayers $1.5 billion. Yet, even given its effectiveness in minimizing impacts to the environment and to communities during infrastructure development, the EPA is currently planning to revise and undermine this law. Despite public outcry, the EPA is close to finalizing changes to the entire NEPA process that favor polluting industries.
In a bid to escape the burden of environmental stewardship, the EPA proposed rollbacks aim to change the NEPA review process and pave the way for further degradation of vulnerable communities. We know that these communities—low-wealth neighborhoods and communities of color—often bear the brunt of problems caused by poorly planned infrastructure projects. By rolling back NEPA, the EPA is planning to eliminate one of few environmental protections that these communities have. The changes to NEPA threatens the health of our communities and puts our air and water at risk
My Christian faith calls on me to care for the earth and most importantly to care for my neighbor. This healthy future that my faith envisions and my community deserves demands more than rollbacks designed to pave the way for unsustainable and irresponsible development. Protecting the environment through regulations like NEPA aligns with a vision of vibrant, healthy communities. NEPA has helped us escape some of the more environmentally tragic infrastructure missteps for more than half a century, and it should be regarded as helping us build a pathway to a healthier future.
The impacts of COVID-19 may have uncovered for many the environmental injustice lived daily by communities of color, but it also unearthed a solidarity among us all to care for our neighbor in their time of need. We know more acutely now that pollution left unchecked will severely undermine our ability to respond to pandemics. We must, therefore, ensure that protections such as NEPA that protect human health remain intact, because we depend upon these safeguards to build vibrant and just communities.