It's past time Washington started focusing more on American manufacturing and less on the particular horse squeeze called "environmental justice." Now, here's where I insert my standard disclaimer: Yes, I care about the environment a great deal. I live out in it, after all. We all want clean air, clean water, and beautiful landscapes. We want our cities to have breathable air and clean water. We want our kids and grandkids to have a clean planet to live in.
The thing is, that battle has largely been won. Now, instead of cleaning up rivers that have actually caught fire, or cleaning up urban air you can cut with a knife, the environmental lobby wants to pour taxpayer money into things like bike paths, and they call this "environmental justice." Here's the thing: People don't need electric vehicle (EV) chargers and bike paths so much as they need a robust economy, jobs, and that means manufacturing.
Shortly after President Trump resumed office, he slammed the door on a lot of Green New Deal horse squeeze, and that's a good thing. But the environmental lobby and the left (but I repeat myself) still want "environmental justice." DC Journal's Donna Jackson has some thoughts on that.
President Trump’s recently proposed budget continues to slash spending for the federal government’s environmental justice programs. Eliminating such wasteful spending would be good news for taxpayers — and even better news for the low-income and minority communities that are the alleged beneficiaries of the environmental justice agenda.
There is out of touch, there is laughably out of touch, and then there is environmental justice. Communities struggling with crime, drugs, failing schools, few job opportunities and broken families are getting government-funded solar panels, bike paths and electric vehicle charging stations — not to mention an invading army of bureaucrats and others foisting their green wish list on people who never asked for any of it.
The fact that environmental fads are less popular in poor and minority communities is not an injustice that needs to be rectified with multibillion-dollar federal programs. If anything, it is a perfectly rational response from those who face real problems in their daily lives and can’t be bothered with fashionable causes.
There's a reason for this: The Democrat Party's voting base has been shedding blue-collar, working-class voters since the Reagan presidency. Their base is now, increasingly, the nutbar left, urban elites whose wealth shields them from the consequences of bad economic policies, and the dependency class, who care nothing about jobs or government spending on bike paths and EV chargers so long as their EBT cards get recharged every month.
And the far left doesn't want manufacturing. It's questionable whether they really even want jobs. People with jobs, independent people, people who are invested in their community, people who own property, well, those people have the nasty tendency to start to think for themselves. The left doesn't want that. So they oppose manufacturing and industry, and couch their opposition in terms of "environmental justice." People in general, though, seem to be getting hip to the scam. American manufacturing is coming back, and that, not handouts, is the best way to address poverty.
Here's the onion:
Environmental justice bureaucrats and lawyers treat manufacturing facilities as public enemy No. 1. Any company considering locating anywhere near any community of color would likely face a federally financed legal onslaught predicated on hype about pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
This is where the environmental justice agenda has it backward. Fearmongering about industrial pollution disproportionately harming these communities is built on weak evidence, to put it mildly. In truth, any manufacturing facility must comply with the most stringent air and water pollution requirements anywhere in the world, and such emissions have declined dramatically over the last several decades. The real problem is poverty, not pollution, and the solution is good-paying jobs — the jobs often blocked by the environmental justice bureaucracy.
Feature, not bug.
Read More: John Podesta, 'Expert Witness' on Spending Billions to Destroy American Energy
It's Earth Day - Let's Review the Left's Insane Climate Predictions and Hypocrisies
The American left seems to try to justify all manner of horse squeeze by sticking the word "justice" on the end of it. Climate justice, environmental justice, economic justice, probably even dietary justice; you name it. And the environmental battle, as I've said and written for years, has already been won. There are still some bits and pieces to clean up, but anyone who was around in the '60s and '70s can tell you that the environment, here in these United States, is vastly cleaner than it was in 1970. There is a fundamental law of the universe in play here; that law is known as Clark's Law of Social Issues Degradation, which states: Every social movement will continue until it reaches absurdity.
The environmental justice movement has reached this absurdity. They are favoring bike paths over jobs; EV chargers over cops, and ultimately, 15-minute rabbit-warren cities over liberty and property. We may very well wonder why, but remember, this isn't about the environment, it's not about poverty, it's not about people in urban neighborhoods who need jobs. It's about control. It's always been about control; it will always be about control. When you remember that, all the rest of it makes sense.
