Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions (2024) / Chapter Skim
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. While the appropriations and authorizations of the IIJA do not specifically ad vance energy justice, the intentional focus on investing in communities and ensuring effective implementation indirectly advance energy justice by aligning with the distributional equity principle.
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. To support the implementation of specific provisions, EO 14082 -- Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 -- was signed to prioritize the implementation of IRA provisions that make progress toward reducing national GHG emissions and achieve a carbon free electricity sector by 2035; advance environmental and climate justice; increase and improve equitable access to high-quality job opportunities; reduce energy costs while increasing energy security; and coordinate with non-federal and private-sector stake holders to build sustainable and resilient communities (EO 14082 2022)
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Although there exists some overlap between the communities identified by various screening tools, it would be beneficial to the implementation and evaluation of out comes from federal transition actions if there were core identifiers, used by all federal agencies as a foundation on which they can build for a program-specific definition of disadvantaged community. Finding 2-3: The ability to define and identify disadvantaged communities is essential to measure the direct impacts of federal policies and programs on disadvantaged communities.
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Recommendation 2-2: Develop a Federal Baseline Set of Metrics for Disadvan taged Communities for Program Design and Evaluation. To enable consistent program design and evaluation, the White House Council on Environmental Quality should develop a standardized set of core metrics for programs serv ing disadvantaged communities to be used in all federal activities, to the extent feasible under statutes governing each agency.
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However, some provisions, such as those for offshore drill ing and carbon capture and storage, do not align with environmental justice goals, including undermining climate mitigation goals and creating or continuing pollution that threatens public health and quality of life for disadvantaged communities. Recommendation 2-3: Implement Federal Legislation for Equitable Outcomes.
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To support all decarbonization action, human and fiscal capital must be available. In its first report, the committee recommended that Congress support actions to overcome barriers created by a lack of capacity-building including funding research to support the regional coordination of the transition; establishing equitable energy transition offices in each state; and funding community block grants for local decarbonization planning (NASEM 2021)
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Drawing lessons and best practices from existing programs and adapting them to different state and regional contexts could prove beneficial for the nation's energy transition. For example, California's Transformative Climate Communities Program (TCC)
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TABLE 2-3-1 Transform Fresno Funded Projects and Anticipated Outputs, Outcomes, and Impacts Transformative Climate Communities Program Anticipated Outcomes and (TCC) Funded Projects Anticipated Outputs Impacts • Active Transportation • 57 new housing units • 20,816 metric tons of avoided • Affordable Housing • 42 new battery-electric vehicles for a GHG emissionsa and Sustainable car-sharing network • 14,832,662 miles of averted Communities • 1,458 new street trees travel in passenger miles • Food Waste Prevention • 784 kW of solar power on affordable • $4,826,413 in energy cost and Rescue multi-family and single-family savings for solar PV and street • Low Carbon homes tree beneficiaries Transportation • 200 TCC area individuals trained for • 337 direct jobs, 112 indirect • Rooftop Solar and residential solar installation projects jobs, and 190 induced jobs Energy Efficiency supported by TCC funding • Urban and Community Forestry • Urban Greening a Measured in CO2e.
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. The availability of evaluation results supports efforts to improve the design and implementation of current and future TCC supported projects (Luskin Center for Innovation 2020)
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. Additionally, DOE's Clean Energy to Communities (C2C)
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They are essential to the energy transition because they can address areas where there is no market solution and focus on promoting equity and energy justice (Lewis 2022)
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In addition to providing support for community capacity building, a critical role for all non-federal actors will be to identify and communicate the areas of need during the energy transition. For example, these actors can contribute to strategizing about where federal-level interagency coordination is needed the most with the acknowl edgement that some communities have already begun incorporating procedural justice into their energy transition or have already developed initiatives that have seen equitable outcomes for the transition to clean energy.
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"to ensure coordination and funding in the areas of the areas of job losses, critical location infrastructure, and equitable access to economic opportunities and wealth creation" (NASEM 2021, p.
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Further more, the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Committee should review and advise these guidelines to ensure that they adhere to an equity framework. Evaluation of the Just Energy Transition The data collection of relevant metrics, evaluation of outcomes and progress, and communication of results are critical components of any effective policy action, especially when a new policy is first implemented.
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There is a need to assess if energy transition actions are resulting in equitable and just outcomes for the nation, especially for disadvantaged communities. All principles of energy justice need to be operationalized in evaluation with a twofold goal of (1)
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transition, the collection of data on the equity impacts of investments and the equity outcomes of programs is still needed because there are multiple screening tools to locate disadvantaged com munities for targeted energy equity programs. Box 2-4 describes CEQ's Climate and Economic Justice Screening, which identifies disadvantaged communities and will be used for the implementation of Justice40 covered programs, as an example of the iterative process of identifying target population identification metrics.
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A C C E L E R AT I N G D E C A R B O N I Z AT I O N I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S BOX 2-4 CEQ'S CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE SCREENING TOOL To help federal agencies identify disadvantaged communities, EO 14008 directed the CEQ to create a Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST)
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. How ever, an addendum to the 2021 memo encouraged federal agencies to use CEJST Version 1.0 to identify disadvantaged communities for Justice40 covered programs and other federal programs where resources are directed to disadvantaged communities (Young et al.
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19 In July 2023, DOE introduced its new Office of Energy Justice Policy and Analysis (OEJPA) , which will collaborate with members of minority and disadvantaged communities to "achieve equity-centered Federal energy policy, research and development, and demonstration and deployment activities" (DOE n.d.)
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. Examples of energy transition analyses from local, state, and global organizations include • Initiative for Energy Justice's Energy Justice Scorecard, which assesses existing or proposed energy policy based on the tenets of energy justice (see Baker et al.
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Additionally, energy justice principles need to be incorporated into policymaking to achieve top-down integra tion and implementation. Laying these foundations now through baseline definitions, equitable implementation, and capacity building is critical to ensuring a just energy transition.
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Objective(s) Categories Short-Form Implementing Addressed by Addressed by Addressed by Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation 2-1: Codify the Congress • Electricity • Equity Rigorous and Justice40 Initiative • Buildings • Health Transparent • Land use • Employment Analysis and • Transportation Reporting • Industry Ensuring Equity, • Finance Justice, Health, • Fossil fuels and Fairness of Impacts 2-2: Develop a Council on • Electricity • Equity Rigorous and Federal Baseline Environmental • Buildings Transparent Set of Metrics for Quality • Land use Analysis and Disadvantaged • Transportation Reporting Communities for • Industry Ensuring Equity, Program Design • Finance Justice, Health, and Evaluation • Fossil fuels and Fairness of • Non-federal Impacts actors 2-3: Implement Federal policy • Electricity • Public Rigorous and Federal Legislation makers • Buildings engagement Transparent for Equitable • Land use • GHG reductions Analysis and Outcomes • Transportation • Equity Reporting • Industry Ensuring Equity, • Finance Justice, Health, • Fossil fuels and Fairness of • Non-federal Impacts actors Ensuring Procedural Equity in Planning and Siting New Infrastructure and Programs aThe text in this table was changed during editorial review to improve clarity and alignment with information in other sections of the report.
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Objective(s) Categories Short-Form Implementing Addressed by Addressed by Addressed by Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation 2-4: Build Multi- Congress, National • Non-federal • GHG reductions Ensuring Level Capacity Transition actors • Equity Procedural Equity to Support Corporation, • Health in Planning Community-Led Environmental • Employment and Siting New Transitions Protection Agency, • Public Infrastructure and Department of engagement Programs Energy, state Ensuring Equity, legislatures Justice, Health, and Fairness of Impacts Building the Needed Workforce and Capacity 2-5: Develop Federal • Electricity • Equity Ensuring Equitable Interagency • Buildings • Public Procedural Equity Technical Thriving • Land use engagement in Planning Assistance Communities • Transportation and Siting New Guidelines Network, • Industry Infrastructure and White House • Finance Programs Environmental • Fossil fuels Ensuring Equity, Justice Advisory • Non-federal Justice, Health, Committee actors and Fairness of (WHEJAC)
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2022. "Opening Remarks." Presented at Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions: Implementing a Just and Equitable Energy Transition -- Philanthropic Perspectives.
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2020. "The Justice and Equity Implications of the Clean Energy Transition." Nature Energy 5(8)
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2022. "Opening Remarks." Presented at Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions: Implementing a Just and Equitable Energy Transition -- Philanthropic Perspectives.
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2022. "Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022." Federal Register 87:56861–56864.
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2017. "The Concept of Energy Justice Across the Disciplines." Energy Policy 105:658–667.
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2022. "Panel Discussion." Presented at Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Pol icy, and Societal Dimensions: Implementing a Just and Equitable Energy Transition -- Nonprofit Perspectives.
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2020. "Transform Fresno: A Baseline and Progress Report on Early Implementation of the Transformative Climate Communities Program Grant." Los Angeles, CA: University of California, Los Angeles, Luskin Center for Innovation.
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2018. The High Cost of Energy in Rural America: Household Energy Burdens and Opportuni ties for Energy Efficiency.
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2022. "Equitable Deep Decarbonization: A Framework to Facilitate Energy Justice-Based Multidisciplinary Modeling." Energy Research and Social Science 92:102808.
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2022. "We Act for Environmental Justice Responds to Inflation Reduction Act of 2022." https://www.weact.org/2022/07/we-act-for-environmental-justice-responds-to-inflation-reduction-act-of-2022.
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economy is prevent ing premature deaths related to fossil fuel production and combustion. It is crucial to minimize human health risks, including health inequities during the energy transition.
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This section provides background on current impacts of energy access and air quality on health. This section will also provide a brief background about the health impacts of climate change itself, but the focus of this chapter will be the health impacts from air pollution of fossil fuel combustion.
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, and black carbon, a component of fine particulate matter emitted from sources that burn fossil fuel. Clarifying the differ ences between traditional air pollutants and climate pollutants is also important for public perception and support of health-based decarbonization policies (Dryden et al.
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is a gas released upon burning of fossil fuels, particularly from coal-fired power plants, which emit 66 percent of U.S. SO2 emissions (EPA 2023a)
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h Estimate includes mortality data for populations older than 14 years old. Despite the varying estimates of attributable premature deaths attributable to PM2.5, decreasing fossil fuel combustion is a key target for reducing PM emissions because it can be more easily controlled than natural sources.
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These health impacts do not include additional damages from other co-emitted criteria air pollutants. While there is a range of estimates owing to differing methodologies, the evidence indicates that a reduction in GHG emissions could have significant positive health outcomes from reduction in co-emitted air pollutants (Gallagher and Holloway 2022)
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Furthermore, the electrification of home appliances can improve indoor air quality and reduce the health risks associated with indoor air pollution. Ambient Air Quality and Facility Siting Since 1982, the environmental justice movement in the United States has identified disproportionate siting of hazardous facilities, particularly sites for energy produc tion and petrochemical facilities, near historically disadvantaged populations (Agye man et al.
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. The impact and occurrence of heat islands can be reduced through the strategic placement of reflective surfaces and green space.
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"Built Environment Co-Benefits" below for more information about how the effects of redlining and the current energy system can be mitigated with the transition to a net zero energy system. Decarbonization policies can reduce current disparities, with the most effective poli cies acknowledging these disparities and targeting emission sources causing the most harm (Tessum et al.
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2018) , if fossil fuels continue to be used to generate electricity.
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