by Colby Kyes
We generally try to keep these posts short, but there’s frankly a lot to unpack with this. So, bear with us if this one goes a little longer!
A few weeks ago, the Biden administration put out a press release detailing part 2 of their Build Back Better plan. The press release details a $2.3 Trillion with a T dollar investment (give or take a few hundred billion dollars) in infrastructure. While this plan is likely to be reduced in size by the time a formal bill is drafted, we took a look at what all is included!
Typically, infrastructure invokes images of bridges, roads, buildings, and sewers. While those are important aspects of infrastructure, there is an argument to be made – and one which the Biden administration appears to lay out – that says infrastructure covers so much more than the built environment around us.
The fact is, we need to begin rethinking what infrastructure really means, and how we can define and invest in it to respond to a changing economy, and most importantly, a rapidly escalating climate crisis that is already leaving vulnerable populations to fend for themselves in the face of catastrophic weather events.
Further, you don’t have to be an economist to know that times are tough. Last year we all witnessed the impacts of millions of Americans becoming jobless as a result of the pandemic. Maybe it happened to you, or someone you know. It certainly happened to me.
But what’s important to realize is that the unemployment crisis last year wasn’t a one-off. The economic hardships facing millions of Americans didn’t start with the pandemic and they won’t end once it’s over. This infrastructure plan addresses that and puts money where its mouth is: $213 billion in affordable housing, $200 billion in modernizing schools – building new schools and updating existing ones, and $100 billion in workforce development.
But why are you, an environmentalist, so concerned about poverty and economics? I’m so happy you asked!
Climate change and poverty are two sides of the same coin. It’s difficult to talk about one without mentioning the other, because the impacts from one influence the other. A 2021 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) notes many of the ways in which this happens, but to summarize, if you are experiencing poverty, your capacity to adapt to climate change is severely constrained relative to someone not experiencing poverty.
“if you are experiencing poverty, your capacity to adapt to climate change is severely constrained relative to someone not experiencing poverty.”
The projected rate of poverty for 2021 in the U.S. is around 13.7%, but if you look at the rates by race rather than on the whole, we see some striking gaps. That rate is 9.6% for White Americans, but it’s double or more for Black Americans and Latinx Americans (18.1% and 21.9%, respectively). This means that 1 in 5 Black and Latinx Americans are not only living in poverty but are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
So what’s the infrastructure plan doing to address that? Well, a lot actually.
A fact sheet from the University of Southern California identifies 4 pathways to reduce what they call the “Climate Gap” (which is a much more succinct term for what I’ve described above):
- Identify Climate Gap neighborhoods that are most at-risk.
- Invest …[in] basic necessities (such as food and water, which are projected to increase in cost due to climate change) and promote community preparedness to cope with and recover from extreme weather events.
- Focus greenhouse gas reduction efforts on strategies that will also reduce toxic pollution in Climate Gap neighborhoods.
- Target job training resources to Climate Gap neighborhoods
While the American Jobs Plan is a bit too broad to really get into that first point (this is a federal level plan after all), the plan certainly touches on all three of the other points.
- Mobilizing $10 billion to create a new Civilian Climate Corps (similar to FDR’s Conservation Corps) which would retrofit lead drinking pipes and update our stormwater infrastructure – a crucial aspect to dealing with increased rainfall and more severe storms as a result of climate change
- Elimination “of Tax Preferences for Fossil Fuels” which would end the practice of obscuring the true cost of fossil fuels through subsidies and loopholes that artificially lower their cost.
- Increased job training programs and education benefits sprinkled throughout the document abound and are too numerous to fit into this post!
If you want to read through the memo yourself (which I recommend, it’s an amazing read) you can find it here!