Union jobs, sports fields, and tree cover. What do they have in common? President
Joe Biden
wants to promote them through his new
executive order
on environmental justice.
He is
using
the “environmental justice” rallying cry as a pretext to push a much broader agenda, such as undermining conventional energy sources and overhauling the federal regulatory system to ramp up costly, intrusive regulations.
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Biden apparently thinks that low-income communities are clamoring for such things as trees and ponds. Meanwhile, he is ignoring how his energy policies are directly hurting these communities by making it more difficult for them to meet basic needs.
This starts with policies such as
canceling
the Keystone XL pipeline, which will reduce the supply of oil and natural gas and drive up energy prices.
While many factors go into prices, current regular retail gas prices are almost 50%
higher
than when Biden took office. And the high prices have been persistent. Since June 2021, the average
monthly price
has been above $3 per gallon, with 12 months above $3.50 per gallon, including the month of May. Prior to this recent spike in prices, there had not been a month above $3 per gallon since 2014.
High gas prices impose disproportionate harm on the lowest-income households because, when compared to higher-income households, they spend a
greater share
of their
after-tax income
on meeting basic needs, including purchasing gas. Rural households are also disproportionately harmed, in part due to traveling further distances than urban households. Based on data from a recent Iowa State University study, rural households spent
20% more
than urban households on gasoline and diesel.
Yet for all its rhetoric on environmental justice, the administration isn’t changing course on its climate agenda. And akin to a “let them eat cake” moment, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
touted
expensive electric vehicles as a “solution” to high gas prices.
The Biden administration’s new tailpipe emissions
rule
is a means to reduce the availability of gas-powered vehicles, along with the administration-backed
Inflation Reduction Act
giving costly handouts to promote EVs. These policies might please environmental pressure groups and other special interests, but they won’t help low-income communities.
Americans rely on driving cars to get from point A to point B, as evidenced by the fact that 92% of U.S. households have
access
to at least one vehicle, with most households having access to two or more. So making it more difficult for people to purchase cars will soon affect everyday mobility, from getting to work to going to the doctor. But limiting mobility is exactly what these EV policies would do.
EVs still cost
about $18,000
more than gas-powered vehicles, making them too costly for many people, especially low-income households. Even at a lower price point, there are other
problems with EVs
, such as long charging times and limited range, that make them more suitable as a wealthy person’s second car than a working family’s only car.
It will also likely hurt black commuters in particular who, according to a recent
paper
published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, already face longer average commute times than white commuters. The good news is this time gap is closing in large part due to
increased car usage
by black commuters, but the bad news is these new EV policies threaten to reverse that progress.
Low-income communities have bigger concerns than putting up solar panels and helping out labor unions. They are unlikely to think the administration’s climate agenda is more important than being able to afford turning on the lights and driving their children to school.
Yet the harsh reality is that these communities will carry the heaviest burden from climate change policies. This goes beyond higher gas prices and reduced mobility. Higher energy costs across the economy will drive up prices for a wide range of goods and services, including
housing
.
When it becomes more difficult to purchase homes, people are denied the ability to create multi-generational wealth through homeownership. This is especially problematic now. Not since the
1960s
have housing segregation and homeownership rates been this bad, in large part
due to
environmental
policies
that restrict housing development and drive up housing prices.
Congress needs to push back against these climate policies. Whatever “environmental justice” might mean to the Biden administration, there’s hardly justice when the federal government’s own environmental policies make it more difficult for low-income families and all Americans to access affordable energy while limiting the personal choices available to meet basic needs.
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Daren Bakst is deputy director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, and Donna Jackson is director of membership development for the Project 21 black leadership network.
