By: Elizabeth Bechard, Senior Policy Analyst, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: October 5, 2023
About: WHEJAC's Current Initiatives
To: White House Environmental Justice Advisory Committee
To the members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Committee,
These comments are being submitted on behalf of Moms Clean Air Force and EcoMadres, our Latino engagement program, in response to WHEJAC’s invitation for public comment on current WHEJAC initiatives. Specifically, our comments relate to the Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool and the EJ Scorecard.
Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool
We appreciate the broad functionality of this tool. We recommend adding the following indicators:
- Information about pregnancy and birth outcomes: Research indicates that climate change increasingly threatens pregnancy birth outcomes, with extreme heat and air pollution contributing to premature birth, low birth weight, and even stillbirth. Adverse birth outcomes are particularly prevalent in communities of color, with Black and Latina mothers often most impacted. Information about birth outcomes within a census tract could help identify communities where additional resources are needed to support prenatal and perinatal wellness for pregnant people and their babies.
- Language spoken at home: Latino and immigrant communities are often on the front lines of the climate crisis. When extreme weather hits, it is critical that important emergency information be accessible in the languages that individuals and families most easily understand. Information about languages spoken at home may help public health officials identify communities with particular need for emergency materials and other important forms of climate communication that are available in languages other than English.
- Access to mental health care: In addition to its impact on physical health, climate change increasingly threatens mental health as well, and many communities lack adequate mental health care infrastructure. Having readily-accessible information about communities’ level of access to mental health care (e.g., number of licensed mental health care professionals in a given census tract) may help public health officials identify communities that would particularly benefit from initiatives designed to build mental and emotional resilience, such as funding for community resilience programs, like those described in the Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act.
We offer the following comments about the EJ Scorecard.
The Justice40 initiative is critical to ensuring that federal investments reach the communities most vulnerable to climate change and other environmental threats. Moms Clean Air Force and EcoMadres propose that EPA develop a scorecard related to environmental justice and children’s health that ensures that important federal investments are directed to the children who need it most. This could be folded into the existing EJ Scorecard or into a separate initiative, and could include indicators like the amount of funding directed to initiatives that support the specific needs of children from overburdened and marginalized communities.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on these WHEJAC initiatives. For questions regarding these comments, please contact Elizabeth Bechard, Senior Policy Analyst, at [email protected].
Respectfully,
Elizabeth Bechard on behalf of Moms Clean Air Force and EcoMadres