Us Fair Share: Local to global connections
Cancer alley, Louisiana
Cancer Alley is an 85-mile stretch in Louisiana from New Orleans to Baton Rouge that is known for its high cancer rates, with residents at 95% greater risk of developing cancer than the average American. The area contains over 200 industrial facilities such as oil refineries, plastic plants, chemical plants, and more, all of which pollute the air with hazardous and carcinogenic toxins like ethylene oxide and lead. Cancer Alley is also predominantly inhabited by poor Black communities thanks to decades of environmental racism.
Rise St. James is “a faith-based grassroots organization that is fighting for environmental justice as it works to defeat the proliferation of petrochemical industries in St. James Parish, Louisiana” that successfully suspended a Formosa Plastics petrochemical plant’s permit, and is now asking Biden to revoke the permits entirely. Biden also has the power to write a Fair Share NDC, or national plan for the future of climate pledges in the United States. The Fair Share NDC calls for stopping the expansion of plastics, petro-chemicals, and agro-chemicals, and other products to which fossil fuels are being diverted.
35 miles away in St Rose, local residents are now combating false solutions like carbon injection and storage and ammonia hydrogen plants, which leak toxic methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, among other air pollutants in area that already has a higher risk of respiratory disease from pollution exposure than 96% of other Louisiana residents. The Fair Share NDC emphasizes that dangerous distractions like Carbon Dioxide Removal technologies and ammonia-based hydrogen will not be permitted in a carbon reduction requirement. White house implementation of a Fair Share NDC and a fossil fuel phaseout would hugely benefit the residents of Cancer Alley, communities that have already suffered so much and fought so hard.
Taxing Oil Refineries and Centering Fossil Fuel Workers in California
In May 2024, Sandy Saeteurn, resident of Richmond, California and Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) member, spoke at a public comment session in favor of the Richmond Refinery Tax Act, accusing Chevron of “continuing to pollute our air, our environment, our health.” In the end, Chevron and the City of Richmond reached a settlement of more than $500 million over 10 years to drop the Tax Act ballot measure, which is a policy that is gaining steam throughout California.
The US Fair Share NDC calls on the White House to implement such a climate damages tax proposal levied on fossil fuels, where 80% of the money raised would go to the Loss & Damage fund and 20% would go to those facing climate harms within the Global North. Such gradually rising environmental impact fees and taxes can also incentivize renewable energy distribution and disincentivize polluting industries.
The Richmond campaign was successful in “[requiring] that their polluters do the right thing, either by measure or by negotiation,” but was especially notable in how it was won through a coalition of environmental and labor organizations. APEN united its base of Asian American immigrants with oil workers, direct employees of Chevron, by demonstrating solidarity with unions beyond the Tax Act, joining picket lines at the USW Local 5’s ten week strike in 2022. Local 5 vice president B. K. White was fired for his strike activity, but he is now working on the just transition within the Mayors’ office.
Elsewhere in the state, union coalition California Labor for Climate Jobs, won two funds for displaced fossil fuel workers for a total of $60 million. In a US Fair Share NDC, the White House can model a just transition off these efforts. An equitable phase-out fossil fuel production by 2031 centers communities reliant on the fossil fuel industry by engaging workers to decommission fossil fuel infrastructure and build renewable energy infrastructure.
Mangrove resilience in Florida
Mangroves are critical in defending communities from tropical storms– they absorb wave energy, reduce wave height by up to 66 percent, and heal themselves after damage. The Nature Conservancy estimates that Florida mangroves prevented an estimated $1.5 billion in flood damage during Hurricane Irma in 2017, and prevented about $65 billion in property damage worldwide. Mangrove forests also absorb four times as much carbon as most other tropical forests, and may store 6.4 billion tons of carbon in the soil under their roots right now.
Unfortunately, mangroves are disappearing, with 50% of the world’s mangroves lost over the past 50 years and a continuing rate of 1% lost every year to coastal development, pollution, and rising sea temperatures. The Fair Share NDC calls for the restoration of such coastal and marine habitats that boost coastal resilience to climate-induced disasters and support sustainable coastal industries and other economic opportunities that are also aligned with local community priorities–mangroves support a robust, diverse fishing industry. The Fair Share NDC also promotes mangrove-protecting policy such as expanding Marine Protected Areas and adopting the High Seas Treaty to protect at least 30% of marine areas within and outside of the US’ jurisdiction.
