Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia, has a long record of fighting for environmental justice in the Richmond area and beyond. The Democratic Congresswoman spoke with the Washington Informer about what the environmental policy landscape looked like at this year’s Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference.
ALC 2023 included seven events labeled “Energy, Infrastructure, and Environment,” but McClellan said that climate change and environmental injustice came up in conversations across all kinds of topics throughout the conference. Here’s what she had to say:
WI: What kind of conversations are happening about environmental policy, and environmental justice, at the ALC this year? What types of issues are you seeing take the spotlight in terms of focus and priority?
JM: I think it’s safe to say environmental justice issues have been woven into a larger conversation about overall health. So for example, yesterday [on Sep. 21], I did a panel talking broadly about the unique health challenges that face the Black community. And we weaved into that discussion the connection between air pollution and the fact that so many energy plants or plans for pipelines or chemical plants and pollutants are impacting Black communities, and how that relates to overall health. So while it wasn’t specifically just about environmental justice, it was more connecting the dots holistically, that all of these are related.
Over the years, we’ve focused a lot on the issue, but we’re starting to try to connect holistically: it’s not just about the environment, it’s the environment’s impact on the health of these communities. And … in many of these communities, that’s been the only economic development opportunity that most localities have gone after, and how do we help them diversify what they’re doing so they’re not placing all of these pollutants in their neighborhoods.
WI: Do you feel like environmental justice is getting enough focus, or is being overlooked? What changes have you seen in this policy space over the years?
JM: I don’t think it’s been overlooked. You know, for example, we filed the Don McEachin Environmental Justice Act. You know, he and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), were particularly focused on this issue. It’s been a little harder now that we are in the minority to get any traction on it, so that’s the downside. But one of my frustrations with government has always been how we silo issues. And I think we are starting to make progress on integrating conversations around environmental justice into the broader conversation of the overall well-being of the Black community.
WI: Why does it matter for the Congressional Black Caucus to be leading in the environmental space?
JM: I mean, the whole point of the environmental justice movement is to raise awareness about, and do something about, the fact that policy decisions particularly around energy policy, transportation [and] economic development have concentrated pollutants in Black neighborhoods, in some cases destroying Black neighborhoods.
For example, in my district, I represent Jackson Ward, which had a highway built directly through the middle of it. In these same neighborhoods, they have fewer tree canopies, and all of that, holistically, has impacted the lifespan, the maternal health and [the] overall health of Black community. So if we don’t talk about it, who will?
And the Black Caucus is the conscience of the Congress to say, ‘we need to address, we need to redress, the disproportionate impact that so many policy decisions have had on the Black community,’ and environmental justice is a key to that.
