Our Concerns on Tax Credits for "Clean Hydrogen"
The Tishman Environment and Design Center, along with the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, the Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy, and the Center for the Urban Environment of the John S. Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research at Kean University, voice concerns about the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to provide tax credits for hydrogen production under Section 45(v) of the Internal Revenue Code.
The Proposed 45(v) rule, under which billions of dollars would be provided for “clean hydrogen,” fails to address or even contemplate critical environmental justice issues. Our organizations urge the Department of Treasury to maintain the strictest guidelines possible to prevent further risks to environmental justice communities and public health.
U.S. MSW Incinerators: An Industry in Decline
The vast majority (85%) of municipal solid waste incinerators in the US are located in Environmental Justice Communities. 4.5 million people live within a three-mile radius of an incinerator. Most of the MSW incinerators in operation today were built in the 1980s yet the average life expectancy is 30 years. These aging facilities are dangerous to human health and the planet, releasing health harming air pollutants, such as particulate matter, dioxins, lead and mercury, as well as carbon dioxide, negatively contributing to climate change. Environmental Justice Communities with incinerators in their neighborhoods have spent decades working to close these aging facilities down. As states around the country expand environmental and climate policies to ensure more equitable outcomes, it is imperative that closure of incinerators become a central policy to advance.
With the guidance and direction of our partner GAIA, the Tishman Center has developed a comprehensive body of work dedicated to an analysis of incinerators and their negative impacts on environmental justice communities and the health of our planet.
Defining Environmental Justice Communities for Policy
Last updated April 2021
As the associated problems of environmental racism, and cumulative impacts are increasingly understood and taken up by policy makers, there is a growing need to codify the terms implied by such policies. Definitions are important for policymaking because they help clarify problems and interventions. One of the critical components of an effective Environmental Justice (EJ) policy is the definition of an EJ community - the people and places that are the subject of EJ policies. A number of states, municipalities and federal policies have developed definitions and tools to identify EJ communities using socio-demographic, public health, environmental and other indices.
The EJ Communities Definition chart summarizes state and municipal definitions of environmental justice communities codified in legislation or promulgated in agency policies. This search does not represent an exhaustive list of all possible definitions in use today or previously proposed. It is meant to serve as a tool for policymakers and EJ activists. Please see the summary here.