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As climate world gets ready to focus its energy on the big, upcoming EJ40 (directing 40% of funds into “EJ” communities) set aside in Biden’s stimulus plan, there are two big questions/issues to focus on for the policy design.
The first (and I think most important) is the unit of analysis for defining an “EJ Community.”
The options are likely going to be census tracts, zip codes, counties, and MSAs. Which one we use is going to determine where and to who that 40% investment set aside flows.
The options are likely going to be census tracts, zip codes, counties, and MSAs. Which one we use is going to determine where and to who that 40% investment set aside flows.
The finer the scale, the more targeted the investment can be in low-income, BIPOC communities. The wider the scale, the more flows to exurban whites.
I know because we worked on an analysis like this for the abandoned 10-20-30 plan that Clyburn and Booker introduced pre-Trump.
I know because we worked on an analysis like this for the abandoned 10-20-30 plan that Clyburn and Booker introduced pre-Trump.
So look for that unit of analysis to be a big point of contention and a very important fight to win—the difference in county vs MSA explains why someone like Paul Ryan *and* Mark Pocan both supported 10-20-30 in principle; their fights were over how to define community.
The other big fight will be over administering the implementation—who on the federal side will coordinate with who on the state/local level, and will their be strings attached or will it function more like a block grant?
The more it functions like a goals driven grant program (eg TIGER in transportation) the more those funds will be targeted towards the aims of EJ40. The more it’s designed as block grant, the more states you’ll see gaming the program to fund projects antithetical to it.
Which is all to say that the success of EJ40 is largely going to depend on the geographical unit used to define "community" and the willingness of Biden/Congress to exercise some control over the implementation/administration of the investments.
