Voters Support Environmental Justice Two Years After Justice40
By Julia Jeanty, Grace Adcox, and Carla Walker
Two years ago, President Biden signed an executive order creating the Justice40 Initiative as part of a comprehensive environmental justice (EJ) strategy. Justice40 ensures disadvantaged communities will receive 40 percent of the overall benefits of federal investments on climate change, clean energy, and energy efficiency; workforce development; and other related areas. By embedding Justice40 considerations into future climate and energy programs, the Biden Administration has signaled a clear prioritization for not only significantly scaling down greenhouse gas emissions that are destabilizing global climate systems, but also protecting the communities that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Justice40 is an opportunity to revitalize frontline communities that have disproportionately been subject to the burdens of environmental degradation and provide access to basic human necessities like reliable access to clean air, water, and energy to those in need.
Recent polling conducted by Data for Progress in collaboration with the World Resources Institute demonstrates that, although voters have limited knowledge of the initiative, Justice40 enjoys support among the national electorate. In the leadup to Justice40’s second anniversary, one thing is clear: Raising the salience of this initiative is a crucial part of implementation that should not be neglected in order to make sure communities are fully benefiting from Justice40.
Voters Support the Justice40 Initiative Despite Limited Salience
States, municipalities, and Tribal communities will soon begin to receive federal investment for projects stemming from recently passed legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Earlier this month, the Biden Administration announced that the first $100 million of IRA’s Environmental Justice Grants will soon be available for EJ projects throughout the country, with about $40 million allocated for state, local, and community partners; $30 million for community-based nonprofits; $20 million for federal Tribes; and $10 million for U.S. territories and remote Tribes. These grants underscore the largest EJ investment in U.S. history, and Justice40 is an important commitment for ensuring that disadvantaged communities have opportunities to provide meaningful input on climate and clean energy program decisions.
Despite Justice40 considerations being embedded in climate and clean energy legislation, the initiative lacks recognition from the national electorate. Data for Progress polling finds that 85 percent of national voters report knowing “nothing at all” about Justice40, while 14 percent report knowing “a little,” and only 1 percent report knowing “a lot” about the initiative.
When informed about the major components of Justice40 — including the commitment to distribute 40 percent of the overall benefits from designated federal investments to disadvantaged communities — a majority of voters indicate they support the initiative (by a +21-point margin of support). Notably, 82 percent of Democrats support Justice40 after hearing about the initiative, as compared to 55 percent of Independents and 25 percent of Republicans.
Support for Justice40 is especially strong among Black and Latina/o respondents. Nearly three-quarters of Black voters (72 percent) and 68 percent of Latina/o voters support Justice40. These findings suggest broader awareness of the positive impacts that Justice40 benefits will confer to historically disadvantaged communities, many of which are Black and Brown communities.
While the benefits that fall under the purview of Justice40 are not contingent upon public awareness of the initiative, having community buy-in allows for more equitable distribution of — and transparency around — local benefits. The fundamental premise of Justice40 is bolstered by public awareness, which empowers community members through knowledge to shape how Justice40 benefits are distributed locally and, furthermore, advocate for changes and expansion where needed. Further, understanding what progress is being made in other historically disadvantaged communities can serve as an effective model to build upon and achieve benchmarks within peer communities. Thus, increased awareness of Justice40 can help promote more consistent administration of the initiative, especially at the state and local level.
This low level of public salience around Justice40, coupled with a high level of support for the initiative, underscores a notable gap that the administration must address in order to more effectively engage communities as implementation of climate and clean energy projects begins.
While supporters of Justice40 highlight the initiative’s commitment to environmental justice and the opportunity it provides for local community input on program decisions, opponents of the initiative believe it would pave the way for unprecedented presidential and bureaucratic overreach in the states. When informed about these arguments, a plurality of voters still support Justice40, with 48 percent in support and 40 percent opposed to the initiative.
Justice40 Implementation and Accountability
As federal investments from legislation like the IRA begin to roll out, voters are torn over which level of jurisdiction they trust most to handle the impartial, timely, and transparent distribution of Justice40 benefits. While 36 percent of Independents and 35 percent of Republicans indicate they trust local governments most to deliver benefits from these investments to disadvantaged communities, 36 percent of Democrats would trust the federal government most to handle this role.
Outside of partisanship, race and ethnicity also impacts voters’ assessments of which jurisdiction should be trusted most to deliver Justice40 benefits. Although white voters are most likely to trust local governments (34 percent) over the state and federal government, we find the reverse with Black and Latina/o voters, with both groups trusting the federal government most to distribute benefits to disadvantaged communities (37 percent and 32 percent, respectively).
With disparate and sometimes conflicting plans for implementation and enforcement across jurisdictions, voters are also torn across partisanship over whom they would trust most to resolve issues related to a failure to distribute Justice40 benefits to disadvantaged communities. Thirty-nine percent of Democratic voters say they would trust the federal government to resolve these issues, demonstrating broader Democratic trust to overseeJustice40 at the federal level. In contrast, 28 percent of Independent voters trust the local government most to resolve benefit distribution issues related to Justice40, while 37 percent of Republican voters trust state government most to handle these issues.
Given the aforementioned disparities in views on implementation and enforcement, stakeholders at all levels of jurisdiction are in the process of determining how best to carry out Justice40. Voters remain split over whether or not these standards for implementation should be set by state and local governments, or if these should be modeled on plans set at the federal level. A plurality of voters (47 percent) support state and local governments following their own plans for implementation of Justice40, while 41 percent support following the federal model for Justice40 implementation.
In contrast with this split among topline respondents, Latina/o and Black voters agree that state and local governments should align with federal plans to implement and enforce Justice40. Fifty-five percent of Latina/o voters agree with this sentiment, as compared to only 33 percent who agree that state and local governments should develop their own plans, while 49 percent of Black voters support alignment with federal policies and only 36 percent support decentralized planning to implement the initiative. Paired with higher trust in the federal government to deliver on benefits from Justice40, these results suggest Latina/o and Black respondents view the federal government as best suited to plan, implement, and enforce Justice40 in an impartial manner.
Concerns about specificity and plans for implementing Justice40 go beyond the national electorate, however. In September 2022, dozens of Democratic lawmakers called for the White House to more clearly define plans for Justice40 implementation and oversight. While the new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights was created to oversee EJ investments and ensure they’re not being appropriated for unrelated causes or to non-EJ localities, it is crucial that the office be clear and transparent about its plans for implementation. Drawing upon these concerns, World Resources Institute provides guidance on important Justice40 actions to watch this year and offers recommendations for ensuring successful implementation of the initiative amidst growing demand for environmental justice considerations across the country.
A Growing Nationwide Demand for Environmental Justice
Justice40 reflects one part of the Biden Administration's commitment to a broader environmental justice strategy. Respondents were provided with a definition of environmental justice and asked to indicate how important this factor should be for lawmakers to consider when creating environmental laws. More than three-quarters (77 percent) of voters say environmental justice should be “very important” or “somewhat important” for lawmakers to consider when crafting environmental policy, including 92 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Independents, and 60 percent of Republicans. This support illustrates growing consensus on the significance of environmental disparities in disadvantaged communities and the need to address them.
Indeed, Latina/o and Black voters place even higher importance on environmental justice as a factor in lawmaking. Eighty-six percent of Latina/o and 84 percent of Black respondents agree that environmental justice should be a “somewhat important” or “very important” factor to consider when creating environmental policies. Voters across the electorate increasingly recognize the vital role that environmental justice must play in effective policymaking — both through the Justice40 Initiative and beyond.
Conclusion
Two years later, Justice40 occupies an even more vital role now than at its inception. With the passage of landmark legislation that will ensure investments in climate and energy for years to come, and a growing understanding of how disadvantaged communities have borne the brunt of pollution and subpar energy infrastructure, Justice40 represents a historic opportunity for the U.S. to put communities first. There is still much work to be done to clean up polluted communities; develop energy infrastructure to deliver cost-effective, clean, and reliable energy across the country; and make communities more resilient to climate disasters, but the Biden Administration has demonstrated its commitment to doing just that. Justice40 is one piece of a larger puzzle that can help make communities happier and healthier for all.
Julia Jeanty (@julia_jeanty) is the Senior Policy Manager at Data for Progress.
Grace Adcox (@graceadcox) is a polling analyst at Data for Progress.
Carla Walker (@globalsistah) is the Director of Environmental Justice and Equity for WRI-US.