Shaping environmental justice at local and national levels
EcoAction Partners and Sheep Mountain Alliance Tackle Barriers
By Sophie Stuber, Planet Contributor
With climate change posing growing risks in the San Juan Mountains, local environmental groups are developing environmental justice initiatives that complement President Joe Biden’s recent executive order.
On Friday, April 21, Biden signed an executive order to better incorporate environmental justice into the work of federal agencies. This includes efforts to reduce toxic pollution, improve infrastructure and address environmental policies that are the result of racial discrimination.
Harmful pollution can disproportionately affect low-income communities and those of color. Biden’s executive order focuses on establishing cleaner air and water, and lowering the risks for asthma, cancer, and other health issues. Specific agency work will involve plugging orphaned oil and gas wells, replacing lead service lines, increasing green spaces, installing air monitors and developing clean energy jobs.
“This is about people’s health. It’s about the health of our communities. It’s only about the future of our planet,” Biden said in a press conference before signing the order.
Biden’s executive order also calls for agencies to incorporate more public input, particularly from Tribal communities, when shaping environmental policy.
“For far too long, communities across our country have faced persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental harms often due to a legacy of racial discrimination,” the White House said in a statement.
In the Telluride area, local environmental groups have developed several initiatives to address injustices.
“It’s really clear that there are a lot of inequalities in our region, especially in the climate field,” Emma Gerona, executive director of EcoAction Partners, told the Planet. “There are a lot of resources, but they are not necessarily available to those who need them most.”
EcoAction’s 10-year climate action plan, which was introduced last year, is designed to focus on intersectional environmentalism, rather than simply reducing emissions.
“We’re working on community resilience,” she said.
EcoAction Partners and Sheep Mountain Alliance recently submitted a grant to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to improve environmental justice, targeting climate resiliency for underserved communities in rural areas. The grant includes funding for weatherization of homes, financial resources for wildfire planning, and opportunities to make the outdoors more accessible to traditionally underserved communities.
“The grant would help decrease some of these barriers and increase diversity,” Mason Osgood, executive director of Sheep Mountain Alliance, told the Planet.
Sheep Mountain Alliance has an existing initiative to engage the Latino community in outdoor programming, and they have identified some challenges that the grant would help target.
“Barriers for this community include the high cost of gear or lift tickets, for example, as well as access to information on where to go,” Osgood said.
Both Osgood and Gerona identified language as a current sticking point when it comes to improving climate resiliency, as much of the population is Spanish-speaking. They are aiming to make all information available in both Spanish and English, as well as including a more diverse group of people in the region in shaping climate policy.
“Part of the grant is engaging some of these underserved communities in the local and regional stakeholder groups that are making decisions,” Osgood said. “It means taking a nuanced approach to some of our policy approaches in the region, considering not just the environmental impacts, but also the effects on traditionally underserved communities.”
One initiative already underway is Colorado’s Affordable Residential Efficiency Program (CARE), which offers free energy efficiency services to income-qualified residents in counties across the state, including San Miguel County.
The program helps residents with household incomes at or below 80 percent of the county’s mean weatherize their homes, create more comfortable living spaces and replace appliances like refrigerators.
“We still have space for folks to sign up,” Gerona said. “It’s a really great opportunity to have improvements done on your homes.”
In line with the executive order, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also published details on the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which boosts public investment with private capital to finance clean energy projects.
Although the San Juan Mountains can sometimes seem like paradise, climate change poses real threats to the region. The EPA offers an environmental mapping and screening tool to identify climate and environmental challenges. The local area, particularly rural counties like Norwood and the West End, will be greatly affected.
“We’re in a really high percentile for risk of wildfire, as well as food deserts, so I think it’s really important to highlight that while we might not have as obvious vulnerabilities as frontline communities in Denver near oil refineries, we are at risk,” Osgood said.