The Shriver Brief : Poverty Law Commentary & Insights : Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law : Affordable Housing, Healthcare Reform

Co-authored by: Lissa Domoracki and Carrie Gilbert

[Part 4 in the Shriver Center’s series on Climate Change and Low-Income Communities.]

Climate change and policies to combat it are subjects that have yet to appear on the radar screens of low-income people and their advocates. It is essential that this hands-off attitude change quickly since Congress has already started to make momentous decisions that will dramatically affect low-income people and communities for decades to come. At the end of this article we will tell you how you can get involved.   

Climate change has a disproportionately negative impact on low-income communities. These populations bear the brunt of the physical changes, such as dangerously high temperatures, yet they lack the resources to combat them. Additionally, the transition to renewable energy sources will increase consumer costs, crippling the purchasing power of low-income people unless adequate and appropriately targeted consumer relief is provided. Climate change legislation must protect low-income families and individuals from these harmful effects. In addition, climate change legislation must guarantee that low-income people can access the jobs and economic opportunities created by the new green economy.

This past June the House of Representatives took a significant step by passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454). H.R. 2454 addresses key climate change issues by proposing the establishment of a cap and trade system for carbon emissions as well as the implementation of heightened emissions, efficiency, and renewable energy standards. It also provides adequate levels of consumer relief to protect low-income people from increased costs and provides the access to green jobs that is needed.  

Senator Kerry, the Senate’s leader on climate change issues, predicts spring passage of climate change legislation.  Currently, there are several proposals on the table in the Senate:

• The Clean Energy Jobs & American Power Act, S. 1733, sponsored by Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Boxer (D-CA), which has already emerged from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
• The Carbon Limits and Energy for American Renewal bill filed by Senators Cantwell (D-WA) and Collins (R-ME).
• The “tripartisan” “Framework for Climate Action and Energy Independence in the U.S. Senate” recently unveiled by Senators Kerry (D-MA), Graham (R-SC), and Lieberman (I-CT), outlining their efforts to move forward in pursuit of climate change legislation. 
• The Clean Energy Act of 2009, sponsored by Senators Alexander (R-TN) and Webb (D-VA), which focuses primarily on the development of nuclear energy.
• A power-plant focused bill introduced by Senators Voinovich (R-OH) and Lugar (R-IN).

Days before the conference in Copenhagen, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared carbon and several other greenhouse gases health hazards under the Clean Air Act. With this declaration, the EPA signaled its intent to implement and enforce regulations on carbon emissions, if necessary. The EPA regulations would be much less flexible than the market-based solutions currently under debate in Congress, and are generally viewed as a “second-choice” plan to combat climate change if the effort to pass legislation fails.           

As negotiations continue, we all must do our part to ensure that the resulting climate bill reduces carbon emissions enough to reverse the effects of climate change while at the same time providing adequate consumer protection for low-income households and meaningful assurances that low-income and minority individuals will benefit from the job opportunities that emerge out of this country’s new green economy. 

Click here to see the letter the Shriver Center recently sent to Senator Durbin (D-IL) urging him to support sufficient reductions in carbon emissions, adequate consumer relief, and job opportunities for low-income and minority individuals in the ongoing negotiations. We sent a similar letter to Senator Burris (D-IL).

Over the crucial next few months, the Shriver Center will continue its efforts to ensure that comprehensive climate change legislation becomes law and that such legislation adequately addresses the needs and concerns of low-income people and communities. We invite you to join us in this effort. If you would like to be kept apprised of advocacy opportunities, including possible group sign-on letters, please contact Carrie Gilbert (CarrieGilbert@povertylaw.org) or Lissa Domoracki (LissaDomoracki@povertylaw.org). 

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Co-authored by Lissa Domoracki and Carrie Gilbert

[Part 2 in the Shriver Center’s series on Climate Change and Low-Income Communities]

The build-up of carbon and other green-house gas emissions in the atmosphere causes climate change. If this build-up continues, it is estimated that the average temperature in the United States could increase by as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century. The negative effects of climate change are numerous: increased heat waves, increased incidence of heat-related disease and illness, increased risk of floods, droughts, and fires, rising sea levels, etc. With federal climate change legislation on the horizon, many people are talking about cap-and-trade and how it can reduce our carbon emissions. But, what exactly is cap-and-trade? 

Cap-and-trade is a simple story of supply and demand. As of now, there is no limit on carbon emissions. Power plants, refineries, and industrial plants may emit as much carbon as they want without cost. Cap-and-trade changes this, putting a price on the right to emit carbon. 

Under a cap-and-trade system, companies must turn in an allowance for every ton of carbon emitted the previous year. The number of allowances issued determines the level of or the “cap” on carbon emissions. Initially, some allowances are given to companies for free while others are auctioned off. If fewer allowances are issued, either for free or at auction, than tons of carbon currently emitted, companies subject to cap-and-trade will either have to reduce their carbon emissions or obtain more allowances.

Depending on a company’s circumstances, the company may find it more cost-effective either to reduce carbon emissions or to buy emissions allowances. Cap-and-trade systems create an open market where allowances may be bought and sold. For example, Company A may be able to very easily and cheaply reduce its carbon emissions beneath its allotted allowance level while it may be very difficult and expensive for Company B to reduce its carbon emissions at all. In this circumstance, Company A could reduce its carbon emissions enough to be able to sell its excess allowances to Company B on the open market. Regardless, carbon emissions are reduced sufficiently to meet the cap.

Over time, the number of allowances issued will decrease, lowering the cap on carbon emissions. As this happens, the purchase price of an allowance on the open market should increase. To illustrate, let’s go back to Company A and Company B. Both companies have fewer allowances allotted to them than at the onset of the cap-and-trade program, and Company A has already utilized the easy and cheap methods to reduce its carbon emissions. Therefore, if Company A is going to reduce its carbon emissions sufficiently to sell excess allowances, it must undergo more difficult and costly changes than before. In turn, Company A is only willing to sell its allowances at a higher price. Company B has made no changes, previously choosing to buy allowances on the open market.   At some point, the price of allowances on the open market will exceed Company B’s cost to reduce carbon emissions, and like Company A, Company B will make the changes necessary to reduce its carbon emissions.  

For some companies, this may mean closing a plant and shifting production to a plant that emits less carbon, constructing a new plant that emits less carbon, or ceasing operations altogether. Take, for example, the Fisk and Crawford coal-burning power plants located in the working-class Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods of Chicago. Both of these plants, because of their age, are exempt from the Clean Air Act. As is often the case, low and moderate income people bear the brunt of the pollution from plants like Fisk and Crawford as they tend to be located in or near low and moderate income communities. According to a Harvard School of Public Health report, the air pollution from the Fisk and Crawford plants is linked to 40 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks annually. Under a cap-and-trade system, it will likely become prohibitively expensive to continue the operation of these heavy carbon-emitting plants, benefiting the low and moderate income communities situated near them.

Overall, a cap-and-trade system advances several climate change objectives. First, the cap allows for predetermined and definite carbon emission-level reductions through the issuance of a limited number of allowances.  Second, the trading of allowances provides for the reduction of carbon emissions in the most cost-effective manner by encouraging the implementation of quick and easy carbon emission reduction strategies early on. Third, cap-and-trade will make heavy polluting plants cost prohibitive to continue operating, yielding important health benefits to the low and moderate income people who tend to live near such plans. Fourth, cap-and-trade, properly structured, can accomplish yet another essential policy objective -- the protection of low and moderate income households from bearing the brunt of added consumer costs that will result from limiting carbon emissions through cap-and-trade. More on this subject in a future article in our series on Climate Change and Low-Income Communities.

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Green is the new black. Going green. Thinking green. In the past few years, everyone from politicians to celebrities to major corporations has decided to “go green.” President Obama has made the environment one of his main priorities. The United States is “going green.” 

But going green is not free. Adopting measures that will counteract the potentially lethal effect of carbon emissions on our planet will impose significant costs that anti-poverty advocates cannot afford to ignore. Indeed, we must all be asking, how will climate change policy affect low-income communities?  

The effects of climate change will hit low-income communities first and hardest. Extreme weather, pollution and toxins in the air are just a few of the effects of climate change that harm the health and safety of low-income individuals. Some are deeming the disparity in climate change effects on different communities “the climate gap.” Many fear that low-income communities will be unprepared for the changes brought about by climate change. 

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Waxman-Markey bill that regulates carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade program requiring businesses to purchase permits for their emissions. The U.S. Senate is taking up consideration of this measure now. Many hope that climate change policy will stimulate the economy and create green jobs. There is also much concern about how heavily the increased costs to businesses will fall on consumers, including low-income individuals. 

Something must be done to curb the effects of climate change. How can we control the effects of climate change while making the costs incurred by consumers manageable? How do we maximize the gain and minimize the pain of climate change policy for low-income people and communities? 

Join the Shriver Center on September 30 for “Climate Change Policy and Low-Income Communities: Maximizing the Gain and Minimizing the Pain,” a symposium in Chicago where you can learn more about the issues of climate change and climate change policy and their effects on low-income communities. Please register online at www.povertylaw.org/dialogue or call 312.368.1168. 

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