2022 National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program, Day 2
Register for The 2022 National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program at the Washington Marriott at Metro Center
8:00 a.m.—4:00 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Open
Conference Facilitator Ms. Carolyn Sawyer Communications Strategist Tom Sawyer Company
8:30 a.m.—9:15 a.m.
PANEL: Community and College Partners Program (C2P2): Developing Alternative Energy Options for Indigenous People in Tyonek, Alaska
Michael Burns Founder/Executive Director C2P2
Margaret McCurdy Graduate Student, Peace Engineering Program Drexel University Philadelphia, PA
Joan Nguyen Graduate Student, Peace Engineering Program Drexel University Philadelphia, PA
Kate Ryan Graduate Student, Peace Engineering Program Drexel University Philadelphia, PA
9:15 a.m.—9:55a.m.
Introduction of Keynote Speakers
Dr. Melinda Downing Environmental Justice Program Manager U.S. Department of Energy
KEYNOTE REMARKS
The Honorable James E. Clyburn Majority Whip (Democrat, 6th District, South Carolina)
The Honorable Jennifer Granholm Secretary U.S. Department of Energy
9:55 a.m.—10:05 a.m.
BREAK
10:05 a.m.—11:15 a.m.
PANEL: Estimating Disproportionate Impacts of Climate Change on Childhood Asthma Rates Among Socially Vulnerable Populations in the U.S.
Margaret Black Abt Associates
Stefani L. Penn Industrial Economics, Inc. (IEc)
Lauren E. Gentile U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Estimating the Benefits of Reduced Air Pollution During COVID-19 for Socially Vulnerable Populations in New York City.
David Cooley Abt Associates
11:15 a.m.—12:15 p.m.
PANEL: USDA Forest Service’s Environmental Justice and Climate Change Related Topics.
Elisabeth Grinspoon, Ph.D. Environmental Justice and Technology Transfer Specialist Office of Sustainability and Climate USDA Forest Service
Dixie Porter Deputy Director Office of Sustainability and Climate (OSC)
USDA Forest Service
12:15 p.m.—12:30 p.m.
BREAK
12:30 p.m.—1:45 p.m.
LUNCH
Introduction of Luncheon Keynote Speaker
Dr. Melinda Downing Environmental Justice Program Manager U.S. Department of Energy
KEYNOTE REMARKS
The Honorable David Turk Deputy Secretary United States Department of Energy Washington, D.C.
1:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
BREAK
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
PRESENTATIONS:
Approaches for Evaluating Environmental Justice Issues at the State Level
Lisa McDonald, PhD Senior Associate Abt Associates
Appliance Standards: The Best Climate Change Policy You’ve Never Heard Of
Madeline Parker Outreach & Coalition-Building Associate Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP)
3:00 p.m.—4:00 p.m.
PRESENTATIONS:
Bridging America’s Outdoor Equity Gap
Diane Regas President and CEO The Trust for Public Land
In Defense of a Greenspace: Students Discover Agency in the Practice of Community-Engaged Technical Communication
Bob Hyland Associate Professor University of Cincinnati
DAY 2 – Thursday, March 10, 2022 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE WORKSHOPS AND TRAINING PROGRAMS
Grand Ballroom Salon E
10:00 a.m.–-11:00 a.m.
What’s in My Neighborhood? How Communities Can Use EPA’s TRI Toxics Tracker to Identify Industrial Sources of Toxic Chemical Releases and Other Waste Management Activities.
EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program provides a detailed, multimedia dataset covering annual releases and other waste management activities from over 20,000 facilities in the United States for hundreds of different toxic chemicals. EPA makes these data available to the public, which can help inform decision-making by government agencies, community groups, companies, and other stakeholders. This training workshop will provide users with a basic introduction to the TRI Program and what types of data and information are collected by the EPA, as well as a live demonstration of the online TRI Toxics Tracker tool. TRI Toxics Tracker can be used to answer a variety of questions all in one place, such as what toxic chemical releases are occurring in a particular community with EJ concerns and which facilities might be contributing to disproportionate releases potentially affecting nearby residents.
T.J. Pepping Abt Associates
11:15 a.m.—12:15 p.m.
Pragmatic Approaches: Reaching Students in Areas with Limited Broadband to Access College Education
Lack of broadband access is a limiting factor to academic advancement of a remarkable number of youths in rural areas in America and worldwide. It has been documented that in rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population – 14.5 million people lack access to this service. In tribal areas, nearly one-third of the population lacks access. Even in areas where broadband is available, approximately 100 million Americans still do not subscribe (FCC 2022). Consequently, an outreach was conducted in a rural area (Marion) of South Carolina with ineffective or no access to broadband. Parents and their high schoolers were invited. During this event, we had on board from Allen University, officials from the admission office, financial aid office, the university counsellors, a faculty and one junior student from Allen University.
Application forms were already printed out and handed over to high schoolers during this outreach. Seven high school students completed the application form on the spot. The financial aid officer succeeded in assisting one of these seven students to complete her FAFSA right on the spot using our personal hotspot internet access provided at the outreach site. Application forms were given to the high school students that attended with the promise to share with their friends. It is uber-important for colleges to make concerted efforts in reaching suburbs with limited broadband access. Such that youths in these areas will not be left behind. This workshop intends to shed more light on pragmatic approaches employed to forestall bottlenecks encountered during the outreach.
Oluwole Ariyo, PhD Principal Investigator, Environmental Justice Institute Allen University
2:00 p.m.—4 p.m.
EJ & NEPA Workshop: Considering Cumulative Effects and EJ in the NEPA Process
Increasingly, decisionmakers are recognizing the importance of looking at projects in the context of prior impacts and developments within the community or region. Direct effects continue to be most important to decisionmakers, in part because they are more certain. Nonetheless, the importance of other environmental stressors requires the need to address cumulative impacts on environmental justice (EJ) populations. The purpose of the workshop is to increase understanding of cumulative effects consideration of environmental justice (EJ) populations in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process. The specific focus is the importance of understanding cumulative effects are caused by the aggregate of past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions that, for many EJ populations, may last for many years beyond the life of the action that caused the effects. The goal is to provide an understanding of the principles of a cumulative effects analysis within Environmental Justice (EJ) communities.
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published their Phase 1 revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Regulations which focused on a narrow set of changes to the 2020 regulations that restores some of the regulatory provisions from the 1978 NEPA Regulations. One of the changes restores the definition of “effects,” including use of the terms “direct,” “indirect,” and “cumulative” and removed potential limitations on effects analysis.
The NEPA Subcommittee of the White House Interagency Environmental Justice Council (WHEJAC) formally known as the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG), produced the “Promising Practices for EJ Methodologies in NEPA Reviews” (Promising Practices Report) and address various methodologies for addressing effects within an EJ analysis and will be utilized in this session.
The workshop is designed to address the changes in NEPA regulations, provide expectations for cumulative effects analysis and provide case study examples for cumulative effects.
Denise C. Freeman Co-chair, NEPA Committee, WH EJ Interagency Council Senior Advisor/Communications Liaison Office of Legacy Management U.S. Department of Energy
Jomar Maldonado Director for NEPA Council on Environmental Quality Executive Office of the President
Carolyn L. Nelson, P.E. Co-chair, NEPA Committee, WH EJ Interagency Council Sr. Project Development/Environmental Specialist Office of Project Development and Environmental Review USDOT-Federal Highway Administration
Changing Times: Revisiting Spring Forward, Fall Back
The Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Daylight Saving Time on Wednesday, March 9, at 10:15 a.m. (EST) in the John D. Dingell Room, 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “Changing Times: Revisiting Spring Forward, Fall Back.”
“Twice a year, in the spring and fall, people across the nation adjust their clocks and modify their schedules to adjust to the new time,” Pallone and Schakowsky said. “Historians will provide all sorts of justifications for why we do this, but increasingly our changing of the clocks twice a year is getting harder to explain. Next week, the Subcommittee will hear from a panel of experts on the impacts of springing forward and falling back, and whether it still makes sense in our modern times.”
Witnesses- Beth Ann Malow, MD, Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, Director, Vanderbilt Sleep Division, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Steve Calandrillo, Jeffrey and Susan Brotman Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law
- Lyle Beckwith, Sr. Vice President, Government Relations, National Association of Convenience Stores
2022 National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program, Day 1
Register for The 2022 National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program at the Washington Marriott at Metro Center
YOUTH/EMERGING LEADERS SUMMIT
8:00 a.m.—4:00 p.m.
Registration
Exhibit Hall Open
9:00 a.m.—9:30 a.m.
Welcome/Opening Remarks
Conference Facilitator Ms. Carolyn Sawyer Communications Strategist Tom Sawyer Company
Dr. Melinda Downing Environmental Justice Program Manager U.S. Department of Energy
9:30 a.m.—10:30 a.m.
PANEL: Virtual Environmental Justice Academy. Undergraduate students Sierra Generette and Justice Wright spent their Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters interning with the Mentorship for Environmental Scholars (MES) Program. Their internship focused on creating virtual Environmental Justice trainings to be delivered to middle and high school students. The results of this 10-week academic year internship formed the Pre-College University’s Virtual Environmental Justice Academy.
Clarence T. Brown Executive Director Pre-College University, Inc.
Sierra Generette Former Mentorship for Environmental Scholars (MES) Intern
Justice Wright Former Mentorship for Environmental Scholars (MES) Intern
Dave J. Wess Dean of Students Pre-College University, Inc.
10:30 a.m.—10:45 a.m.
Break
10:45 a.m.—12:45 p.m.
PANEL: Educate, Motivate, Innovate: Building the Next Generation of Environmental Justice Leaders (The Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice’s “Educate, Motivate and Innovate (EMI) Environmental Justice Initiative”).
OVERVIEW:
Joanna Mounce Stancil EMI Chair USDA Forest Service Washington, D.C.
EMI and CUPP Collaboration: CUPP is a unique program that coordinates partnerships between local colleges/universities with communities in need throughout the southeast. College and university students provide technical assistance, free of charge, to underserved communities through planned projects. CUPP has completed over 100 projects throughout the United States, obtaining several dedicated college/university and non-profit partners.
Jeannie Williamson EPA Region 4 College/Underserved Community Partnership Program (CUPP) Coordinator
PRESENTATION: Redlining and Environmental Justice: Identifying the roots of Child Health Vulnerabilities to Climate Change. This presentation will explore how children’s environmental health disparities correlate with the historical practices of redlining and provide valuable insight on the structural roots of environmental health disparities, in the context of climate change.
Dr. Leslie Isadore Rubin Director of Break the Cycle Program Southeastern Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit
Devon Nenon Undergraduate Student (Junior) Major: Sustainability Studies University of Florida
PRESENTATION: Georgia State University Students Assist Duck Hill, Mississippi Citizens Stay Informed About Their Community. The Georgia State University’s Computer Information System’s Department partnered with the Montgomery Citizens United for Prosperity (MCUP) to assist the Duck Hill community build a digital presence on the Internet. The presentation will show how the webpage will benefit the community.
Alicia Gholar Computer Information Systems Georgia State University
Romona Taylor Williams Executive Director Mississippi Communities United for Prosperity
Carelis Zambrano Bellorin Major: Computer Information Systems Georgia State University
PRESENTATION: Kentucky State University Assists in Preparing Educational Products for Low-income Communities in Kentucky. Kentucky’s Division of Water has partnered with Kentucky State University under the CUPP program to assist in developing easily accessible, easily interpreted educational documents for the lead testing in drinking water program. This presentation will show the research conducted by student to prepare these documents for use in low-income communities within the state.
Gabriel Tanner Kentucky Division of Water
Kabita Paudel Graduate Student, Master of Science in Environmental Studies Major: Environmental studies (GIS, Remote Sensing) Kentucky State University
PRESENTATION: Tech for Environmental Justice: BEEnevolent Hive and Mobile Application. The audience will learn about the plight of the honeybees and technological solutions for the honeybees. The audience will also learn about a tool for environmental reporting, environmental justice education and connectivity.
Sade Shofidiya Graduate Student Major: Public Administration – Museum Administration Savannah State University
12:45 p.m.—1:00 p.m.
Break
1:00 p.m.—2:30 p.m.
Lunch
Luncheon Speaker:
Dr. Britt Rios-Ellis Executive VP of Academic Affairs Oakland University Lake Angelus, MI
Charging Forward: Securing American Manufacturing and Our EV Future
- Bob Holycross, Vice President, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering, Ford Motor Company
- Natalie King, Chief Executive Officer, Dunamis Clean Energy Partners, LLC
- Cassandra Powers, Senior Managing Director, National Association of State Energy Officials
- Thomas Pyle, President, Institute for Energy Research (Republican witness)
Stakeholder Views on Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization
- Herman Haksteen, President, Private Railcar Food and Beverage Association
- Brad Hildebrand, Member, National Industrial Transportation League and former Vice President of Cargill – Rail and Barge Lead
- Dennis Pierce, President, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
- Ian Jefferies, President and CEO, Association of American Railroads
- Dennis Newman, Executive Vice President of Planning, Strategy and Accessibility, Amtrak
- Chris Jahn, President and CEO, American Chemistry Council
A 2022 Review of the Farm Bill: Rural Development
- Xochitl Torres Small, Under Secretary for Rural Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
FERC’s Recent Guidance On Natural Gas Pipelines
The purpose of the hearing is to review recent actions of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relating to permitting construction and operation of interstate natural gas pipelines and other natural gas infrastructure projects.
“Today’s (Thursday) reckless decision by FERC’s Democratic Commissioners puts the security of our nation at risk. The commission went too far by prioritizing a political agenda over their main mission — ensuring our nation’s energy reliability and security. The only thing they accomplished today was constructing additional road blocks that further delay building out the energy infrastructure our country desperately needs. Energy independence is our greatest geopolitical and economic tool and we cannot lose sight of that as instability rises around the globe.”
“President Biden is trumpeting the importance of infrastructure at the same time his appointees are working to kill energy infrastructure. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is determined to make it nearly impossible for Americans to maintain or improve access to abundant and affordable supplies of natural gas. Delaying and then denying approval of natural gas pipelines and storage facilities will only drive up already-inflated energy prices. It also threatens natural gas and electric reliability. This is just the latest attack in Biden’s war on American energy.”
Bill Cassidy (R-La.) reaction:
“Our nation depends on clear-minded, nonpartisan policy, not activists carrying out an ideological and political agenda. Yesterday, FERC said it will defy the Natural Gas Act by no longer considering only whether a project is “needed” when granting new natural gas permits. Rather, they will also consider environmental justice and climate impacts that will be determined behind closed doors. This FERC policy announcement all but guarantees no new natural gas construction permits will be issued this year and amounts to a defacto natural gas export ban. All the while, Europe is dependent on Russian natural gas and we are in the midst of a global energy crisis hurting Americans’ pocketbooks. The vacuum of energy production will be filled by foreign countries with lower environmental standards which will increase global emissions. This administration could not be writing worse energy policy.”Witnesses:
- Richard Glick, Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Biden/Democratic appointee
- James Danly, Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Trump/Republican appointee (dissented)
- Allison Clements, Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Trump/Democratic appointee
- Mark C. Christie, Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Trump/Republican appointee (dissented)
- Willie L. Phillips, Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Biden/Democratic appointee
From Gray to Green: Advancing the Science of Nature-Based Infrastructure
- Dr. Steven Thur, Director, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Dr. Sherry Hunt, Supervisory Civil Engineer, Agriculture Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Dr. Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist, Environmental Science, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
State of the Union Address
President Joseph Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol.
Energy Science, Nuclear and Energy Security Legislation
The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:
- Geraldine Richmond, Undersecretary for Science and Innovation, U.S. Department of Energy