WATCH: Vice President Harris Says We Must ‘Address the Issue of Equity in the Climate Crisis’… Whatever That Means

(CNSNews.com) – Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that the nation must address the issue of “equity” and environmental justice as it pertains to climate change.

“The challenge that we face also requires us then to address another truth. While the climate crisis touches all communities, it does not do so equally. For generations, poor communities and communities of color have borne the brunt of toxic air and water pollution,” she said at an Inflation Reduction Act climate event at the State University of New York in Buffalo, N.Y.

“As the former district attorney of San Francisco, I created that city’s first environmental justice unit, and I continued to fight as attorney general and as United States senator and now as vice president, knowing we must address the issue of equity,” the vice president said.

“President Biden and I are clear: all our work to address the climate crisis must be grounded in environmental justice and in equity, and that means funding community led projects to address the harms of pollution in black, brown and low-income communities, and it means holding polluters accountable when they poison our air, our water, and our soil,” Harris said.

“It means connecting families in rural communities and Indian Country with affordable, reliable clean electricity, and it means making sure these investments create jobs and grow economic opportunity in communities that have long been left out and left behind — frankly, for far too long,” she said.

The vice president said that the Biden administration has set the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by no later than 2030 and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

To that end, the administration is giving families thousands of dollars to weatherize their homes, including “up to $8,000 to upgrade their HVAC system from gas to an electric heat pump,” Harris said, adding that it means “cleaner air and cheaper energy bills” as well as lowering emissions for the nation.

“And we are not stopping there. As many of you know, the transportation sector is our nation’s single-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Every year, gas-powered cars and trucks and buses contribute millions of tons of carbon dioxide and toxic air pollution, but there is a solution to this problem: electric vehicles,” she said.

“Electric cars and trucks and buses, which produce no tailpipe emissions, and they are cheaper to own and safer for our communities since they do not produce toxic fumes that increase the risk of respiratory illness. That is why our administration has invested billions of dollars to help our nation go electric,” the vice president said. 

“That means electrifying public transit vehicles and school buses. That means reducing the price of new and used electric cars and trucks by thousands of dollars so that more working families can afford to make the switch, and that means building a national network of electric vehicle chargers – half a million in total – and this too will create jobs,” Harris said.  

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