‘Environmental Justice Fund’: Cory Booker Unveils $3 Trillion Climate Plan

Democrat presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) revealed a $3 trillion plan to combat climate change and called for the creation of a United States “Environmental Justice Fund.”

“To end the real and growing threat of climate change and to create a more just country for everyone, we must heal these past mistakes and act boldly to create a green and equitable future. That’s exactly what I’ll do as president,” Booker said in a statement on Tuesday.

Booker’s plan also calls to “accelerate the end” of fossil fuels and aims to achieve “100% carbon-free electricity” by the year 2030. Booker also aims to achieve “a carbon neutral economy by 2045.”

The plan includes multiple executive actions, such as imposing greater EPA enforcement on those that pollute, requiring all new passenger vehicles to have zero emisions by the year 2030, and placing a ban on new fossil fuel leases.

Booker also stated he intends to reenter the Paris Climate Agreement and remove orders from President Donald Trump to approve Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines.

In order to “advance environmental justice and invest in communities long left behind,” Booker’s plan calls for the creation of a United States Environmental Justice Fund, which would commit $50 billion a year to those communities.

According to Booker’s announcement, a few of the ideas behind the Environmental Justice Plan include:

Replace all residential, school, and daycare lead drinking water service lines and remediate all housing units and schools that contain peeling or chipping lead-based paint and high levels of lead-contaminated dust.

Ensure that every household in the U.S. has adequate plumbing, including a functional wastewater disposal system.

Initiate the cleanup of every “orphaned” shovel-ready Superfund site.

Clean up every abandoned coal, uranium, and hard rock mine in the country.

Plant 100 million trees in urban areas by 2030 to reduce air pollution causing disproportionate harm in low-income and Black and Brown communities.

“We’re facing a dual crisis of climate change and economic inequality—and without immediate action, the toll is unimaginable,” Booker said in a social media post Tuesday. “But this is a fight I know we can win.”