With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passing last week, the country has a lot to celebrate when it comes to climate action and clean energy. It is an unprecedented, $369 billion climate bill that could put America on the path to meaningful emissions reductions by upward of 40% compared to 2005 levels. This is absolutely necessary to avert the worst of climate catastrophe.
However, the bill has rightly spurred mixed emotions, if not outright opposition, in communities concerned with environmental justice, given that it contains plenty of fossil fuel industry handouts, like subsidies and new leasing options for oil and gas expansion across the country.
Energy Innovation found that “for every ton of emissions increases generated by IRA oil and gas provisions, at least 24 tons of emissions are avoided by the other provisions.” This has led climate analysts and even oil companies to call the IRA’s concessions a “net positive” and “worthwhile tradeoff.”
As funders, we must be asking ourselves: a “worthwhile tradeoff” for whom? Which communities will survive, and which will be further burdened by new oil and gas infrastructure?
Study after study has shown that no matter what stage of the coal, oil or gas lifecycle, or what type of infrastructure is constructed, the risks and harms continuously fall more on front-line communities that are overwhelmingly Black, brown, Indigenous and poor. No matter the project or air pollutant type, people of color are breathing more of it.
These so-called “worthwhile tradeoffs” should be code red for philanthropy, especially for those who have publicly committed to climate justice. For years, our sector has lamented the enormous gap in climate giving, making up only 2% of total philanthropic funds. For years, we have seen calls to invest in climate justice and movement building to build collective power on the ground. It’s time we put our money where our mouths are and rapidly move resources to the front-line movements that are fighting to stop new infrastructure in their communities.
I was with Equation Campaign grantee partners in Appalachia when news of the climate deal broke, and they learned that the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was one of those so-called “trade-offs,” brokered by their Senator, Joe Manchin. Local and Indigenous groups that we fund, like POWHR, 7 Directions of Service, and West Virginia Rivers were opposing the proposed 304-mile gas pipeline that cuts through the heart of their homelands.
This pipeline would unnecessarily extend the fossil fuel era in the region for decades to come, carrying annual emissions equivalent to 19 million new passenger vehicles, while threatening lands, waters and communities along the way. Even though construction is not complete, the project has already caused over 350 environmental policy violations in significant waterways and forests. Local groups with few resources have fiercely opposed the pipeline with every strategy available: filing lawsuits, challenging permits, targeting investors, and engaging in media campaigns, protest and civil disobedience.
To strike the IRA deal, Sen. Manchin — who has received more fossil fuel money than anyone else in Washington — bargained with his constituents’ lives and got what he wanted: an expedited approval of the pipeline.
For years, the organizing happening on the ground by communities living in industry sacrifice zones has received little national fanfare or philanthropic dollars. That’s why we launched the Equation Campaign in 2020 with a 10-year strategy to fund movements on the ground to keep fossil fuels in the ground. With our funding, and through our intermediary Frontline Environmental Justice Fund, we support local efforts to block new oil and gas infrastructure from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Lakes, and the Plains States to the Gulf, where corporations, politicians and their backers overwhelm local residents with money and power.
Just consider Texas — if that state were its own country, it would be the fifth largest oil- and gas-producing nation in the world. Yet, local organizers receive proportionately fewer climate philanthropy dollars than other states, and even less support for strategies that confront fossil fuel extraction at its source. Equation Campaign will continue supporting groups in the Gulf opposing fossil fuel expansion like Chispa Texas, Port Arthur Community Action Network, Alliance for Affordable Energy, The Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Society of Native Nations, The Descendants Project and Healthy Gulf.
Funders should also look to the Midwest, where just this month, Enbridge Line 3, a major tar sands pipeline that runs through sacred wild rice fields and treaty territories in Minnesota, was caught leaking in the groundwater by Indigenous groups. Its sister project, Enbridge Line 5, threatens the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes, which holds more than 20% of the world’s freshwater. We responded to the calls of folks on the ground to fast-track funds to the Bay Mills Indian Community, Giniw Collective, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Honor the Earth, Oil and Water Don’t Mix, and the Center for Protest Law and Litigation (among others), who are all working to prevent further harms from Line 3 and to shut down Line 5.
And in the Great Plains, the farmers, ranchers and tribes who defeated Keystone XL didn’t get a day off before they faced new threats of pipelines. Equation Campaign is supporting groups that defeated Keystone XL, like Pipeline Fighters Hub, Easement Action Teams, and Indigenous Environmental Network, and are now working to stop companies from taking their land for dangerous carbon pipelines that got an IRA windfall to transport CO2 for dubious carbon capture initiatives. One such pipeline ruptured in rural Mississippi in 2020, sickening hundreds of community members.
The IRA will undoubtedly reduce emissions and save lives, but it will do so on the backs of front-line communities. It’s no coincidence that the massive subsidies to the fossil fuel industry will disproportionately impact BIPOC and poor communities across the country. Philanthropy can and should ensure that justice is not further sacrificed.
It’s time we invest in their power. Come join us.
Katie Redford is executive director of the Equation Campaign.