Biden administration taps New Orleans’ Beverly Wright for environmental justice committee

3rd May 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer

Vulnerable poor or minority communities in New Orleans, southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in general now have someone lobbying for them in Washington in the fight against climate change.

In late March, Dr. Beverly Wright, the founder and executive director of the New Orleans-based Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, was one of more than two dozen leading environmental advocates from across the country to be tapped as members of the newly formed White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, part of Pres. Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ efforts on climate change.

“I feel honored to be chosen for such an important role and this particular time in our history,” Wright told The Louisiana Weekly.

Wright said that because of the region’s unique, often perilous geographic and economic situation – with, for example, chemical plants polluting communities in Cancer Alley in St. John Parish, the ongoing threat of oil-industry disasters and rapidly eroding coastlines – she feels that she has a chance to represent people who are screaming to be heard as they watch their families, neighborhoods and towns suffer from climate change and other environmental crises.

She said that she will work to collect input from people across the region to assemble evidence and testimony that can be submitted to the whole WHEJAC as it deliberates on how to create a just and clean environment for all Americans. She said she will continue to reach out to local communities and provide multiple opportunities and venues such as holding town halls and organizing virtual meetings for citizens and public leaders to speak out.

The WHEJAC faces a tight deadline of May 31 to complete its work, Wright said.

“I’ve tried very hard to make sure all communities are involved [in environmental action],” she said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, up and down the Gulf Coast.”

Wright said that hopefully one result of the WHEJAC’s finding will be increased funding for communities like Cancer Alley to battle the crises they face.

“It is my goal to make sure that any funding includes money for Louisiana and will be used to better the quality of life for those so egregiously affected by toxic chemicals and climate change,” she said.

The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council was created with Biden’s “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” which was issued shortly after the Biden-Harris administration was inaugurated in January.

According to a March 29 White House press release, the WHEJAC is a key part of administration’s ambitious efforts to take the global lead in combating climate change and “to fulfill [Biden’s] and Vice President Harris’s commitment to confronting long-standing environmental injustices and to ensuring that historically marginalized and polluted, overburdened communities have greater input on federal policies and decisions.”

In the release, Harris affirmed that commitment to the vulnerable communities that are frequently the ones to suffer from severe pollution and environmental disasters.

“We know that we cannot achieve health justice, economic justice, racial justice or educational justice without environmental justice,” she said. “That is why President Biden and I are committed to addressing environmental injustice,” said Vice President Harris. “This historic White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council will ensure that our administration’s work is informed by the insights, expertise, and lived experience of environmental justice leaders from across the nation.”

One development Wright hasn’t seen, to her disappointment, is local political and governmental leaders speaking out about the climate change crisis and the ongoing degradation of the environment in southeast Louisiana.

Wright said the silence from local officials has been very concerning.

“Do you hear anything from them?” Wright posed. “We’re almost a poster child for all of it [environmental emergencies] in this region, but unfortunately we haven’t heard one word from [local leaders], at least at this point.”

Wright said she will reach out to governmental officials, including New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, in an effort to solicit their suggestions for projects that might need funding as a result of the WHEJAC’s work.

This article originally published in the May 3, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.