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Isabella Breda, The Seattle Times | 3/11/2024

Cap and Trade; False Solutions; Budget; Legislative Session

Front and Centered, an environmental justice group representing communities of color and people with lower incomes, says the state is still falling short of its obligations to communities saddled with a disproportionate amount of health, social and environmental inequities.

The Climate Commitment Act explicitly outlines that at least 35% of the revenue from the auctions should be used “in ways that benefit vulnerable populations in overburdened communities.” Another 10% is required to fund projects led by tribal nations.

The group’s preliminary analysis shows that only 21% of qualifying funds in the supplemental budget will directly benefit overburdened communities…

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Isabella Breda, The Seattle Times | 2/24/2024

Pollution; Health Disparities; Legislative Session

WA Rep. Sharlett Mena, fueled by her experiences in her hometown and her current community, knew she wanted to take on legislation that would ensure neighborhoods that have borne the brunt of big polluting industries would have a say. Front and Centered, a nonprofit advocacy group representing communities of color, Indigenous peoples and people with lower incomes on the front lines of climate change, approached Mena with a similar ask.

She and the coalition drafted the bill that would require the agencies that oversee project review under the State Environmental Policy Act to conduct an environmental justice impact statement in communities that rank a seven or higher on the state’s Environmental Health Disparities map…

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Bellamy Pailthorp, KNKX | 2/14/2024

Cap and Trade; False Solutions; Legislative Session

But the environmental justice group Front and Centered, which represents communities that have been overburdened by climate pollution, said the linkage bill lacks important guarantees.

“We haven’t really seen a compelling argument for how linkage would actually lead to the reduction of emissions,” said Nico Wedekind, the group’s policy counsel.

“And similarly, we are concerned with the effects of linkage on local communities across the state, particularly those who have already been facing the most direct effects of climate change and fossil fuel pollution,” he said…

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Ashli Blow, Prism | 1/23/2024

Pollution; Health Disparities; Legislative Session

The bill also builds on Washington state’s three-year-old Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, which aims to address environmental justice by incorporating health and equity considerations into decision-making processes. The CURB Act fills a gap in the HEAL Act, as South Tacoma had recently experienced with industrial permitting.

”HEAL is a lot of information gathering, which can help an agency better think about what the consequences of their actions may be,” said Nico Wedekind, policy counsel for Front and Centered. “But it doesn’t attach at the permit level—the permits are not explicitly called out, and so that’s what we’re trying to get at here…”

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Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard | 11/2/2023

Cap and Trade; False Solutions

Front and Centered, a nonprofit coalition of equity, environmental and climate justice organizations, has been a vocal critic.

“Linking carbon markets will only exacerbate the game of trading pollution in markets for the financial benefit of polluters, rather than focusing on the need to make tangible changes here in Washington State that address the harm continued pollution inflicts on our frontline communities,” Nico Wedekind wrote in a post on the group’s website last week…

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Conrad Swanson, The Seattle Times | 10/16/2023

Cap and Trade; False Solutions; Legislative Session

But an analysis published last month by the environmental justice group Front and Centered is far less generous.

Up to 10.6% of the money budgeted (about $221 million) is allocated specifically or loosely to overburdened communities and 6.2% is allocated to the tribes, the nonprofit’s analysis indicates.

One of the reasons for the more than $700 million discrepancy is the way the budget lines are phrased, said Davin Diaz, policy coordinator for Front and Centered. Line items not specifically designated for overburdened communities or tribes were not counted. Other budget items merely indicate that 40% of the funds will be “assumed” to benefit overburdened communities, he noted. “Based on historic injustices, it’s hard for us to assume those monies would flow,” Diaz said.

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Joseph Winters, Grist | 7/11/2023

Heat; Clean Energy; Health Disparities

As heat waves worsen, so too does the sense of dread they bring to vulnerable populations. “Even before it happens, there’s a lot of anxiety,” said Esther Min, director of environmental health research partnerships for the nonprofit Front and Centered, a coalition of Washington state-based organizations led by communities of color. “It’s already brutal on the physical body when it is hot, but if you know it’s going to be difficult and you might not be able to escape it? … There’s that mental health aspect that I hear people these days talking about a lot more — that anxiety, that grief, that frustration.”

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Briefing Room, The White House | 4/22/2023

Earth Day; Events

Rosalinda Guillen, Co-Chair, Front and Centered Community Council in Seattle, Washington: “Decades of community organizing in environmental justice communities have resulted in the progress we see today as evidenced by this executive order. Ultimately, it is frontline communities who will hold state policymakers and agencies accountable.”

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Noel Gasca, KUOW’s Soundside | 4/18/2023

Earth Day; Events

Maybe you’re looking to use more than just one day to volunteer or learn more about the environmental issues local communities are trying to address.

In that case, check out Front and Centered’s “Earth Deserves More Than Just A Day” event lineup.

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Isabella Breda, The Seattle Times | 3/24/2023

Cap and Trade, Legislative Session

“Communities overburdened by pollution have been promised investments as a result of the Climate Commitment Act, but the Senate’s initial proposal has our frontline communities asking: where did those commitments go?” Deric Gruen, Front and Centered co-executive director of programs and policy said in a statement.

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