Locally Driven Transportation Energy Choices

Clean Cities and Communities coalitions are helping to ensure that the benefits of new transportation technologies are available to all Americans by engaging with their local communities to co-develop projects and solutions that meet real, on-the-ground needs. Coalition activities can advance local transportation energy choices and benefit all communities in America in a variety of ways, including:

• Improving air quality
• Reducing energy and transportation costs
• Increasing access to alternative fuel vehicles, electric vehicle charging stations, and clean public transportation
• Providing job training to operate and maintain clean transportation vehicles and infrastructure
• Engaging first responders in alternative fuel vehicle safety training
• Fostering business opportunities and economic development.

Clean Cities and Communities Energy and Environmental Justice Initiative (EEJI)

Clean Cities and Communities coalitions are collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories to help ensure the benefits of federal investments in clean transportation reach all communities, particularly those historically underrepresented in clean energy development. DOE created the Clean Cities and Communities Energy and Environmental Justice Initiative (EEJI) to provide coalitions with training and resources to strengthen relationships with underserved communities and take a community-first approach to coalition activities.

This builds on the nearly 30 years of experience within Clean Cities and Communities of working locally in communities across the country to implement alternative fuels, fuel-saving technologies and practices, and new mobility choices. Coalitions can apply this experience to co-create transportation projects alongside community-based partners, together developing our transportation systems in a wholistic way.

Many coalitions have cultivated relationships with underserved communities and are working collaboratively to co-create and implement community-driven projects. Coalitions are also incorporating metrics for evaluating impact on underserved communities and meaningful coalition engagement based on the levels of consultation, collaboration, and enablement in community-driven processes and decisions.

Activities under the EEJI include:

• Providing training for coalitions to understand EEJ principles and apply them to the CC&C mission.
• Building capacity for coalitions to co-create clean transportation projects alongside community-based partners.
• Funding for coalition cohorts to hire a community engagement liaison (CEL) to act as a key partner and bridge between a coalition and organizations that support underserved communities.
• Coalitions identifying funding opportunities to bring further investment into their neighborhoods.
• Coalitions listening to community members' needs and relaying this information back to federal agencies and other decision-makers so investments can better align with real-world priorities.

Resources

Find resources for defining, mapping, and understanding EEJ as it relates to transportation technologies:

• Embracing EEJ at the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office presentation from the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office

• Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool mapping tool from the White House Council on Environmental Quality to identify overburdened and underserved communities, as well as Federally Recognized Tribes and Alaska Native Villages, that are considered disadvantaged communities

• Energy Justice: Key Concepts and Metrics Relevant to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Transportation Projects report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

• Using Mapping Tools to Prioritize Electric Vehicle Charger Benefits to Underserved Communities report from Argonne National Laboratory

• Environmental Justice Impacts of Zero Emissions Vehicles report from the ZEV Alliance, ICF, Forth, and Cenex.

• Guidance for Ethical Engagement in and with Communities resource from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on ethics considerations in the design, structure, implementation, and analysis of engagement activities as well as following up after project completion.

Key Terms

Environmental justice refers to the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Learn more about environmental justice from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Energy justice refers to the goal of achieving equity in both the social and economic participation in the energy system, while also remediating social, economic, and health burdens on those disproportionately harmed by the energy system. Energy justice explicitly centers the concerns of communities at the frontline of pollution and climate change (“frontline communities”), working class people, indigenous communities, and those historically disenfranchised by racial and social inequity. Energy justice aims to make energy accessible, affordable, clean, and democratically managed for all communities. Learn more about energy justice from the Initiative for Energy Justice.