"Plans to use billions of infrastructure dollars to clean up and redevelop long-neglected brownsfield waste sites may cause unintended harm to low-income neighborhoods, advocates warned a House panel Wednesday.

A “chronic underfunding” of the Environmental Protection Agency’s program has created a backlog and left one in four applications for local brownfield projects without funding each year, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said at the hearing. The infrastructure investment is projected to generate $30 billion in added private sector investments and 150,000 new jobs, he said.

But environmental justice advocates told lawmakers that the program could lead to unintended consequences, such as gentrification that raises housing costs for poor residents. They also said some commercial and industrial redevelopment, including low-wage warehouse and other operations tied to trucking, can increase air pollution in surrounding communities."

Dean Scott reports for Bloomberg Environment December 8, 2021. [2]