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The Community Guide to Cumulative Impacts explains how to identify and quantify the combined effects of multiple pollutants and social stressors on public health. It details existing state and city laws in the US that allow regulators to deny permits based on cumulative impacts and provides a framework for community organizing, including drafting model legislation and using environmental justice mapping tools.

The document details the history of transit inequality in Boston, specifically focusing on the Roxbury neighborhood, and outlines the advocacy work of Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) and the T Riders Union (TRU) to secure affordable, fair, and sustainable transit services.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) analysis indicates that reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) through increased transportation choices could save the U.S. up to $201 billion in energy infrastructure and $5.9 trillion in vehicle ownership costs by 2050. The report contends that current car dependence is driven by industry lobbying from the auto, fossil fuel, and road-building sectors, which receive over 75 percent of transportation spending. UCS recommends investing in diverse transportation networks, applying equity and climate lenses to project prioritization, and making planning processes more democratic to benefit the 30 percent of Americans who do not drive.

The document details the historical and ongoing struggle of the Allendale neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, against urban highway expansion. It describes how past projects like I-20 and I-49 contributed to racial segregation and population decline in Black communities. The text focuses on the 'zombie freeway'—the I-49 Inner City Connector (I-49 ICC)—which was revived in 2009 and threatens to displace homes and further harm the Allendale community. In response, the Allendale Strong initiative and its 'Loop-It' project have used technical modeling, legal action, and coalitions like the Freeway Fighters Network to challenge the project and propose an alternative that prioritizes wealth-building streets and multimodal transit over highway capacity expansion.

The document highlights a significant disparity in Utah's transportation funding, noting that the state has spent 8.5 times more on highways than transit over the last 50 years. It emphasizes that over 800,000 people in rural Utah have no access to transit, creating barriers to healthcare, employment, and community participation, particularly for older adults, people with disabilities, and low-income residents. The report cites the Moab Area Transit pilot program as a successful model and notes that over 50 percent of rural Utahns support investments in statewide passenger rail and transit services to connect smaller towns to larger cities.

California's transportation sector is transitioning toward renewable electricity, with gasoline demand peaking and zero-emissions vehicle market share exceeding 20 percent in 2023. However, the state faces significant risks due to its 'fuel island' status, lack of pipeline connections to other regions, and a highly concentrated market where five companies control 98 percent of gasoline production capacity. The document emphasizes the need for a managed phase-out to prevent oil companies from evading cleanup responsibilities or exploiting reduced competition to cause price spikes. It advocates for the use of the California Energy Commission's new oversight authorities to ensure an equitable transition that prioritizes public health and community revitalization over industry profits.

The Union of Concerned Scientists' fact sheet advocates for fairer electoral redistricting by prioritizing the representation of Communities of Interest (COIs) and strengthening public participation. It highlights the risks of gerrymandering and polarization, citing North Carolina as an example, and provides a set of 'Election Science Recommendations' for redistricting authorities to implement inclusive input processes, provide open-source mapping tools, and ensure accessibility for language minorities and people with disabilities.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) analyzed 38 US federal agencies to evaluate their adherence to the 2021 presidential memorandum on scientific integrity. The analysis focused on three metrics: the publication of updated scientific integrity policies, the public designation of a senior career scientific integrity official, and the publication of annual reports on scientific integrity investigations. The findings indicate widespread non-compliance, with a majority of agencies failing to meet all three criteria by mid-2024.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) reports that political interference in government science is an ongoing issue, with 326 documented attacks across the last four presidential administrations. An analysis of 38 federal agencies found that 71% show low or nonexistent compliance with scientific integrity requirements established by the Biden administration. The report advocates for agency-level reforms to communication and enforcement, as well as the passage of legislation such as the Scientific Integrity Act to ensure accountability across different administrations.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) evaluated 38 federal agencies on their adherence to scientific integrity metrics, finding that 71% scored 'poor' or 'worst'. The report argues that political interference in science disproportionately harms underserved communities and proposes a blueprint for the next presidential administration to strengthen scientific integrity through better policy enforcement, transparency, and the integration of environmental justice principles.

The Union of Concerned Scientists interviewed 19 legal experts to identify critical research gaps in climate litigation. The report categorizes these into three priority areas—attribution science, human health, and economic modeling—and five strategic areas, including greenwashing and emissions accounting. A central cross-cutting theme is the need for research on losses and damages. The authors emphasize that while IPCC reports provide a foundation, litigation requires more granular, geographically specific data and better communication between scientists and legal teams to overcome barriers such as differing timelines and data gaps in the Global South.

The report argues that poor ballot design and inaccessible education materials lead to higher rates of uncounted votes, particularly among marginalized populations. It provides specific guidelines for election officials to reduce overvotes and undervotes through better layout, plain language, and accessibility features for voters with limited English proficiency and disabilities.

The document details how integrating solar energy with agriculture (agrivoltaics) and ecosystem functions (ecovoltaics) can reduce water use, diversify farm income, and support biodiversity. It highlights specific benefits for disadvantaged communities and provides recommendations for financing, pilot projects, and permitting to encourage adoption over traditional solar installations.

Governors from four states request close coordination with PJM Interconnection to implement FERC Order No. 1920, aiming to align regional transmission planning with state public policy goals, support low-and-zero emission energy resources, and utilize federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

A group of scientists and researchers calls on Citi to cease financing fossil fuel expansion, citing the bank's role as the second-largest financier of fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. The authors argue that such financing exacerbates the climate crisis and disproportionately harms frontline communities, specifically mentioning impacts in the US, the Amazon, and the Niger delta. They demand a phase-out of coal, oil, and gas financing, an end to LNG project funding, increased investment in renewable energy, and restitution for the bank's role in fueling climate chaos.

A Union of Concerned Scientists analysis of non-transportation BIL awards in California from fiscal years 2022 and 2023 indicates that local investments are likely falling short of Justice40 goals. Depending on the screening tool used, only 9.4% to 18.2% of analyzed local funding is flowing to designated disadvantaged communities. The report highlights significant data gaps, particularly regarding statewide formula funding, and recommends a transparent, unified tracking system and a clear definition of 'benefits' to ensure equitable infrastructure spending.

The document describes a spatial and recipient-based analysis of federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding in California from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2023. It compares two environmental justice screening tools—the federal Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) and California's SB 535—to identify disadvantaged communities. The analysis focuses on non-transportation grants, as transportation spending accounted for over 88 percent of the total obligated spending ($16.07 billion) and is tracked separately by the state. The authors highlight significant data limitations in USASpending.gov, including agency non-reporting and inaccuracies in 'place of performance' fields, which may hinder the tracking of Justice40 goals.

The document details the technical approach for mapping disruptive flooding and its impact on critical infrastructure across US territories. It describes the use of NOAA tide gauge data, digital elevation models, and three sea level rise scenarios (low, medium, and high) to project inundation. The analysis overlays these flood maps with datasets covering housing, education, industrial sites, energy, government, and health facilities, while incorporating socioeconomic data from the White House Council on Environmental Quality to assess impacts on disadvantaged communities.

The Union of Concerned Scientists analysis finds that climate-driven sea level rise will expose over 1,600 critical infrastructure assets in the US to disruptive flooding at least twice per year by 2050. Public and affordable housing are the most vulnerable assets, with a disproportionate burden falling on disadvantaged communities. By 2100, the scale of risk depends heavily on global emissions, with the high scenario potentially affecting 15,081 assets. The report recommends science-informed planning, scaled-up funding, and a focus on reducing historical inequities to build coastal resilience.

The report argues that decentralized election administration in the US has created a patchwork of transparency policies that can undermine democratic legitimacy and disproportionately affect marginalized communities. It provides specific recommendations for improving the accessibility and accuracy of voter files, the transparency of ballot processing and tracking, and the implementation of robust ballot curing and risk-limiting audit procedures.