Choking Chester

Those of you who've been receiving this for a little while may recall my post from February about the trash incinerator in Chester, PA, where my book, The Mayor, is set.

Well, now Chester is set to receive another dose of health-damaging pollution thanks to Donald Trump. It may be the clearest case of environmental racism yet from Trump.

Yesterday, Trump's Environmental Protection Agency rolled back regulations on emissions from heavy-duty trucks. The Biden administration had established new rules to tighten those regulations, aimed at reducing a number of pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, from burning diesel.

Chester, like other minority-majority towns, cities and neighborhoods around the country, had an interstate shoved right through the middle of town. Today I-95, the main interstate artery on the east coast, one of the busiest highways in the nation, sends millions of vehicles, including many heavy trucks, through Chester. In addition, the Commodore Barry Bridge, which links New Jersey with Pennsylvania across the Delaware River, was built through Chester, demolishing big swaths of neighborhood. And Pennsylvania 291, along the river, carries heavy truck traffic to that trash incinerator. In the 1960s and 1970s, when a lot of these roads were built, many wealthier white people were moving out of places like Chester and into new suburbs. The big highways did not typically run through their backyards.

Already, today, asthma inhalers are among the most common bits of trash found along Chester's streets and gutters. Now, thanks to Trump, Chester's gaping health disparities will be aggravated by dirtier trucks. People living near port facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, Houston and other places, many of whom are poorer, will face more health-damaging pollution, too.

If you want to see American inequality, and historical racial capitalism at work, here's a stark example.