Chellie Pingree: “Once again, I am kind of caught in this challenge of not understanding exactly what it is that my colleagues don't like…”

“Once again, I am kind of caught in this challenge of not understanding exactly what it is that my colleagues don't like about the term ``environmental justice,'' or in this case, ``ocean justice.'' It seems like ``justice'' is a word that we are very comfortable with in a patriotic way that everyone understands. Justice is important in this country. As a Member who represents as much coastline as anybody in here that is extremely impacted by the challenges that are going on in the ocean, such as sea level rise and extreme storms, I have to deal with these questions. I think it is totally appropriate to have a justice strategy in making sure that we have equitability in how we take care of people. If you live in a community where it is underresourced and are impacted by these ocean storms that come at us with total surprise--for example, a winter storm or nor'easter, as we call them, or a hurricane in the southern part of the country, and there aren't resources to rebuild. Perhaps sea level rise is making it so that your community needs to be moved. I was talking last night about the 31 Native communities in Alaska that have to be moved because of sea level rise. If you don't have a justice lens, somebody might turn around and just say: I am sorry. This community isn't valuable enough. You don't have the resources, and your people can't move their own homes.…”