Tonight's EcoAdvocates has a special action item regarding greenhouse gas regulation under the CAA, and it looks at Environmental Justice and Eco Racism. Editor rb137 welcomes special guests The Greenlining Institute who give us a contibution from Communities United Against the Dirty Energy Proposition called Oil Companies Target Communities of Color With Misleading Prop. 23 Campaign, But We’re Fighting Back, and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse who writes Obama Works To End Eco Racism. |
The EPA is the new climate battleground by rb137
In the wake of congress' failure to pass climate legislation, the Obama administration will now regulate greenhouse gases through the EPA by creating new policy, and under the existing Clean Air Act. If they succeed, these will be the first nationwide restrictions on the emissions that contributing to global warming.
The right wing characterizes this approach as a "power grab", and it is viscously fought by big polluters who seek to weaken the agency at every turn. In an ongoing skirmish, individual states are challenging the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases. There is talk of starving the EPA by withholding funds. And -- there is a senate proposal to stall any EPA action under the Clean Air Act with respect to carbon dioxide or methane for two years.
There is no doubt that the EPA is the new battleground for the climate.
Environmental groups united by Clean Energy Works just rolled out a new campaign to push back against special interests that hold our climate hostage. They could really use your help.
- Sign this petition circulated by Clean Energy Works:
For too long, big polluters and their lobbyists have delayed action on clean energy to protect their profits. Now some in Congress want to give polluters free rein to dump carbon pollution into our air by delaying enforcement of the Clean Air Act. Congress should not be cutting a special deal for big polluters. I demand that President Obama, my senators and representative in Congress hold polluters accountable and oppose any effort to let them off the hook.
The petition is coupled to an ad (video shown in the diary intro), and letters signed by small business and public health
groups. They hope to collect a lot of signatures, so they can send it all to congressional leaders early next week.
- Write independent letters to your members of congress and tell them to not give in to big polluters and their lobbyists.
- Tell your friends, and ask them to do the same. This issue will be paramount during the lame duck session of congress, so your letters today will have an impact this fall.
Obama Works To End Eco Racism by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
Thanks to the Fossil Fuel Privilege, everyone pays a Fossil Fuel Tax when we pay the external costs (e.g., health care, quality of life) as corporate welfare for the fossil fuel industry. But poor/minority communities pay far more for a "separate but equal" life of living in areas of the industrial dumping grounds where a number of contaminated sites and industries pollute air, water and land. Society wants the goods and services produced as long as the polluting industries are NIMBY.
Multiple studies document that polluting industries are more likely to be located in minority and poor neighborhoods. For years, our government has acknowledged the disparate treatment with the adverse impacts on health, education and quality of life. Yet, instead of a law to prohibit this racism, our government provides the remedy of an unenforced policy.
After the direct approach of legislation to codify environmental justice has failed, a new approach is to incorporate environmental justice into climate-change measures. One study concluded that measures to address climate change could "benefit poor and minority communities long burdened by industrial pollution if the state takes into account the needs of communities hurt most by climate change." That is, the issue of environmental justice, or the disparate impacts, must be a factor considered with environmental laws, policies, and projects.
President Obama is trying to reduce disparate impacts at the federal level by bringing the issue of environmental justice to federal climate change policy via the Clean Air Act regulatory powers that the deniers and GOP want to eliminate in proposed climate change legislation. The EPA endangerment finding (pdf file) includes consideration of environmental justice by discussing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on certain segments of our population, including the poor and indigenous populations dependent on a few natural resources. The Technical Support Document (TSD) for the EPA endangerment finding provides "an overview of all the major scientific assessments available at the time." The TSD recognizes that the potential impacts of climate change raise environmental justice issues (pdf file) particularly for those living in urban environments without air-conditioning and vulnerable groups, such as the poor.
AB 32 is another example of incorporating environmental justice into climate-change measures. Environmental justice advocate Robert Bullard explained how one problem is that racism became institutionalized in local and federal governments partially because the poor and minority communities did not have a seat at the table when laws and policies were formulated or implemented:
I started connecting the dots in terms of housing, residential patterns, patterns of land use, where highways go, where transportation routes go, and how economic-development decisions are made. It was very clear that people who were making decisions -- county commissioners or industrial boards or city councils -- were not the same people who were "hosting" these facilities in their communities.
Without a doubt, it was a form of apartheid where whites were making decisions and black people and brown people and people of color, including Native Americans on reservations, had no seat at the table.
AB 32 provides a seat by including an environmental justice advisory committee (EJAC) to advise the Air Resources Board when implementing the law as part of the AB 32 law that Prop 23 wants to kill:
- (a) The state board, by July 1, 2007, shall convene an environmental justice advisory committee, of at least three members, to advise it in developing the scoping plan pursuant to Section 38561 and any other pertinent matter in implementing this division. The advisory committee shall be comprised of representatives from communities in the state with the most significant exposure to air pollution, including, but not limited to, communities with minority populations or low-income populations, or both.
AB 32 addresses environmental justice by reducing impacts for everyone and by the EJAC providing a voice at the table for the minority and poor communities. If it survives, then other states may adopt similar measures.
For more details, please see Eco White Privilege and Prop 23 Reinforces Race and Class Discrimination.
Oil Companies Target Communities of Color With Misleading Prop. 23 Campaign, But We’re Fighting Back by Communities United Against the Dirty Energy Proposition
Californians have seen this one before: Once again, special interests are trying to hijack our state’s state ballot to enrich themselves at the expense of our communities.
This time it’s two large Texas oil companies pushing a deceptive ballot proposition. Proposition 23 is a direct threat to our health and our jobs, and it’s being misleadingly sold to low-income Californians and communities of color as a solution to high unemployment.
We’re not going to let them get away with it. Over 70 organizations representing people of color and disadvantaged communities in California have joined together to form Communities United Against the Dirty Energy Proposition. We’re going to make sure our communities hear the truth.
Prop. 23 will block implementation of California’s landmark clean energy law, strangling efforts to end our addiction to oil and other dirty energy sources. Simply put, that means more pollution and more asthma and other lung diseases. It’s well documented that communities of color breathe some of the dirtiest air in our state, leading to higher rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Prop. 23 guarantees that our kids will breathe polluted air for decades.
And the claim that it will save jobs is a scam. California’s clean energy law has helped create half a million jobs in clean energy and related fields. Indeed, this is the only sector of California’s economy that’s been consistently creating jobs through the recession -- and Prop. 23 will throw all that progress away.
We’re going to be outspent big-time by the oil companies, so we need everyone who cares about a clean-energy future to get involved. Here are some things you can do:
- Spread the word. Here’s a short, entertaining video you can send to your friends:
- Donate. Funds are urgently needed to pay for grassroots organizing, literature, get-out-the vote efforts, advertising and other expenses. You can donate online or obtain the necessary information to send a check here, at Communities Against Prop23
- Join the campaign. We’re planning a statewide day of action in October. To get involved, contact Joaquin Sanchez at joaquin@ellabakercenter.org. Organization endorsements also help a lot.
EcoAdvocates is a new series initiated by Meteor Blades and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, who are the founders-creators. This series focuses on providing more effective political pressure and taking action on environmental issues.
Contributing writers provide a diversity of perspectives including wind/energy/climate change; water; agriculture/food; mountaintop removal mining/coal; wildlife; environmental justice; and indigenous/human rights/civil rights. Contributing writers include: Bill McKibben, Jerome a Paris, mogmaar, boatsie, Aji, rb137, Ellinorianne, faithfull, Oke, Jill Richardson, Patric Juillet, Josh Nelson, beach babe in fl, Ojibwa, Muskegon Critic, Desmogblog, A Siegel, gmoke, DWG, citisven, mahakali overdrive, soothsayer99 and FishOutofWater.