Environmental Justice EJ

=aha proxy for all ?! see constellation (energy? connaughton, CB gray?)carson wiki:  <a href="http://rachelcarson-wiki.lt.ucsc.edu/wiki/Category:Environmental_Justice">http://rachelcarson-wiki.lt.ucsc.edu/wiki/Category:Environmental_Justice</a>With the rise of new technologies like fracking and horizontal drilling, oil and gas development in the U.S. has exploded over the last 15 years. As development expands, it's also pushing ever closer into areas where people live. It's been estimated that today more than 15 million Americans live within one mile of oil and gas development.
The drilling process, of course, has the potential to emit toxic substances, including the carcinogen benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and diesel exhaust, into the surrounding air and waterways. But researchers have long been trying to determine to what extent oil and gas drilling operations may threaten public health, particularly around cancer risk.However, new research suggests that children living in areas of high-density oil and gas development may face increased risk of health impacts, namely a certain type of leukemia, as a result of their exposure to pollutants associated with this activity.
In some parts of Colorado where oil and gas development is especially concentrated, hundreds of oil and gas wells reportedly lie within one mile of residential areas. And according to a recent study, children and young adults who were diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia were 4.3 times more likely to live within 10 miles of an active oil and gas well than kids with other types of cancer.This finding, published in the scientific journal PLOS One, applied to youth between 5 and 24 years old. The study did not find a connection between other types of cancer, such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma and proximity to oil and gas wells.
"Over 378,000 Coloradans and millions of Americans currently live within a mile of at least one oil and gas well and petroleum development continues to expand into residential areas," Dr. Lisa McKenzie, professor with the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz and the lead author of the study, said in a statement."The findings from our registry-based case control study indicate that young Coloradans diagnosed with one type of childhood leukemia are more likely to live in the densest areas of oil and gas sites. More comprehensive research that can address our study's limitations is needed to understand and explain these results."
While oil and gas development can and does happen in urban areas (see: Los Angeles), McKenzie's team limited their research to Colorado's small towns and rural areas with populations under 50,000 people. They used data collected by the Colorado Central Cancer Registry to find more than 740 young Coloradans under 24 years old who were diagnosed with cancer between 2001 and 2013.In order to analyze these children's proximity to oil and gas development at diagnosis, the researchers then employed information from the Colorado Oil and Gas Information System to determine both the coordinates of all oil and gas wells in rural Colorado and timing when each well was active. 
The study team notes in the PLOS One paper that environmental factors such as pollution from oil and gas wells are unlikely to fully explain incidence of cancer on their own, but that they are a significant influence:
A number of factors, including genetic predisposition and susceptibility, as well as environmental factors, come together in the development of childhood cancers through a two step process, the first of which likely occurs in utero. Environmental factors that may be associated with [acute lymphocytic leukemia] include in-utero and postnatal exposures to vehicle exhaust fumes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and chemicals including benzene and other hydrocarbons.
McKenzie and her co-authors called for more research to confirm their findings, recommending that those studies take into account nuances such the type and level of oil and gas development and production, the amounts of benzene and other pollutants and pollutant levels at locations such as schools and childcare facilities.
But a key takeaway of the study seems to be that fracking and horizontal drilling have enabled oil and gas development to encroach more and more into places where people live (something the city of Greeley, Colorado, is grappling with firsthand) and as the researchers noted, "This has the potential to expose a large population to oil and gas development related pollutants."
Reposted with permission from our media associate DeSmogBlog.see NAACPc8 wiki <a href="http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Category:Environmental_Justice#News_and_Reports">http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Category:Environmental_Justice#News_and_Reports</a>==kern cty CA<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/07/28/color-pollution-how-environmental-contamination-targets-people-color">http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/07/28/color-pollution-how-environmental-contamination-targets-people-color</a><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/07/28/color-pollution-how-environmental-contamination-targets-people-color">
</a>
With about 42,000 active wells, Kern County, California is home to

three-quarters of California's oil drilling and 95 percent of the

state’s hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activity.

This mainly rural region is the largest oil-producing county in the U.S.

The influence of oil and gas is so great here that in late 2015 the

county board of supervisors approved a new ordinance to allow drilling

permits for tens of thousands of new wells to be fast tracked.

Time span for the new ordinance? Two decades. Ongoing environmental review? None. Public participation? Not allowed==
bullard: 2006 interview
<a href="http://grist.org/article/dicum/">http://grist.org/article/dicum/</a>
<section class="article-body clearfix">

     <p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Robert Bullard says he was “drafted” into environmental justice

while working as an environmental sociologist in Houston in the late

1970s. His work there on the siting of garbage dumps in black

neighborhoods identified systematic patterns of injustice. The book that

Bullard eventually wrote about that work, 1990’s <a href="http://www.powells.com/partner/25450/biblio/61-0813367921-3" target="new"><cite>Dumping in Dixie</cite></a>, is widely regarded as the first to fully articulate the concept of environmental justice.

Since then, Bullard, who is as much activist as academic, has been

one of the leading voices of environmental-justice advocacy. He was one

of the planners of the First National People of Color Environmental

Leadership Summit in 1991, at which the <a href="http://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html" target="new">organizing principles</a> of modern environmental justice were formulated. Bullard later helped the Clinton administration write the watershed <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/land/envjust.html" target="new">executive order</a> that required all federal agencies to consider environmental justice in their programs.

Under the Bush administration, progress made during the 1990s is under attack, with even the U.S. EPA working to <a href="http://grist.org/article/griscom-envjustice/">dismantle that provision</a>.

As he has for 25 years, Bullard stands at the forefront of efforts to

maintain environmental-justice gains, and to make mainstream

environmentalists aware of the issues at stake.

Currently on sabbatical from his position as director of the <a href="http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/" target="new">Environmental Justice Resource Center</a> at Clark Atlanta University, Bullard has just published his 12th book. <a href="http://www.powells.com/partner/25450/biblio/7-1578051207-1" target="new"><cite>The Quest for Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution</cite></a> brings together more than 20 contributors for a survey of the movement’s past and future.

Grist caught up with Bullard as he took a break from working on a Ford Foundation-funded study of how government actions have <a href="http://grist.org/article/dicum/">endangered the health and welfare</a>

of African Americans over the past seven decades. Most recently, this

work has turned Bullard’s attention to the area devastated by <a href="http://grist.org/article/katrina3/">Hurricane Katrina</a>, which he describes as the latest urban environmental sacrifice zone.

How did you first become involved in environmental justice?

I was a young sociology professor just two years out

of graduate school. My wife asked me to collect data for a lawsuit she

had filed. A company had decided to put a landfill in the middle of a

predominantly black, middle-class, suburban neighborhood — a

neighborhood where 85 percent of the people owned their homes. Of

course, the state gave them a permit, but the people said “no.”

I saw that 100 percent of all the city-owned landfills

in Houston were in black neighborhoods, though blacks made up only 25

percent of the population. Three out of four of the privately owned

landfills were located in predominantly black neighborhoods, and six out

of eight of the city-owned incinerators. In a city that does not have

zoning, it meant that these were decisions made by individuals in

government.

That’s how I got dragged into this.

And you got hooked.

I got hooked. 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.

Just before Hurricane Katrina, you were getting

ready to look at natural disasters as part of a study of how government

actions endanger the health of African Americans in the South. How does

Katrina fit the historical pattern?

Katrina was not isolated. It was not an aberration,

and it was not incompetence on the part of FEMA and Michael Brown and

the Bush administration. This has been going on for a long time under

Republicans and Democrats, and the central theme that drives all of this

is race and class.

You’ve done a lot of work with schools. Why is that of particular concern?

Poor children in urban areas are poisoned in their

homes. And when they go to school, they get another dose. And when they

go outside and play, they get another dose. It’s a slow-motion disaster:

the most vulnerable population in our society is children, and the most

vulnerable children are children of color. If we protect the most

vulnerable in our society — these children — we protect everybody.

Can you give a sense of the scale of the problem surrounding these schools?

Moton Elementary School, in New Orleans, is built on

top of a landfill, causing lots of problems with the water in the

school. The playgrounds in Norco, La., in <a href="http://grist.org/article/little-louisiana/">Cancer Alley</a>,

are across from a huge Shell refinery. You stay there 15 minutes and

you can’t breathe. And in South Camden, N.J., there are schools and

playgrounds on the waterfront where you have all this industry, all this

nasty stuff. Almost two-thirds of the children in that neighborhood

have asthma. In West Harlem, the North River Water Treatment Plant

covers eight blocks near a school. On the south side of Chicago, it’s

the same kind of thing.

From coast to coast, you see this happening. It’s not

just the landfill, it’s not just the incinerator, it’s not just the

garbage dump, it’s not just the crisscrossing freeway and highway, and

the bus barns that dump all that stuff in these neighborhoods — it’s all

that combined. Even if each particular facility is in compliance, there

are no regulations that take into account this saturation. It may be

legal, but it is immoral. Just like slavery was legal, but slavery has

always been immoral.

Let’s look at a <a href="http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/DicksonArticleRDB.html" target="new">specific case</a>

in which you’re an expert witness: In Dickson County, Tenn., a county

that is just over 4 percent black, a landfill was sited in the middle of

a poor black community several decades ago. The dump was later a

candidate for Superfund status, yet black families contend that

authorities told them their water was OK to drink, even as they were

telling white families not to drink it. In 2003, one family whose land

borders the dump began a lawsuit against the county and the company that

allegedly dumped the industrial waste. What does it take for a

community to stand up against such comprehensive injustice?

In every struggle, somebody has to step forward, just

like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. In this case, it’s the Holt

family: they have drawn a line in the dirt and said “no.”

Every time I go there, I’m amazed at their spirits.

These are fighters, from strong stock: this is a community of black

people who owned land dating back over 100 years. They are resilient.

But at the same time, they’re sick. Harry Holt is the patriarch in the

family right now, and he has cancer. His daughter, Sheila Holt-Orsted,

has cancer. His son has an immune deficiency.

That’s how these lawsuits play out: it’s a waiting

game. The people with the money can wait the longest, and the people who

are sick generally can’t, because at some point, sick people die. And

they know that. That is the cruelty and the horrific nature of

environmental racism.

What keeps you going?

People who fight. People like the Holt family. People

who do not let the garbage trucks and the landfills and the

petrochemical plants roll over them. That has kept me in this movement

for the last 25 years.

And in the last 10 years, we’ve been winning: lawsuits

are being won, reparations are being paid, apologies are being made.

These companies have been put on notice that they can’t do this anymore,

anywhere.

It’s no longer overt policy to practice

environmental racism in this country, yet it keeps happening. Where is

the locus of the problem now?

Now it’s institutional racism. You don’t have a lot of

individuals out there wearing sheets and hoods. Instead you see it as

the policies get played out. On their face, policies may appear to be

race-neutral. They say, “We’re going to look at unemployment, poverty

rates, and educational level,” but the poorest areas oftentimes

correspond to racialized places. Without even talking about race, you

can almost predict where these locally unwanted land uses, or LULUs,

will go.

In your 2003 book <a href="http://www.powells.com/partner/25450/biblio/0262511312" target="new"><cite>Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World</cite></a>,

you took a look at what sustainability means from an

environmental-justice perspective. Is there such a thing as

sustainability without justice?

No, there’s not. This whole question of environment,

economics, and equity is a three-legged stool. If the third leg of that

stool is dealt with as an afterthought, that stool won’t stand. The

equity components have to be given equal weight. But racial and economic

and social equity can be very painful topics: people get uncomfortable

when questions of poor people and race are raised.

In your latest book, you wrote, “Building a

multiethnic, multiracial, multi-issue, anti-racist movement is not

easy.” That seems like a huge understatement. Has anything like that

ever been done?

No. What we’re up against is really trying to

disentangle and unpack a lot of baggage, from slavery to colonialism to

neo-colonialism to imperialism, and all those -isms that have really

served as wedges.

For example, before we had the First National People

of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, there was very little

interaction and understanding and collaboration among African Americans

and Latino Americans and Native Americans and Asian and Pacific Islander

Americans on anything. We had the civil-rights movement, but the modern

civil-rights movement was not necessarily your model multiethnic,

multiracial movement.

There was friction and lots of confrontations and

animosities in terms of who’s going to lead and the extent to which

paternalism and racism and sexism could be eliminated. The

environmental-justice movement took on the huge task of breaking down

mistrust and stereotypes and the internalized racisms that we’re all

victims of. You have some dynamics that are really very complex. But

we’ve made a lot of progress: we’ve worked out the relationships for

partnering and respecting leadership styles.

There are a couple of cases in your latest book of

people involved in local struggles who went on to hold elected office.

How representative is that of environmental justice as a leadership

incubator?

In at least a quarter of cases, the leaders that

emerge to work on local environmental-justice issues get involved in

electoral politics. They get elected to school boards, city councils,

and run for state representative. And 35 percent of them are women.

In other cases, they become the go-to people when it

comes to, “What about jobs? What about this facility? Will it be a good

thing or is this just a sell job?” Whether they be retired school

teachers or retired mail carriers or little old grandmothers who have

lots of time to devote to these issues, this is the training ground for

leaders.

<a href="http://grist.org/article/dicum4/">Marshall Ganz</a>

has pointed out that many of the mainstream, national environmental

groups are D.C.-based lobbying organizations that don’t have the really

engaged grassroots constituencies you’re describing. How do you see

these two different kinds of groups working together?

The environmental-justice movement was never about

creating little black Greenpeaces or little brown Environmental Defenses

or little red Audubon Societies. These organizations have their

expertise and when we can work together and maximize our strengths,

that’s when we win.

There’s division of labor that can work to the

advantage of this whole movement. When the mainstream national

environmental groups pair up with environmental-justice groups that have

the ability to mobilize large numbers of constituents — to get people

marching and filling up those courtrooms and city council meetings —

that’s when you can talk about an environmental movement.

A great example of how it should be done is happening

right now in Louisiana. The Natural Resources Defense Council is

partnering with the <a href="http://www.dscej.com/" target="new">Deep South Center for Environmental Justice</a> and the <a href="http://www.leanweb.org/" target="new">Louisiana Environmental Action Network</a>

to work on testing and issues of environmental justice after Katrina.

NRDC brings a lot of expertise, but is respecting those organizations

based in New Orleans and Cancer Alley. They’re really showing how a

national group and local groups can form a relationship that is

principled.

So you’re hopeful?

On our side we have lots of committed troops on the

ground and a growing movement of young people. Because of the way race

operates in this society, there are some people — poor white people, for

example — who have been given blinders; they’re blinded by racism and

have voted against their own best interests. When we take the blinders

off and allow every single American to rise and reach his or her

potential without these artificial barriers, then we could really become

a great country.

What environmental-justice issues might we be surprisingly close to breaking through on?

Globally we’ve got a long way to go, but the fact is

we don’t have a lot of time — I think that reality will force

collaboration. An awareness that what we do in the developed world

doesn’t just impact us is now pretty much a given. But we have to move

that to another level of action and policy: the framework that

environmental justice has laid out can resonate across a lot of

developing countries.

In the end, I think we’ll be able to get our message out because it’s based on principles and it’s based on truth and justice.

<a href="http://grist.org/article/dicum/">Click here</a> to read more thoughts from Robert Bullard on Katrina and institutionalized racism.

    </section><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>===</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">An executive from a top shale drilling firm told attendees of a fossil fuels seminar in Pennsylvania earlier this month that fracking companies deliberately avoid setting up shop near the "big houses" of the wealthy, the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette&nbsp;</em><a href="http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/latest-oil-and-gas/2016/04/18/Executive-s-remark-about-shale-gas-well-sites-prompts-sharp-criticism-calls-for-review/stories/201604180027" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">reports</a>.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and the Center for Coalfield Justice, last week sent a letter to the state Office of Environmental Justice to review Range Resources' practices to see if it has indeed avoided rich neighborhoods and targeted<a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2015/may/pennsylvania-fracking-environmental-justice-poor-economics" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">&nbsp;low-income areas</a>for shale gas development. Attorneys from both organizations were present at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's Environmental Law Forum on April 7.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The comments were made by <b>Terry Bossert, Range's</b> vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs, and were reportedly made off-the-cuff as he was giving a PowerPoint presentation titled "Environmental Issues Facing the Oil and Gas Industry."...</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#333333" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://commondreams.org/news/2016/04/22/fracking-executive-says-rich-neighborhoods-safe-drill-sites" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://commondreams.org/news/2016/04/22/fracking-executive-says-rich-neighborhoods-safe-drill-sites</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 14.4px;">==</span></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2016</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?408289-1/book-tv-tuscaloosa-alabama">http://www.c-span.org/video/?408289-1/book-tv-tuscaloosa-alabama</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="video-page-title" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(52, 73, 94);">Book TV in Tuscaloosa, Alabama</span>&nbsp;C-SPAN’s Local Content Vehicles (LCVs) made a stop in their “2016 LCV Cities Tour” in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, from March 19-24 to feature the history and literary life of the community. Working with the Comcast cable local affiliate, they visited literary and historic sites where local historians, authors, and civic leaders were interviewed. The history segments air on American History TV (AHTV) on C-SPAN3 and the literary events/non-fiction author segments air on Book TV on C-SPAN2.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Programs included in the Book TV segment:</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Book Discussion on&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Turning the Tide</i></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">408272-1</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Book Discussion on&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Baptized in PCBs</i></b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">408275-1</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Book Discussion on&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Visions of the Black Belt</i></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">408274-1</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Book Discussion on&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Darkroom</i></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">408276-1</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(89, 89, 89); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Book Discussion on&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">All Out of Faith</i></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2014 panel</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?321984-4/panel-discussion-race-inequality">http://www.c-span.org/video/?321984-4/panel-discussion-race-inequality</a></font></p><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">UNC Press - Baptized in PCBs</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">www.uncpress.unc.edu/.../boo...</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Paper. ISBN 978-1-4696-2729-8. Published: February 2016. Baptized in PCBs. Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town. By Ellen Griffith Spears ...</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.amazon.com/Baptized-PCBs-Pollution-Justice-AllAmerican/dp/1482970155</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>In the mid 1990s, residents of Anniston, Alabama, began a legal fight against the agrochemical company Monsanto over the dumping of PCBs in the city's historically African American and white working class west side.</b>&nbsp;Simultaneously, Anniston environmentalists sought to safely eliminate chemical weaponry that had been secretly stockpiled near the city during the Cold War. In this probing work, Ellen Griffith Spears offers a compelling narrative of Anniston's battles for environmental justice, exposing how systemic racial and class inequalities reinforced during the Jim Crow era played out in these intense contemporary social movements. Spears focuses attention on key figures who shaped Anniston from Monsanto's founders to white and African American activists to the ordinary Anniston residents whose lives and health were deeply affected by the town's military industrial history and the legacy of racism. Situating the personal struggles and triumphs of Anniston residents within a larger national story of regulatory regimes and legal strategies that have affected toxic towns across America, Spears unflinchingly explores the causes and implications of environmental inequalities, showing how civil rights movement activism undergirded Anniston's campaigns for redemption and justice.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">www.amazon.com › Books › History › Americas</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Amazon.com, Inc.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-... and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. ... Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an AllAmerican Town MP3 CD – Audiobook, MP3 Audio. ... Save Big On Open-Box & Pre-owned: Buy "Baptized in ...</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/04/book-review-ellen-griffith-spears-baptized-in-pcbs-race-pollution-and-justice-in-an-all-american-town</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ellen Spears’ new environmental history of the chemical industry in Anniston, Alabama is a worthy addition to the literature on environmental justice. She tells the story of Anniston, a city noted for the burning of the Freedom Riders bus in 1961, through both the narrative of civil rights and also the narrative of a modern postwar New South city dominated by the military-industrial complex. Monsanto sited one of its largest plants in Anniston and poisoned the poor and African-American part of the city with massive PCB production. Yet even as the environmental movement fought against PCB production and succeeding in ending the production of these extremely toxic substances in Anniston, Monsanto never got around to telling the local people what was in their soil and water. This quite readable story of race, environmental justice, and chemical corporate greed in one southern city is well worth the time of interested general readers.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Anniston was more of a postbellum southern city and as a representative of the New South, it cultivated both an industry-friendly pose and a city leadership that attempted moderation on racial issues, albeit well within a Jim Crow framework. Even during the bus bombings, the city’s leadership attempted to distance itself from this violence, although without granting rights to African-Americans. Like other New South cities, it attempted to cultivate a reputation of civility, even as its white citizens acted violently toward blacks. In the early 20th century, it began attracting attention from the growing chemical industry.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>This growing chemical industry merged with the militarization of the United States after World War II, as national sacrifice zones developed to develop the weapons the U.S. wanted to fight the Cold War.</b>&nbsp;Of course, most of these places took advantage of those who were poor and people of color. So the Mormon and Paiute downwinders of Nevada and Utah, the poor whites living outside of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the African-Americans of Anniston became those who would have to live with the impact of this production. As Spears notes, “pollution is related to other forms of inequality,” and disadvantaged people struggling for basic rights in this nation also struggled to maintain control over their bodies from the vast pollution around them because they were so poor. For wealthier and whiter Anniston in most of the 20th century, pollution was simply the price of progress. And with nonexistent or limited regulation, the corporations simply had no need to tell local people what was happening.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Monsanto developed in St. Louis in 1901 and became a major player in the synthetic chemical industry by World War I. It began expanding its product lines after World War I and entered the nascent PCB market in the 1930s. From very early, Monsanto knew of PCBs dangers because some of its workers got sick and died from exposure. But many of the laborers in the Anniston plant were African-American and so the need to tell them about any of these health issues was essentially nonexistent.</b>&nbsp;Instead, Monsanto tried to shape public relations around the chemicals, assuring the public of their safety and value. That worked for awhile locally, but nationally, the environmental movement began organizing against DDT, PCBs, and other chemicals poisoning the nation. The company had a lot of lose with PCB regulations and bans and its hired scientists went so far as to commit outright fraud in their scientific reports about the safety of PCBs. It worried about being held legally responsible for all its pollution as early as 1970, as up to 80 pounds of PCBs were coming out of the plant in a single day. Finally, PCB production was banned in the United States in 1979 and Monsanto adjusted very nicely.</span></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Through all of this, even as Monsanto was warning its industrial customers about handling PCBs, the company said absolutely nothing to the people who lived near the plant.&nbsp;</b>As public knowledge of the dangers of PCBs built in the nation, activist groups began in Anniston. These usually developed out of the civil rights movement, as activists by the late 1970s started noticing the correlation between impoverished black parts of the country and where corporations and the government sited toxicity. African-Americans in Anniston had long been concerned about the impact of the factory on their community. They soon built upon the nascent environmental justice movement and began organizing to keep themselves and their neighborhoods safe. Making this all the more important was&nbsp;<b>U.S. Army plans to build an incinerator in Anniston to burn chemical weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot as the Cold War ran down. Both corporate and government entities were actively degrading the bodies of the largely African-American population living near these facilities.</b></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">With the discovery of deformed fish in nearby streams, the movement to hold Monsanto accountable really took off in the early 1990s. The activists took Monsanto to court both for compensation for the PCBs and to stop the development of the incinerator. Of course, Monsanto contested every claim. When one scientist based his expert opinion of Monsanto’s culpability by noting the high rates of PCBs in local residents’ blood, the company’s lawyers called him a “fringe scientist.” The company claimed it simply had no idea how contaminated west Anniston was and besides, it was “not a liability issue anymore because it happened so long ago”(257). But in 2003, the lawsuits finally ended with&nbsp;<b>Monsanto agreeing to a $400 million settlement.</b>&nbsp;Yet the attorneys received 40 percent of this money because they were working on a percentage, leaving a great deal of resentment over the attorney fees and a continuing struggle to recoup some of that money today. Plus the cleanup procedures uprooted people from their homes, disrupted ways of life, and destroyed communities. There was no real win for the people who Monsanto had made suffer.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This review is a bit unbalanced compared to the focus of the book. If I have any criticism of the book, it’s that the in depth discussions of the trials and aftermath might be a bit lengthy, taking up about third of the book. Yet while not every detail might be of particular use to scholars, it probably does engage general readers who are interested in how the case developed and who wins and who loses in these struggles. Overall, it’s a very good book, a quality addition to the literature, and likely on my syllabus the next time I teach a graduate seminar in Environmental History.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Book Review: Ellen Griffith Spears: Baptized in PCBs: Race ...</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com › General</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Apr 25, 2015 - Ellen Spears' new environmental history of the chemical industry in Anniston, Alabama is a worthy addition to the literature on environmental ...</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>3 Toxins Found in the Cord Blood of Every One of the 10 Newborns Tested</b>&nbsp;National media outlets, public health officials and Congress have all focused recently on lead contamination in drinking water. The tainted water in Flint, Michigan, Newark, New Jersey and many other communities around the country poses a serious, potentially lifelong public health threat to millions.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Most of us encounter chemicals that can cause brain damage, cancer and other serious health problems in a place critical to human development—the mother’s womb. But industrial pollution in people happens long before they take their first sip of water. Most of us encounter chemicals that can cause brain damage, cancer and other serious health problems in a place critical to human development—the mother’s womb.</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2009, Environmental Working Group (EWG) conducted a pioneering study testing the umbilical cord blood of 10 babies for toxic chemicals. In all, the tests found more than 230 industrial pollutants across the 10 samples. Among those that were in the cord blood of every one of the 10 newborns were<b>&nbsp;lead, mercury and&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)</span></b>. 4/16</font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: large;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/15/robert-kennedy-jr-monsanto-rider/" style="font-size: large;">http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/15/robert-kennedy-jr-monsanto-rider/</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><h1 class="title" itemprop="name"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Slander suit against citizens battling Alabama coal ash dump</span> shows downsides of landfill disposal</font></h1><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">

    <p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Officers of a grassroots citizens group whose members have been

embroiled in a civil rights complaint involving the Alabama landfill

that took in coal ash waste from a 2008 spill at a TVA plant in

Tennessee are now facing a $30 million libel and slander suit from the

landfill's corporate owner.

The latest struggle facing <a href="http://blackbeltcitizens.wix.com/blackbeltcitizens">Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice</a>

shows the myriad difficulties facing communities near sites targeted

for what's being promoted as a safer way of disposing of toxic power

plant waste than dumping it in unlined, leaky wet impoundments.

Back in December 2008, a dam at one of these wet impoundments burst

at TVA's Kingston power plant near Harriman, Tennessee. The disaster

sent a billion gallons of waste laden with contaminants including

arsenic and lead into a residential community and the Clinch and Emory

rivers and sparked a national move to better regulate coal ash and end

risky wet storage.

Much of the waste scraped up from the Kingston disaster site — about

4 million tons — ended up being shipped by TVA some 300 miles by train

to the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown, Alabama, <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/07/decision-to-dump-tvas-spilled-coal-waste-in-alabama-community-sparks-resistance.html">over the protests of many residents</a>.

The landfill is permitted for household garbage, which coal ash is

regulated as under law despite its potential toxicity. Local residents

fought the landfill even before its opening in 2007, and the decision to

dump TVA's coal ash there only intensified their concerns.

One of those concerns was about environmental injustice. Roane

County, Tennessee, where the spill occurred, is over 94 percent white

and less than 3 percent African-American, with about 14 percent of

residents living in poverty. Perry County, Alabama, where the landfill

is located, is over 68 percent African-American and is the state's

poorest county, with over 35 percent of residents living in poverty. In

Uniontown, 88 percent of residents are African-American and almost half

live in poverty.

In 2013, 35 Perry County residents including Black Belt Citizens activists filed a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2067658-12r-13-r4-complaint-redacted.html">civil rights complaint</a>

with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Civil Rights

against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM),

which permits the landfill to take coal ash and other waste from 33

states. The complaint alleges the landfill has disproportionately harmed

African-American property owners, some of whom live just 100 feet away

from the facility. It cites health concerns including respiratory

problems, headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, as well as

unpleasant odors, fugitive dust, pest problems, and depressed property

values.

A 2015 <a href="https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/08/05/17703/thirty-miles-selma-different-kind-civil-rights-struggle">report</a>

by the Center for Public Integrity found that ADEM has been the target

of 11 civil-rights complaints over 17 years — among the most of any

state environmental agency. ADEM maintains that it complies with Title

VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial

discrimination by those receiving federal financial assistance.

The complaint remains under investigation.

'This lawsuit is outrageous'

In the latest twist in the fight over the landfill, the facility's current owner — <a href="http://www.gghcorp.com/">Green Group Holdings LLC </a>of

Canton, Georgia — is suing Black Belt Citizens' officers for slander

and libel. The lawsuit announced last week accuses them of using the

group's website and Facebook page "in a false and malicious manner" and

says they have made "knowingly false" statements to the media.

The lawsuit focuses on comments made by visitors to the group's Facebook page relating to controversies over the landfill's <a href="http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/12/arrowhead_landfill_uniontown_r.html">activities near an old cemetery</a>

and accusations that the facility is polluting the community and

oppressing local residents. Among the comments the lawsuit calls false

and defamatory are these remarks by the group's president, Esther

Calhoun. The bold text is the plaintiff's own, showing what the company

objects to:

"Its a landfill, its a tall mountain of coal ash and it has affected us. It affected our everyday life. It really has done a lot to our freedom. Its another impact of slavery. ...Cause we are in a black residence, things change? And you can't walk outside. And you can not breathe. I mean, you are in like prison. I mean, its like all your freedom is gone.

As a black woman, our voices are not heard. EPA hasn't listened and

ADEM has not listened. Whether you are white or black, rich or poor, it

should still matter and we all should have the right to clean air and clean water. I want to see EPA do their job."</blockquote>

Last November, and again last month, the company's attorney demanded

that Black Belt Citizens delete and also retract and repudiate the

posts. The group removed them but refused to retract and repudiate them.

Arguing that the defendants have thus "permanently injured and damaged

the business and reputation of Plaintiffs," the lawsuit seeks $5 million

in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages for each

count.

"This lawsuit is outrageous," said Marianne Engelman Lado of

Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing community members in the

civil rights complaint. "I believe this is nothing more than an attempt

to quiet those who have lifted their voices in protest. Green Group

Holdings should be ashamed of itself for trying to intimidate community

members to prevent them from exercising their rights to be heard. This

is the latest in a long line of impacts to the community."

Green Group Holdings bought the Arrowhead facility in 2012 after the previous owner, Perry County Associates, <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/02/alabama-dump-taking-tvas-spilled-coal-ash-declares-bankruptcy.html">went bankrupt</a>. Green Group is <a href="http://www.gghcorp.com/about/investors/">backed by two privately held investors</a>:

Hertzog Contracting of Missouri and Knoxville, Tennessee-based Phillips

& Jordan, which helped managed the Arrowhead Landfill under the

previous owner.

Ernest Kaufman, Green Group's president and CEO, <a href="http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/04/arrowhead_landfill_owners_sue.html">said</a>

that Arrowhead "is one of the safest facilities of its kind in the

entire country, and despite being the most heavily inspected landfill in

Alabama, it has never once been cited for a violation."

But that doesn't mean problems haven't been documented there. Back

in 2010, before Green Group Holdings bought the landfill, Hurricane

Creekkeeper John Wathen of Alabama <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/02/complaint-cites-health-threats-at-alabama-dump-taking-tvas-spilled-coal-ash.html">sent a complaint to the EPA</a>

warning of environmental health threats there. He investigated nearby

residents' complaints of unusual runoff and sickening smells after TVA's

ash began arriving there and found arsenic levels 80 times the safe

drinking water standard in liquid waste that was being pumped from the

landfill at night.

In his complaint, Wathen noted that he had taken his findings to

ADEM but the agency declined to investigate after the landfill manager

denied the pumping claims. "No tests, no samples, no interviews of

employees or nearby residents," Wathen's complaint stated, "just a

simple denial by the manager was good enough to refute hundreds of

photos, certified lab results, stories from the community, or first hand

eye witness account[s] by me."

He also documented arsenic-contaminated waste running in the

landfill's roadside ditches, coal ash falling out of uncovered dump

trucks, and runoff from washing of train cars hauling the coal ash

allowed to flow into a nearby creek's drainage basin.

"Why is Perry County being treated like this?" Wathen <a href="http://aint-cites-health-threats-at-alabama-dump-taking-tvas-spilled-coal-ash.html">asked</a> at the time. "Are the people in Perry County any less valuable than the people of Kingston, Tennessee?"

Upsides, downsides to landfilling coal ash

The problems experienced by the Arrowhead Landfill's neighbors have

the potential to become more widespread as pressure builds to move coal

ash away from wet, unlined impoundments — often located along rivers and

other waterways — and into dry, lined landfills away from water

sources.

On the one hand, it's important that wet impoundments be shuttered due to the risk of sudden failures like those <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill">at the Kingston plant </a>in Tennessee or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_River#Coal_ash_spill">at Duke Energy's Dan River plant</a>

in North Carolina, where a 2014 spill sent tens of thousands of tons of

coal ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water into the river.

In addition, unlined impoundments are leaching dangerous contaminants <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2016/04/ncs-coal-ash-poisoned-wells-a-harbinger-for-proble.html">cancer-causing hexavalent chromium</a> into groundwater at sites nationwide.

The considerable upsides of moving to dry storage can be seen in

South Carolina, where a lawsuit filed by the Southern Environmental Law

Center on behalf of an alliance of environmental groups against Santee

Cooper <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/news-and-press/news-feed/south-carolina-coal-ash-removal-ahead-of-schedule-while-north-carolina-stal">resulted in a settlement </a>in

which the utility agreed to move coal ash from unlined impoundments

along the Waccamaw River. The lawsuit placed pressure on all of the

state's coal-fired utilities to clean up their ash disposal operations.

As a result, groundwater monitoring reports issued by South Carolina utilities show <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/news-and-press/news-feed/proper-coal-ash-cleanup-paying-off-in-south-carolina">pollution levels are dropping</a>.

For example, a report released by S.C. Electric & Gas earlier this

year showed that in one monitoring well at the utility's Wateree plant

where arsenic had contaminated the groundwater at 43 times the legal

limit, levels of the cancer-causing chemical dropped from 432 to 2.9

parts per billion — a 99 percent decrease. Another monitoring well

showed a 95 percent drop in arsenic, while levels of other pollutants

are also falling.

But the experience of Uniontown, Alabama, residents shows there are

potential downsides of moving coal ash from wet impoundments to dry

landfills that need to be addressed. Environmental injustice in siting

decisions. Health concerns over living so close to toxic waste. Loss of

property value. And even lawsuits against residents who speak out about

their experiences.

Nevertheless, the people of Uniontown don't plan to quit their battle to close the landfill any time soon.

"We will fight the landfill at every step on its preposterous

claims," said Matt Swerdlin, an attorney defending the residents in the

slander lawsuit. "Threatening and intimidating participants in a Civil

Rights Act complaint is illegal, plain and simple."

</article>

</div>

      
      </font><div class="author-image">
        <font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/116209367108293052274?rel=author">
        <br />
        </a></font>
      </div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">

        
      <span class="submitted-wrapper">
        
        By <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/users/sue-sturgis" title="View user profile.">Sue Sturgis</a> on <span class="date-submitted">April 15, 2016 11:10 AM</span>      </span></font><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==<br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/epidemic-premature-births-increasingly-linked-air-pollution">http://www.alternet.org/environment/epidemic-premature-births-increasingly-linked-air-pollution</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13.92px; line-height: 16.704px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/04/11/toxins-cord-blood/" class="external text" title="http://ecowatch.com/2016/04/11/toxins-cord-blood/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" external.png="external.png" no-repeat="no-repeat">3 Toxins Found in the Cord Blood of Every One of the 10 Newborns Tested</a>National media outlets, public health officials and Congress have all focused recently on lead contamination in drinking water. The tainted water in Flint, Michigan, Newark, New Jersey and many other communities around the country poses a serious, potentially lifelong public health threat to millions.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13.92px; line-height: 16.704px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Most of us encounter chemicals that can cause brain damage, cancer and other serious health problems in a place critical to human development—the mother’s womb. Most of us encounter chemicals that can cause brain damage, cancer and other serious health problems in a place critical to human development—the mother’s womb. But industrial pollution in people happens long before they take their first sip of water. Most of us encounter chemicals that can cause brain damage, cancer and other serious health problems in a place critical to human development—the mother’s womb.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13.92px; line-height: 16.704px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2009, Environmental Working Group (EWG) conducted a pioneering study testing the umbilical cord blood of 10 babies for toxic chemicals. In all, the tests found more than 230 industrial pollutants across the 10 samples. Among those that were in the cord blood of every one of the 10 newborns were lead, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). 4/16</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CPP AA</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://grist.org/grist-50/profile/jalonne-l-white-newsome/">http://grist.org/grist-50/profile/jalonne-l-white-newsome/</a><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==<br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/dirty-air-silent-killer-black-communities">http://www.alternet.org/environment/dirty-air-silent-killer-black-communities</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/one-of-the-first-free-towns-founded-by-former-slaves-is-being-taken-over-by-big-oil/" class="external text" title="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/one-of-the-first-free-towns-founded-by-former-slaves-is-being-taken-over-by-big-oil/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; font-size: 13.92px; line-height: 16.704px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) url(" http="http" www.ic.ucsc.edu="www.ic.ucsc.edu" college8core="college8core" c8wiki="c8wiki" skins="skins" monobook="monobook" external.png="external.png" no-repeat="no-repeat" scroll="scroll">ONE OF THE FIRST FREE TOWNS FOUNDED BY FORMER SLAVES IS BEING TAKEN OVER BY BIG OIL</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13.92px; line-height: 16.704px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;see also</span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/11/04/erasing-mossville-how-pollution-killed-a-louisiana-town/" class="external text" title="https://theintercept.com/2015/11/04/erasing-mossville-how-pollution-killed-a-louisiana-town/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; padding-right: 16px; font-size: 13.92px; line-height: 16.704px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) url(" http="http" www.ic.ucsc.edu="www.ic.ucsc.edu" college8core="college8core" c8wiki="c8wiki" skins="skins" monobook="monobook" lock_icon.gif="lock_icon.gif" no-repeat="no-repeat" scroll="scroll">here</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13.92px; line-height: 16.704px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. 10/15.</span></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...The&nbsp;<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/10/11/ted-cruz-climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">card-carrying climate-denier</a>&nbsp;was referring&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="http://ecowatch.com/?s=cruz+sierra+club" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">his recent grilling</a>&nbsp;of Sierra Club President Aaron Mair during a Senate hearing, in which Cruz pushed Mair for nearly 10&nbsp;minutes on climate change.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Mair was at the hearing to explain how communities of color are disproportionately affected by pollution and climate disruption. However, Cruz used this time to push Mair on climate change with classic denier arguments, saying satellite data shows the Earth isn’t warming and that there has been a “pause” or “hiatus” in global warming, which NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,&nbsp;<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/06/05/michael-mann-noaa-no-hiatus-global-warming/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">has refuted</a>.&nbsp;Mair has also&nbsp;<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/10/08/aaron-mair-responds-ted-cruz/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">posted a response</a>&nbsp;to Cruz’s attack, refuting these claims.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">During his interview with&nbsp;Beck, Cruz explained,&nbsp;“We had an exchange where I simply asked him about the data and he couldn’t answer the most basic questions … He couldn’t answer the most basic fact that for the last 18 years the satellite data showed no significant warming whatsoever.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cruz continued to Beck:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">You know part of the reason he didn’t know the facts? Because climate change is not science, it’s religion.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Look at the language where they call you a “denier” Denier is not the language of science. Look, I’m the child of two scientists. My parents are both mathematicians, computer programmers. My dad was self-taught geophysicist. The essence of the scientific method is to start with a hypothesis, and then look to the evidence to disprove the hypothesis. You’re not trying to prove it, you’re trying to disprove it. Any good scientist is a skeptic, if he’s not, he or she should not be a scientist.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But yet the language of the global warming alarmists, “denier” is the language of religion, it’s heretic, you are a blasphemer.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The response from the Sierra Club, “We have decreed this is the answer, you must accept it.” And so he didn’t know his facts because he just knew his religion.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Earlier in the interview, Cruz said he does not understand why his fellow GOP candidates did not readily admit to being&nbsp;<a href="http://ecowatch.com/?s=denier" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">climate change skeptics</a>&nbsp;when they were asked this question by CNN’s Jake Tapper during the&nbsp;<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/09/17/climate-change-gop-debate/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">last Republican debate</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“For whatever reason, they were afraid to say yes and they sort of bobbed and weaved on that question. I tried to jump in I said ‘Jake [Tapper], you want a skeptic? I’m right here,’” Cruz said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It’s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-climate-change-religion-1429832149" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">not the first time</a>&nbsp;that a right-wing politician has&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121398/republicans-attack-climate-change-science-religion-comparison" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">compared climate change to religion</a>, which has “become a go-to GOP talking point during the run-up to next year’s elections,”<a href="http://religiondispatches.org/what-republicans-mean-when-they-compare-climate-change-to-religion/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">according to a post</a>&nbsp;from the University of Southern California’s Religion Dispatches.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“The basic premise of these comparisons is that extreme environmentalists exhibit some hallmark features of religion: rituals and taboos (such as recycling or avoiding meat); apocalyptic beliefs (global ruin due to climate change); and ideals rooted in an Edenic past (Earth before humans),” the article&nbsp;says.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“The recent GOP strategy is to point out superficially religious elements of environmentalism and, by way of loose association, assign ideological bias to the incontrovertible scientific evidence of climate change.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/toxic-traps-environmental-hazards-threaten-2-federal-supermax-prisons">http://www.alternet.org/environment/toxic-traps-environmental-hazards-threaten-2-federal-supermax-prisons</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://grist.org/article/we-graded-the-feds-on-their-environmental-justice-programs-heres-how-they-fared/">http://grist.org/article/we-graded-the-feds-on-their-environmental-justice-programs-heres-how-they-fared/</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Fossil Fuel Industry Pushes Anti-Solar Agenda on Black Communities</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">African Americans are disproportionately affected by dirty fuel pollution; energy companies seem to want to keep it that way.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By Joel Francis / Huffington Post April 27, 2015</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">oo often, African American voices are excluded from discussions about the critical issues facing our country. Energy is no exception. That is why I was pleased to recently attend a conference of the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE). While in attendance, however, I developed concerns that workshops did not address issues facing African American families that are directly attributable to our nation's reliance on fossil fuel energy sources.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The NAACP developed a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.naacp.org/pages/just-energy-policies-report" target="_hplink" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">report</a>&nbsp;that shows how fossil fuels play a significantly harmful role in the health of African Americans and other communities of color. Segregation and economic deprivation has forced generations of African American families to live in some of the least desirable areas.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">More than two-thirds of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal plant.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This puts our community at a much greater risk for the health problems associated with exposure to the toxic chemicals these plants spew. African American children are three times as likely to be admitted to the hospital for, and twice as likely to die from, asthma as compared to white children.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Regrettably, a discussion of the harmful impact of fossil fuel pollution on communities of color was noticeably absent from the conference's proceedings. What is worse is that many speakers denigrated one of the best solutions to the pollution problems plaguing African American communities: renewable energy sources such as solar.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The conference was an opportunity to educate attendees about the costs and benefits of ALL energy sources. Unfortunately, attendees may have left with a skewed perception. Although&nbsp;<a href="http://puc.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/pucnvgov/Content/About/Media_Outreach/Announcements/Announcements/E3%20PUCN%20NEM%20Report%202014.pdf?pdf=Net-Metering-Study" target="_hplink" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">numerous</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://votesolar.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Crossborder-Energy-CA-Net-Metering-Cost-Benefit-Jan-2013-final.pdf" target="_hplink" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">independent studies</a>&nbsp;have shown that solar energy provides benefits to all electricity consumers on the grid, fossil fuel utilities were pushing a deceptive argument that misrepresents the benefits of solar energy to communities of color. The utility companies'&nbsp;<a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/black-lawmakers-can-push-back-against-coal-utilities/" target="_hplink" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">thinly veiled attempts</a>&nbsp;to present clean energy sources as a racial issue was shameful. It became clear that their real motivation was shaping a discourse that protects energy monopolies. &nbsp;<a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/black-lawmakers-can-push-back-against-coal-utilities/">http://grist.org/climate-energy/black-lawmakers-can-push-back-against-coal-utilities/</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Fortunately, people like Reverend Nelson Johnson of Faith Community Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, see through and are calling out the inaccuracies propagated by utilities. Reverend Johnson recently co-authored<a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2015/04/duke-energy-called-out-for-targeting-black-communi.html" target="_hplink" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">an open letter</a>&nbsp;to the CEO of Duke Energy to "Stop Targeting African Americans with Your Anti-Solar Campaign." He talked about having been visited three times by people pushing propaganda that "solar hurts the poor." The Reverend questioned the motives behind Duke Energy's attacks on solar and called on the utility to stop "this duplicitous corporate behavior."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Apparently, the establishment of a cleaner alternative is a threat to the status quo and a threat to the utility companies' domination of the energy market. While these fossil fuel companies continue to pollute the air above and the land surrounding our communities, they are intent on sustaining our dependence on them through placing misleading campaigns to slow the growth of a viable and pollution-free alternative.</font></p><div class="bio-new body_story" style="width: 630px; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; height: auto; border-top-width: 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(223, 223, 218); clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="author-bio"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Joel A. Francis is a senior fellow at the&nbsp;<a href="http://checksandbalancesproject.org/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Checks and Balances Project</a>, a national watchdog that seeks to hold government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public.</font></p></div></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Too often, African American voices are excluded from discussions about the critical issues facing our country. Energy is no exception. That is why I was pleased to recently attend a conference of the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE). While in attendance, however, I developed concerns that workshops did not address issues facing African American families that are directly attributable to our nation's reliance on fossil fuel energy sources.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The NAACP developed a report that shows how fossil fuels play a significantly harmful role in the health of African Americans and other communities of color. Segregation and economic deprivation has forced generations of African American families to live in some of the least desirable areas. More than two-thirds of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal plant. This puts our community at a much greater risk for the health problems associated with exposure to the toxic chemicals these plants spew. African American children are three times as likely to be admitted to the hospital for, and twice as likely to die from, asthma as compared to white children.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Regrettably, a discussion of the harmful impact of fossil fuel pollution on communities of color was noticeably absent from the conference's proceedings. What is worse is that many speakers denigrated one of the best solutions to the pollution problems plaguing African American communities: renewable energy sources such as solar.</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div><div><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">n Friday, Edison Electric Institute, a trade association for utility company shareholders, met with staff members of the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss the impact of rooftop solar panels — specifically, the “net metering” policies that encourage people to install them — on communities of color. I responded to an invitation to the meeting, but was denied entrance after being&nbsp;told the meeting was “for staffers only.” I spoke with someone who attended. Here’s the rundown:</span></font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; list-style-position: inside; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">There were three presenters: David Owens, an executive veep for Edison; Sheri Givens, a consultant from Texas; and Florida state Rep. Joseph Gibbons&nbsp;(D), who’s the chair of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators’ committee on energy, transportation, and the environment. I wrote about Gibbons and the&nbsp;<a href="http://grist.org/politics/clean-energy-advocates-need-to-speak-up-if-they-want-black-lawmakers-to-hear-them/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;"><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box;">NBCSL&nbsp;last week</span></a>.</span></font></li><li class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">As expected, Owens and the others made the argument that solar net metering will make low-income African Americans’ household electricity bills go up. Reason: Since households that produce their own solar energy can zero-out their bills, poor people of color who can’t afford solar panels will have to pick up more of the costs of maintaining the grid.</span></font></li><li class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Gibbons co-signed on this argument, and presented as evidence a&nbsp;white paper from NBCSL called “<a href="http://users/brentinmock/Downloads/2014WhitePaper_Energy.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">The Need to Develop & Implement Equitable Energy Policies</a>.” I’m told that while the report was brought up, it was not discussed at length. But Gibbons used it as proof that Edison and the utilities would really do what they are saying they are going to do, which is take out their revenue frustrations with solar rooftop producers on low-income households.</span></font></li></ul><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">he good news is that a good majority of the Congressional Black Caucus staffers — about 75 percent, I’m told — pushed back against these arguments during&nbsp;the question-and-answer period. This is significant, because it means that most of the black lawmakers in Congress are not ready to swallow the utilities’ bait as easily as so many of their&nbsp;colleagues at various levels of government&nbsp;have. (<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/24/solar-energy-black-caucus_n_6039290.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">Kate Sheppard reported</a>&nbsp;more on this meeting for Huffington Post&nbsp;on&nbsp;Friday.)</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The truth behind all of this is&nbsp;<a href="http://grist.org/politics/why-are-utilities-trying-to-disconnect-communities-of-color-from-solar/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">far more complicated</a>. The way electricity rate structures are set up today, expanding solar net metering could indeed place financial burden on those who can least afford it. But that outcome assumes two things:</span></font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; list-style-position: inside; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">That the current electricity rate structure, which is based on pollution-heavy fossil fuels of yester-century, isn’t&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">already</em>&nbsp;financially burdening low-income households.</span></font></li><li class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">That there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent the shifting of grid costs to poor households.</span></font></li></ul><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Regarding the first point, consider that people of color and low-income are far more likely to live on the fenceline or within close proximity to the coal plants generating most of our electricity. We already know that soot and ozone&nbsp;pollution from U.S. coal-fired power plants&nbsp;cause thousands of&nbsp;<a href="http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_063570.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">premature deaths and billions in public health costs</a>, much of that suffered&nbsp;by those with the least resources and worst access to quality healthcare.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In America, that’s mostly African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos.&nbsp;Those communities are further burdened by the&nbsp;<a href="http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/materials-based-on-reports/reports-in-brief/hidden_costs_of_energy_Final.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">climate change-related damage costs</a>&nbsp;created by coal facilities. And then there’s the fact that electricity bills have&nbsp;<a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/electricity.cfm" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">already been steadily rising</a>....</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></p><p class="grist-related-aside-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Related Articles:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a class="link-dark" href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/big-energy-has-tried-to-turn-people-of-color-against-solar-power-since-forever/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); line-height: inherit; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Big Energy has tried to turn people of color against solar power since forever</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a class="link-dark" href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/texas-lobbying-group-busted-for-phony-anti-solar-campaign/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Texas lobbying group busted for phony anti-solar campaign</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a class="link-dark" href="http://grist.org/politics/clean-energy-advocates-need-to-speak-up-if-they-want-black-lawmakers-to-hear-them/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Clean energy advocates need to speak up if they want black lawmakers to hear them</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a class="link-dark" href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/this-ambassador-for-black-politicians-argues-that-solar-drags-down-african-americans/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">This ambassador for black politicians argues that solar drags down African Americans</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a class="link-dark" href="http://grist.org/politics/why-are-utilities-trying-to-disconnect-communities-of-color-from-solar/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Why are utilities trying to disconnect communities of color from solar?</a>&nbsp;all links</font></p></div></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...</font></p><p style="widows: auto; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 242, 0);">Edison Electric Institute has some history with the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups representing black public officials, as Grist reporter Brentin Mock has&nbsp;</span><a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/this-ambassador-for-black-politicians-argues-that-solar-drags-down-african-americans/" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 242, 0);">covered extensively</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 242, 0);">. The National Policy Alliance, which brings together federal, state and local African-American elected officials,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 242, 0);">&nbsp;</span><a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/heres-how-dirty-energy-is-co-opting-black-lawmakers/" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 242, 0);">recently approved a resolution</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 242, 0);">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 242, 0);">opposing net metering that Edison had submitted to the group</span>. Mock&nbsp;<a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/heres-how-dirty-energy-is-co-opting-black-lawmakers/" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">first reported</a>&nbsp;last week that the CBC briefing with Edison was taking place.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CA:&nbsp;EJ &nbsp;http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article8413050.html</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 16px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The scorecard proves that the shift is already underway, but we still have a long way to go. Several lawmakers received perfect scores for last year, meaning they took the same positions as our coalition did.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 16px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">They include Sens. Jim Beall, Hannah-Beth Jackson, Mark Leno, Carol Liu, Holly Mitchell, Bill Monning, Fran Pavley and Lois Wolk; former Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg; then-Sens. Ellen Corbett, Mark DeSaulnier and Ted Lieu; Assembly members Adrin Nazarian and Phil Ting; and then-Assembly members Tom Ammiano and Nancy Skinner.</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">

<a href="http://grist.org/news/californias-cap-and-trade-program-will-fund-environmental-justice/">http://grist.org/news/californias-cap-and-trade-program-will-fund-environmental-justice/</a>

===

<div><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice</a></div>

<div>

</div>

<div>

Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses the unequal environmental burden born by historically disadvantaged groups such as racial minorities, women, indigenous peoples, low-income communities, and developing nations. Coal is an important environmental justice issue due to the serious environmental and social impact of coal mining and coal-fired power plants, and the disproportionate effect on communities already facing inequalities. Examples include the proximity of low-income and communities of color to coal-fired plants, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mountaintop_removal" title="Mountaintop removal" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">mountaintop removal</a> coal mining in rural areas, coal mines and plants on <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_and_Native_American_tribal_lands" title="Coal and Native American tribal lands" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">indigenous lands</a>, and the exporting of polluting industries from wealthy nations to developing countries in Africa, South America, and Asia.

<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; width: auto; display: inline; background-image: none;">Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">hide</a>] </div>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Climate_Justice" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1 Climate Justice</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Carbon_Trading" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">2 Carbon Trading</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Coal_mines.2C_coal_plants.2C_and_poverty" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">3 Coal mines, coal plants, and poverty</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Coal_Plants.2C_Pollution.2C_and_Race" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">4 Coal Plants, Pollution, and Race</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Toxins" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">5 Toxins</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Mercury.2C_ozone.2C_and_Latinos" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">6 Mercury, ozone, and Latinos</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Coal_waste_storage" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">7 Coal waste storage</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#TVA_shipping_coal_ash_from_Tennessee_disaster_to_poor_communities_in_Georgia_and_Alabama" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">7.1 TVA shipping coal ash from Tennessee disaster to poor communities in Georgia and Alabama</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Coal_Ash_and_Fountain_Industrial_Park" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">7.2 Coal Ash and Fountain Industrial Park</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#EPA_Grants_for_Environmental_Justice_Issues" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">8 EPA Grants for Environmental Justice Issues</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Native_American_tribal_lands" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">9 Native American tribal lands</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#BP_oil_disaster" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">10 BP oil disaster</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Environmental_Justice_Organizations" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">11 Environmental Justice Organizations</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Studies" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">12 Studies</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-15" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Resources" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">13 Resources</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-16" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#References" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">13.1 References</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-17" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#Related_SourceWatch_articles" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">13.2 Related SourceWatch articles</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-18" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#External_Links" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">14 External Links</a></li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

Not only do these communities face greater environmental burdens, they are, on average, less responsible for environmental problems, and have less representation in shaping environmental policy. For example, in the United States, African-Americans are thirteen percent of the population and responsible for twenty percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than whites per capita, yet seventy-one percent African-Americans live in counties that violate federal air pollution standards, seventy-eight percent live within thirty miles of a coal-fired plant, and are almost three times more likely than whites to be hospitalized or die from asthma and respiratory illness linked to air pollution.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-hr-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-jn-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[2]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[3]</a> Existing social and economic injustices are exacerbated by unequal environmental burdens, making environmental justice a matter of fundamental human rights and justice, and not simply an environmental issue.

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Climate Justice</h2>

Advocates of climate justice seek the fair treatment of all people by the policies that address climate change and the systems that perpetuate it.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-hr-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a>Climate Justice proponents consider climate change, or <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Global_warming" title="Global warming" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">global warming</a>, to be a central issue of environmental justice because it amplifies existing social and economic inequalities and disproportionately affects vulnerable groups. According to the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, "With rising temperatures, human lives—particularly in people of color, low-income, and Indigenous communities—are affected by compromised health, financial burdens, and social and cultural disruptions. These communities are the first to experience the negative impacts of climate change such as heat-related illness and death, respiratory illness, infectious diseases, unaffordable rises in energy costs, and extreme natural disasters."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-hr-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a> At the global level as well, disparities in responsibility for global warming pollution and corresponding environmental burdens mirror the racial and economic inequalities within the U.S. For example, the U.S. has a pollution responsibility per capita forty-two times that of Africa, while according to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Africa is the continent most at risk from climate change.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-jn-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[2]</a>

Among environmental justice advocates, opposition to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Carbon_trading" title="Carbon trading" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">carbon trading</a> has grown due to the belief that such approaches do little to help climate change and instead provide substantial profits for corporate greenhouse gas polluters.

In February 2008, The California Environmental Justice Movement issued a declaration against the use of carbon trading to address climate change.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-3" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[4]</a> The coalition of groups believe that market based initiatives such as carbon trading cannot adequately address climate change and are designed to benefit corporate interests rather than affected communities and the environment. They state, "[C]arbon trading is undemocratic because it allows entrenched polluters, market designers, and commodity traders to determine whether and where to reduce greenhouse gases and co-pollutant emissions without allowing impacted communities or governments to participate in those decisions."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-4" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[5]</a>The group criticized carbon trading for creating a commodity market that privatizes the disposal of greenhouse gases and pollutants into the environment and gives billions of dollars worth of credits to the biggest corporate polluters without proper monitoring and penalties. Instead of carbon trading, the group advocates policies that move away from burning fossil fuels.

On December 1, 2008, climate activists took over the Washington, DC office of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_Defense" title="Environmental Defense" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Environmental Defense</a> (ED) to protest ED's support and promotion of carbon trading. The activists awarded ED a "Corporate Greenwash Award," a three-foot tall green paintbrush, and rearranged the office furniture to demonstrate how marketing carbon is "like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-5" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[6]</a> Dr. Rachel Smokler, whose father was one of the founders of ED, read a statement noting the failure of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Kyoto_Protocol" title="Kyoto Protocol" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Kyoto Protocol</a>, the European Emissions Trading Scheme and other market initiatives for reducing emissions. Leo Cerda, an indigenous activist with Rising Tide Ecuador, put the matter in terms of environmental justice: "ED wants to turn the atmosphere and forests into private property, and then give it away to the most polluting industries in the form of pollution allowances that can be bought and sold. Not only is this an ineffective way to control emissions, it is also a disaster for the poor and indigenous peoples who are not party to these markets and are most impacted by climate change." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-6" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[7]</a>

For more information, go to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_plants_near_residential_areas" title="Coal plants near residential areas" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Coal plants near residential areas</a>

There are 54 coal mines in the U.S. that produced more than 4 million tons of coal in 2006; these 54 mines are located in 34 counties. The median 2005 poverty rate in these 34 counties was 15.5% - 17% higher than the U.S. average of 13.3%. The median 2000 per capita income in these 34 counties was $16,246 - 25% lower than the U.S. average of $21,587.

There are 404 coal-fired power plants in the U.S. with a capacity greater than 100 MW. The median 2005 poverty rate in the counties in which these 404 plants are located was 13.4% - roughly the same as the U.S. average. Here is a graph of the distribution of these 404 plants by 2005 county poverty rate:

<table class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); border-collapse: collapse; color: black; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><tbody><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">County Poverty Rate Range</th><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Deviation from U.S. Average</th><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"># of Plants</th><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Total Capacity</th></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">3.8 - 6.6%</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">-50% to -71%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">26</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">20,046 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">6.7 - 9.9%</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">-25% to -50%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">63</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">54,292 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">10.0 - 13.2%</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">0 to -25%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">106</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">74,001 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">13.3 - 16.5%</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">0 to +25%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">105</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">84,811 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">16.6 - 19.9%</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">+25% to +50%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">63</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">52,004 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">20.0 - 26.6%</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">+50% to +100%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">30</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">29,261 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">26.6 - 41.7%</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">+100% to +214%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">11</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">7,329 MW</td></tr></tbody></table>

However, in 2000, the median per capita income in the counties in which these 404 plants were located was $18,465 - 15% lower than the U.S. average. Here is a graph of the distribution of these 404 plants by 2000 county per capita income:

<table class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); border-collapse: collapse; color: black; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><tbody><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">County Per Capita Income Range</th><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Deviation from U.S. Average</th><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"># of Plants</th><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Total Capacity</th></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">$8,986 - 12,952</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">-40% to -58%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">6</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">4,600 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">$12,953 - 17,270</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">-20% to -40%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">141</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">127,049 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">$17,271 - 21,587</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">0 to -20%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">178</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">140,817 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">$21,588 - 25,904</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">0 to +20%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">59</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">42,844 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">$25,905 - 30,222</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">+20% to +40%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">15</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">9,063 MW</td></tr><tr><th style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); text-align: center; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">$30,223 - 38,550</th><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">+40% to +78%</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">5</td><td style=" border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0.2em; text-align: center;">2,492 MW</td></tr></tbody></table>

Out of the 404 coal power plants in the U.S. with capacity over 100 MW, 80.4% are in counties that have a lower per capita income than the U.S. average.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-EIA2-7" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[8]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-8" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[9]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-poverty-9" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[10]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-10" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[11]</a>

To a certain extent, there is an inverse relationship between poverty rates and income levels: the highest income levels tend to be in cities, where poverty rates are also high; lower income levels tend to be in rural areas, where poverty rates are also low. Thus, since most existing coal power plants are in rural areas, the poverty rates are roughly average for the U.S., even though per capita income in those areas is lower than average. However, out of the 404 U.S. coal plants with capacity over 100 MW, 82 - with a total capacity of 73,769 MW, or 22% of U.S. coal power capacity - are in counties that have poverty rates that are at least 25% higher than the U.S. average, as well as per capita income levels that are at least 20% lower than the U.S. average. These 82 plants are thus in some of the most economically devastated areas in the U.S.; 49 are in the South, 23 are in Appalachia, 32 are in counties that are either more than 25% black or more than 25% Latino, and 9 are in counties that are more than 20% Native American.

The 2011 report, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.naacp.org/pages/coal-blooded1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People in Illinois"</a> by Adrian Wilson, NAACP, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), and the Indigenous Environmental Network, notes that:

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">A total of 8.1 million Americans live within three miles of a coal power plant. Those 8.1 million people have an average per capita income of $18,594 – significantly lower than the U.S. average of $21,587. Out of those 8.1 million people, 36.3%, or 2.94 million, are people of color, who make up only 29.2% of the U.S. population as a whole.</li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">African-Americans are hospitalized for asthma at three times the rate of whites, and the death rate from asthma is 172% higher for African-Americans than for whites. Asthma is closely linked to burning coal: coal power plants produce 74% of all <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Sulfur_dioxide" title="Sulfur dioxide" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">sulfur dioxide</a> (SO2) pollution, 18% of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Nitrogen_oxide" title="Nitrogen oxide" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">nitrogen oxide</a> (NOX) pollution, and 85% of direct <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Particulate_matter" title="Particulate matter" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">particulate matter 2.5</a> emissions in the United States, which all exacerbate asthma.</li>

</ul>

The report went on to use an algorithm combining levels of SO2 and NOX emissions together with demographic factors in order to calculate an environmental justice score for the 431 coal-fired power plants in the U.S., and found that:

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Ninety plants have a significantly disproportionate impact on people of color and low-income people, with 4.7 million people living within 3 miles of the 90 plants, with an average per capita income of $17,600 (25% lower than state average), and over half (52.5%) people of color. Ten were in Illinois, eight in Indiana, seven in Michigan, sex in Virginia, and five in South Carolina. The report notes that shutting down the 90 worst ranking plants would reduce U.S. power production by only 9.2%, but would cut back the number of Americans living within three miles of a coal plant by well over half (58.4%).</li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Twelve plants were ranked the top environmental justice offenders, producing a total of 48,582 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in 2005 — only 1.2% of total U.S. electricity production, yet affecting a total of 1.78 million Americans who live within 3 miles of one of the 12 plants, with an average per capita income of $14,626 (compared with the U.S. average of $21,587), and 76.3% people of color. The plants were:</li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Crawford_Generating_Station" title="Crawford Generating Station" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Crawford Generating Station</a>, Chicago, IL (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edison_International" title="Edison International" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Edison International</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Hudson_Generating_Station" title="Hudson Generating Station" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Hudson Generating Station</a>, Jersey City, NJ (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/PSEG" title="PSEG" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">PSEG</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Fisk_Generating_Station" title="Fisk Generating Station" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Fisk Generating Station</a>, Chicago, IL (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edison_International" title="Edison International" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Edison International</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Valley_Power_Plant" title="Valley Power Plant" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Valley Power Plant</a>, Milwaukee, WI (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Wisconsin_Energy" title="Wisconsin Energy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Wisconsin Energy</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Line_Plant" title="State Line Plant" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">State Line Plant</a>, Hammond, IN (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Dominion" title="Dominion" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Dominion</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lake_Shore_Plant" title="Lake Shore Plant" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Lake Shore Plant</a>, Cleveland, OH (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/FirstEnergy" title="FirstEnergy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">FirstEnergy</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Gallagher_Generating_Station" title="Gallagher Generating Station" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Gallagher Generating Station</a>, New Albany, IN (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Duke_Energy" title="Duke Energy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Duke Energy</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bridgeport_Harbor_Station" title="Bridgeport Harbor Station" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Bridgeport Harbor Station</a>, Bridgeport, CT (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/PSEG" title="PSEG" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">PSEG</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/River_Rouge_Power_Plant" title="River Rouge Power Plant" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">River Rouge Power Plant</a>, River Rouge, MI (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/DTE_Energy" title="DTE Energy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">DTE Energy</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cherokee_Station" title="Cherokee Station" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Cherokee Station</a>, Commerce City, CO (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Xcel_Energy" title="Xcel Energy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Xcel Energy</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Four_Corners_Steam_Plant" title="Four Corners Steam Plant" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Four Corners Steam Plant</a>, Niinahnízaad, NM (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Arizona_Public_Service_Company" title="Arizona Public Service Company" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Arizona Public Service Company</a>)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Waukegan_Generating_Station" title="Waukegan Generating Station" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Waukegan Generating Station</a>, Waukegan, IL (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edison_International" title="Edison International" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Edison International</a>)</li>

</ol>

Click <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/toxic_index" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">here</a> for UMass's list of the 100 companies with the highest toxic releases and the correlation with socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity.

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; background-image: none;">Mercury, ozone, and Latinos</h2>

A 2000 study by the CDC found that, on average, Latino children have higher levels of mercury in their bodies compared to non-Hispanic white children. According to a 2004 study by the League of United Latin American Citizens, 39 percent of Latinos live within 30 miles of a power plant. Latinos are also less likely to have health insurance than any other racial or ethnic group: nearly one in every three (32.4 percent) lack health insurance.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-11" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[12]</a>

A 2008 analysis of several studies on Latinos – based largely on previously unreleased data from the polling firm Bendixen & Amandi's 2008 National Survey of Latinos on the Environment – found that they face disproportionate risk from toxic mercury pollution because of a combination of cultural, economic and linguistic factors.

One of the biggest threats was from fishing: mercury poisoning occurs by ingesting contaminated fish and, according to the survey, 31 percent of Latinos fish regularly, with 76 percent of those eating and sharing what they catch with their families. These families include young children and women of childbearing age, the two most vulnerable population sectors to mercury poisoning. Another study conducted by the University of California-Davis titled, "Fishing for Justice or Just Fishing," revealed that Hispanic anglers fish close to their urban communities because of a lack of transportation options. The fish caught in urban areas tend to contain the highest concentrations of mercury contamination.

This exposure is already showing high levels of mercury contamination among Hispanic anglers. According to another University of California-Davis study, Hispanic anglers in California on average ingest 13.9 micrograms of mercury per day via fish they catch, mostly in local waters--almost twice the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe limit. The "Fishing for Justice or Just Fishing" study also found that this problem is compounded by several factors, such as fish advisories and warning signs rarely posted in Spanish.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-12" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[13]</a>

A 2011 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change, the Center for American Progress and the National Wildlife Federation, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nrdc.org/air/files/LatinoAirReport.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAAAnOwc2AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAE5JREFUeF5lykEKgDAMBdF/+17Es/QkiosiCBURXIzJooZohmweX6gwmkCeI+Oqc2C1FnvnF2ejlQYU0tLK2NjY6f/l8V12Ti7uhFFgDj19b58EwXuqkAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"U.S. Latinos and Air Pollution,"</a> found that nearly one out of every two Latinos lives in the most ozone-polluted cities in the country.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-13" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[14]</a>

Studies have shown that solid waste landfills, which can be used to store <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_waste" title="Coal waste" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">toxic coal waste</a> from power plants, are located disproportionately in low-wealth populations and in areas with higher percentages of people of color.

In a 2007 report, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.10161" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Race, Wealth, and Solid Waste Facilities in North Carolina,"</a>, researchers in North Carolina found that solid waste facilities were 2.8 times more likely to be located in communities with 50 percent or more non-white residents, versus communities with less than 10 percent of residents being people of color. It also found that solid waste facilities negatively impact the health of these communities.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-14" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[15]</a>

A 2010 report, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/news_reports/documents/OutofControl-MountingDamagesFromCoalAshWasteSites.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAAAnOwc2AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAE5JREFUeF5lykEKgDAMBdF/+17Es/QkiosiCBURXIzJooZohmweX6gwmkCeI+Oqc2C1FnvnF2ejlQYU0tLK2NjY6f/l8V12Ti7uhFFgDj19b58EwXuqkAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Out of Control: Mounting Damages From Coal Ash Waste Sites"</a> by Environmental Integrity Project found that contamination from improper coal ash waste disposal is concentrated in communities with family poverty rates above the national median.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-15" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[16]</a>

<h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TVA shipping coal ash from Tennessee disaster to poor communities in Georgia and Alabama</h3>

Both the Georgia and Alabama landfills are located in areas with higher rates of poverty and higher percentages of African-American residents than state averages, a situation that has raised concerns about environmental justice. In Taylor County, more than 24 percent of the population lives in poverty, and over 40 percent of the population is African-American; by contrast, the state as a whole has a 14 percent poverty rate and is 30 percent African-American. Perry County in Alabama has more than 32 percent of its residents living in poverty and a 69 percent African-American population, compared with the state as a whole, which has a poverty rate of over 16 percent and a 26 percent African-American population.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-iss-17" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[18]</a> Perry County District Attorney Michael Jackson criticized the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/EPA" title="EPA" class="mw-redirect" style=" line-height: 1.5em; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none;">EPA</a> for allowing TVA to dispose of ash at a landfill in a poor community in Alabama, calling the decision "tragic and shortsighted." He vowed to monitor the disposal site to ensure the process complies with environmental regulations.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-18" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[19]</a>In a test case, some of the coal ash waste that spilled in TVA's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/TVA_Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_ash_spill" title="TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Kingston plant disaster</a> is being sent to Georgia and Alabama. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tennessee_Valley_Authority" title="Tennessee Valley Authority" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">TVA</a> is loading it onto rail cars, where the company says it will be safely contained.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-burr-16" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[17]</a> In Georgia, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_waste" title="Coal waste" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">coal waste</a> is being shipped to the Veolia landfill in Taylor Count, about 100 miles south of Atlanta. Local residents have dubbed the dump site "Trash Mountain." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Sierra_Club" title="Sierra Club" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Sierra Club</a> representative Mark Woodall said the landfill is poorly suited to coal ash storage, because it is "located in a groundwater recharge area, and it's a danger to our groundwater resources in Georgia."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-burr-16" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[17]</a> In Alabama, a landfill in Perry County in the west central part of the state is also receiving ash shipments.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-iss-17" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[18]</a>

Reports show that TVA also considered moving the coal ash to two communities in eastern Tennessee, both of which have populations of well over 90 percent white residents and poverty rates of under 21 percent. The two Tennessee sites considered were Athens in McMinn County and Oneida in Scott County. However, the company sought approval from state regulators solely for the sites in Georgia and Alabama. The communities that are receiving the coal waste from TVA were not provided an opportunity for public comment on the decision.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-iss-17" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[18]</a>

The ash will be transported from Tennessee to the out-of-state landfills through May 15, 2009. State and federal officials will evaluate whether the tests are successful, and if so whether to bring in more of the TVA coal waste.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-burr-16" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[17]</a> Just days after news of the test shipments were announced, EPA decided to take over cleanup of the spill. The agreement between EPA and TVA, which was executed under the Superfund law, has EPA overseeing the cleanup and TVA reimbursing EPA for its oversight costs.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-19" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[20]</a>

<h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Coal Ash and Fountain Industrial Park</h3>

In 1989, ReUse Technology, a Georgia-based company that handles <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_ash" title="Coal ash" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">coal ash</a> produced by utilities, in cooperation with Edgecombe County Development, began using <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_ash" title="Coal ash" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">coal ash</a> as landfill at Fountain Industrial Park near the city of Rocky Mount in Edgecombe County, N.C. The ash was from various <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cogentrix" title="Cogentrix" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Cogentrix</a> plants as well as from the coal-fired cogeneration facility at the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/UNC_Chapel_Hill_Cogeneration_Facility" title="UNC Chapel Hill Cogeneration Facility" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</a>. Following Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the industrial park was turned into a trailer park for about 370 eastern North Carolina families displaced by the disaster, many from Princeville, a historic African-American community. By that time, the soil covering the fill had eroded, leaving <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_ash" title="Coal ash" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">coal ash</a> exposed.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-ss-20" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[21]</a>

Employees of a nearby correctional facility, the organization Black Workers for Justice, and graduate students at the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health, asked the Edgecombe County development officer if a study of the land had been done prior to construction of the trailer park, and found there had been no thorough testing of the site for possible health impacts before the relocation. In response to mounting worries about the site's safety, epidemiologists with the state health department collected samples from the trailer park for testing, comparing the results to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/EPA" title="EPA" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">EPA</a>'s standards for potential health effects. One of the samples exceeded EPA standards for two contaminants, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heavy_metals_and_coal" title="Heavy metals and coal" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">arsenic and chromium</a>. A N.C. Department of Health and Human Services press release, however, said only that the soil samples "showed no significant risk" for the residents, without mentioning the elevated arsenic and chromium levels.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-ss-20" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[21]</a>

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">EPA Grants for Environmental Justice Issues</h2>

In March 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is awarding $800,000 in grants to organizations working with communities that struggle with environmental justice issues. The Environmental Justice Small Grants Program will provide 40 grants, up to $20,000 each, to community organizations and local and tribal governments in 28 states for projects that address environmental and public health issues.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-21" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[22]</a>

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Native American tribal lands</h2>

For more details, see <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_and_Native_American_tribal_lands" title="Coal and Native American tribal lands" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Coal and Native American tribal lands</a>.

Native Americans have been called early environmental justice activists, due to their historic struggle against over-development. Native American lands of the United States are home to large coal reserves and coal mining, making them disproportionately effected by the environmental hazards of the coal industry. The common challenges of land and resource development are exacerbated by the poor economic situation of many of the tribes, which raises questions of environmental justice and indigenous sovereignty.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-22" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[23]</a>

According to the Department of the Interior, twenty-five Native American reservations have coal reserves. Navajo, Hopi, and Crow lands all have coal mines. The Southern Ute, Uintah, Ouray, Fort Berthold, Northern Cheyenne, and Zuni have coal reserves with "potential for development."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-23" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[24]</a>

According to a 2012 Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about 10 percent of all U.S. power plants operate within 20 miles of reservation land. Many of the 51 energy production centers are more than a half-century old and affect roughly 48 tribes living on 50 reservations. (Fewer than 2 percent of all people in the United States identify as Native American and only a small portion live on tribal land.)<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-24" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[25]</a>

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BP oil disaster</h2>

According to EJ scholar Robert Bullard, while much attention has been focused on the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/BP" title="BP" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">BP</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Deepwater_Horizon" title="Deepwater Horizon" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Deepwater Horizon</a> oil spill disaster and clean up efforts, not much attention has been given to which communities were selected as the final resting place for BP’s oil-spill garbage.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-rb-25" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[26]</a>

BP’s waste plan, “Recovered Oil/Waste Management Plan Houma Incident Command,” was approved on June 13, 2010. BP hired private contractors to cart away and dispose of thousands of tons of crude-coated boom and refuse that washed ashore. The nine approved Gulf Coast solid waste landfills, amount of waste disposed, and the percent minority residents living within a one-mile radius of the facilities were:<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-rb-25" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[26]</a>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Alabama - Chastang Landfill, Mount Vernon, AL, 6008 tons (56.2%) Magnolia Landfill, Summerdale, AL, 5,966 tons (11.5%)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Florida - Springhill Regional Landfill, Campbellton, FL, 14,228 ton (76.0%)</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Louisiana - Colonial Landfill, Ascension Parish, LA, 7,729 (34.7%); Jefferson Parish Sanitary Landfill, Avondale, LA, 225 tons (51.7%); Jefferson Davis Parish Landfill, Welsh, LA, 182 tons (19.2%); River Birch Landfill, Avondale, LA, 1,406 (53.2%); Tide Water Landfill, Venice, LA, 2,204 tons (93.6%).</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Mississippi - Pecan Grove Landfill, Harrison, MS, 1,509 tons (12.5%)</li>

</ul>

According to Bullard's analysis of BP’s Oil Spill Waste Summary, as of of July 15, more than 39,448 tons of oil garbage had been disposed at nine approved landfills in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. More than half (five out of nine) of the landfills receiving BP oil-spill solid waste are located in communities where people of color comprise a majority of residents living near the waste facilities. In addition, a significantly large share of the BP oil-spill waste, 24,071 tons out of 39,448 tons (61 percent), is dumped in people of color communities. This is notable since people of color comprise about 26 percent of the coastal counties in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-rb-25" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[26]</a>

Bullard argues that Environmental Justice Executive Order 12898, “Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations,” signed by President <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Bill Clinton</a> in 1994, requires the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/EPA" title="EPA" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">EPA</a> and the U.S. Coast Guard to do a better job monitoring where BP oil-spill waste ends up to ensure that minority and low-income populations do not bear an adverse and disproportionate share of the burdens and negative impacts associated with the spill.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_note-rb-25" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[26]</a>

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Environmental Justice Organizations</h2>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ienearth.org/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Indigenous Environmental Network</a>, Bemidji, MN, (218) 751-4967</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ejcc.org/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative</a>, Oakland, CA, (510) 444-3041 x305</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/princej.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Environmental Justice Resource Center</a>, Atlanta, GA, (404) 880-6911</li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Michelle L. Bell and Keita Ebisu, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/2012/08/environmental-inequality-in-exposures-to-airborne-particulate-matter-components-in-the-united-states/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Environmental Inequality in Exposures to Airborne Particulate Matter Components in the United States,</a> Environmental Health Perspectives, 2012.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nrdc.org/air/files/LatinoAirReport.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAAAnOwc2AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAE5JREFUeF5lykEKgDAMBdF/+17Es/QkiosiCBURXIzJooZohmweX6gwmkCeI+Oqc2C1FnvnF2ejlQYU0tLK2NjY6f/l8V12Ti7uhFFgDj19b58EwXuqkAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">U.S. Latinos and Air Pollution,</a> The Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change, the Center for American Progress and the National Wildlife Federation, 2011 Report</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.naacp.org/pages/coal-blooded1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People in Illinois</a> Adrian Wilson, NAACP, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), and the Indigenous Environmental Network, 2011.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.progressiveregulation.org/perspectives/intlenvironJustice.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">International Environmental Justice and Climate Change</a>, Center for Progressive Regulation.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ejcc.org/cj/ten_principles/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">The Ten Principles of Just Climate Policies in the U.S.</a>, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.catf.us/publications/view/20" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Air of Injustice: African Americans and Power Plant Pollution,</a> Clean Air Task Force, 2002</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ejstimulus.wordpress.com/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Environmental Justice and the Green Economy: A Vision Statement and Case Studies for Just and Sustainable Solutions,</a> Communities for a Better Environment, Power U, Alternatives for Community & Environment, Environmental Health Coalition, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, West Harlem Environmental Action, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, 2010.</li>

</ul>

<li id="cite_note-hr-0" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">↑ <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-hr_0-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.0</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-hr_0-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.1</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-hr_0-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.2</a> J. Andrew Hoerner and Nia Robinson, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.urbanhabitat.org/cj/hoerner-robinson" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Just Climate Policy —Just Racial Policy"</a>, Race, Poverty, and the Environment, Fall 2009.</li>

<li id="cite_note-jn-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">↑ <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-jn_1-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">2.0</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-jn_1-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">2.1</a> J. Andrew Hoerner and Nia Robinson, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ejcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/coc_execsum.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAAAnOwc2AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAE5JREFUeF5lykEKgDAMBdF/+17Es/QkiosiCBURXIzJooZohmweX6gwmkCeI+Oqc2C1FnvnF2ejlQYU0tLK2NjY6f/l8V12Ti7uhFFgDj19b58EwXuqkAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"A Climate of Change: African Americans, Global Warming, and a Just Climate Policy for the U.S."</a> EJCC Report, July 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/files/Air_of_Injustice.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAAAnOwc2AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAE5JREFUeF5lykEKgDAMBdF/+17Es/QkiosiCBURXIzJooZohmweX6gwmkCeI+Oqc2C1FnvnF2ejlQYU0tLK2NjY6f/l8V12Ti7uhFFgDj19b58EwXuqkAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Air of Injustice: African Americans and Power Plant Pollution"</a> Clean Air Task Force, October 2002.</li>

<li id="cite_note-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-3" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ejmatters.org/declaration.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Declaration on the Use of Carbon Trading Schemes to Address Climate Change"</a>, California Environmental Justice Movement website.</li>

<li id="cite_note-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-4" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ejmatters.org/declaration.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Declaration on the Use of Carbon Trading Schemes to Address Climate Change"</a>, item 16, California Environmental Justice Movement website.</li>

<li id="cite_note-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-5" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2008/12/01/climate-activists-invade-dc-offices-of-environmental-defense-daughter-of-ed-founder-accuses-group-of-pushing-false-solutions-to-climate-change/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Climate Activists Invade DC Offices of Environmental Defense, Daughter of ED Founder Accuses NGO of Pushing False Solutions to Climate Change"</a>, Rising Tide press release, December 1, 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-6" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-6" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2008/12/01/climate-activists-invade-dc-offices-of-environmental-defense-daughter-of-ed-founder-accuses-group-of-pushing-false-solutions-to-climate-change/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Climate Activists Invade DC Offices of Environmental Defense, Daughter of ED Founder Accuses NGO of Pushing False Solutions to Climate Change"</a>, Rising Tide press release, December 1, 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-EIA2-7" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-EIA2_7-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat2p2.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005</a>, Energy Information Administration, accessed April 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-8" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-8" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/acr/table9.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Major U.S. Coal Mines</a>, Energy Information Administration, accessed July 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-poverty-9" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-poverty_9-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/PovertyRates/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">2005 County-Level Poverty Rates</a>, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, accessed July 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-10" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-10" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> Per Capita Income in 1999, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DCGeoSelectServlet?ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&_ts=233773696905" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Census 2000 Summary File 3</a>, U.S. Census Bureau American Fact Finder, accessed July 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-11" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-11" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> The Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change, the Center for American Progress and the National Wildlife Federation, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nrdc.org/air/files/LatinoAirReport.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAAAnOwc2AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAE5JREFUeF5lykEKgDAMBdF/+17Es/QkiosiCBURXIzJooZohmweX6gwmkCeI+Oqc2C1FnvnF2ejlQYU0tLK2NjY6f/l8V12Ti7uhFFgDj19b58EwXuqkAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"U.S. Latinos and Air Pollution,"</a> 2011 Report.</li>

<li id="cite_note-12" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-12" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/science-a-environmental/24866-new-analysis-finds-that-hispanics-face-disproportionate-health-threat-from-coal-plants-toxic-mercury-pollution.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"New Analysis Finds that Hispanics Face Disproportionate Health Threat from Coal Plant's Toxic Mercury Pollution "</a> ENews, June 14, 2011.</li>

<li id="cite_note-13" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-13" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> The Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change, the Center for American Progress and the National Wildlife Federation, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nrdc.org/air/files/LatinoAirReport.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAAAnOwc2AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAE5JREFUeF5lykEKgDAMBdF/+17Es/QkiosiCBURXIzJooZohmweX6gwmkCeI+Oqc2C1FnvnF2ejlQYU0tLK2NjY6f/l8V12Ti7uhFFgDj19b58EwXuqkAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"U.S. Latinos and Air Pollution,"</a> 2011 Report.</li>

<li id="cite_note-14" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-14" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.10161" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Race, Wealth, and Solid Waste Facilities in North Carolina,"</a> Environmental Health Perspectives, October 1, 2007. (Access to article requires free registration.)</li>

<li id="cite_note-15" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-15" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> Sue Sturgis, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2011/03/epa-puts-off-long-promised-coal-ash-protections.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"EPA puts off long-promised coal ash protections"</a> ISS, March 7, 2011.</li>

<li id="cite_note-burr-16" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">↑ <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-burr_16-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">17.0</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-burr_16-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">17.1</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-burr_16-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">17.2</a> Jim Burress, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1503700&sectionID=1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Coal Ash from Tennessee Disaster Making its Way to Georgia Landfill,"</a> WABE, May 8, 2009.</li>

<li id="cite_note-iss-17" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">↑ <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-iss_17-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">18.0</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-iss_17-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">18.1</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-iss_17-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">18.2</a> Sue Sturgis, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/05/tva-sends-spilled-coal-ash-to-impoverished-black-communities-in-georgia-and-alabama.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Dumping in Dixie: TVA sends toxic coal ash to poor black communities in Georgia and Alabama"</a> Facing South, May 12, 2009.</li>

<li id="cite_note-18" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-18" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=10657909" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Alabama DA reviewing options on coal ash decision,"</a> WTVM, July 7, 2009.</li>

<li id="cite_note-19" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-19" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/7E39C49BEA407817852575B30064E666" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"EPA to Oversee Cleanup of TVA Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant Release,"</a> Environmental Protection Agency, May 11, 2009.</li>

<li id="cite_note-ss-20" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">↑ <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-ss_20-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">21.0</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-ss_20-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">21.1</a> Sue Sturgis, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.truthout.org/dumpsites-disguise-reuse-coal-ash-largely-unregulated-officials59988" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"'Dumpsites in Disguise:' Reuse of Coal Ash Largely Unregulated by Officials"</a> truthout, May 27, 2010.</li>

<li id="cite_note-21" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-21" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-24-092.asp" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"EPA Environmental Justice Grants Fund Projects in 28 States"</a>, Environment News Service, March 24, 2009.</li>

<li id="cite_note-22" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-22" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.grist.org/comments/interactivist/2004/04/19/laduke/index.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Interview with Winona LaDuke,</a> Grist, April 19, 2004</li>

<li id="cite_note-23" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-23" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> The Direct Use of Coal: Prospects and Problems of Production and Combustion,Office of Technology Assessment, Books for Business, November 2002, p. 325</li>

<li id="cite_note-24" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-24" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> Cristina Silva, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/07/04/environment/tribes-utilities/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Native Americans say power plants near tribal lands cause illness,"</a> AP, July 5, 2012.</li>

<li id="cite_note-rb-25" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">↑ <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-rb_25-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">26.0</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-rb_25-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">26.1</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-rb_25-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">26.2</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_justice#cite_ref-rb_25-3" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">26.3</a> Robert Bullard, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/bp%E2%80%99s-waste-management-plan-raises-environmental-justice-concerns/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"BP’s Waste Management Plan Raises Environmental Justice Concerns"</a> Dissident Voices, July 29, 2010.</li>

</ol>

<h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Related SourceWatch articles</h3>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_and_Native_American_tribal_lands" title="Coal and Native American tribal lands" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Coal and Native American tribal lands</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Carbon_trading" title="Carbon trading" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Carbon trading</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_plants_near_residential_areas" title="Coal plants near residential areas" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Coal plants near residential areas</a></li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Corbin Hiar, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/14/7660/environmental-injustice-epa-neglects-discrimination-claims-polluted-communities" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Environmental injustice: EPA neglects discrimination claims from polluted communities,"</a> The Center for Public Integrity, December 14, 2011.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://race.change.org/petitions/view/grassroots_organizing_cools_the_planet" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Grassroots Organizing Cools the Planet"</a>, Race in America, October 2010.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.progressiveregulation.org/perspectives/intlenvironJustice.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"International Environmental Justice and Climate Change"</a>, Center for Progressive Regulation.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ejcc.org/cj/ten_principles/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"The Ten Principles of Just Climate Policies in the U.S."</a>, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.catf.us/publications/view/20" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Air of Injustice: African Americans and Power Plant Pollution,"</a> Clean Air Task Force, 2002.</li>

</ul>

</div>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Categories</a>:

<li style=" margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left-style: none; padding: 0px 0.5em 0px 0.25em; zoom: 1;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Coal_Issues" title="Category:Coal Issues" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Coal Issues</a></li>

<li style=" margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0px 0.5em; zoom: 1;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Energy" title="Category:Energy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Energy</a></li>

<li style=" margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0px 0.5em; zoom: 1;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Coal_and_politics" title="Category:Coal and politics" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Coal and politics</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>===

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="body" style="line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" width="50%">July 28, 2005 | <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080510140211/http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/back_issues.php" class="body" style="line-height: 16px; color: rgb(0, 102, 51); text-decoration: none;">Back Issues</a></td><td class="body" style="line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" align="right" width="50%">« <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080510140211/http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000284.php" class="body" style="line-height: 16px; color: rgb(0, 102, 51); text-decoration: none;">previous</a> | <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080510140211/http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000286.php" class="body" style="line-height: 16px; color: rgb(0, 102, 51); text-decoration: none;">next</a> »</td></tr></tbody></table>

Lawmakers Blast New EPA Environmental Justice Plan

A new Environmental Protection Agency draft strategic plan on environmental justice has generated a sharp backlash in both the House and Senate. Last week nearly 80 legislators signed a letter denouncingthe draft plan as a step backward, urging EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to "take real steps to combat the environmental injustices" that afflict communities throughout the nation.

Signers of the letter point out that the new EPA draft plan omits any mention of race in dealing with environmental justice issues.

Instead of taking race into specific consideration, the new plan defines environmental justice as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin or income, with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.

"At a time when we should be working to help the communities bearing the brunt of pollution problems, this Administration is turning the idea of environmental justice on its head." Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said of the EPA draft plan. "By ignoring our minority and low-income communities the Bush Administration is reversing a commitment made to communities across our country." [1]

Environmental justice refers to ameliorating the environmental conditions in low-income and minority communities that are disproportionately affected by high concentrations of pollution.

In both urban and many rural areas, minority and low-income communities mark the location of chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, sewage disposal operations and other facilities that expose residents to high levels of pollution and serious health problems.

Leading the opposition to EPA's draft plan is Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), whose legislative director David Goldenberg told <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080510140211/http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/">BushGreenwatch</a>, "By eliminating race from the legislation the EPA is missing a key component in addressing environmental justice."

Hastings successfully added language to the House version of the 2006 Environment and Interior spending bill; it says EPA's plan contravenes a Clinton-era executive order which explicitly directs federal agencies to make environmental justice a part of their missions. Hastings' amendment asserts that no money can be spent on efforts that violate the executive order. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) added similar language to the Senate version.

Besides the omission of race, the Congressional letter also says EPA's plan fails to take into account an Inspector General report that criticizes EPA's inability to identify "key recipients" of environmental justice policies. "The EPA's failure to identify the intended recipients in a manner that truly reflects environmental justice communities is ultimately another attempt to de-prioritize the importance of focusing on our nation's most vulnerable populations," the letter says. [2]

The EPA's draft plan also outlines an issues priority system which critics say will require the EPA to select which pollution related ailments deserve the most attention and "would automatically de-prioritize those issues which are lower on the list." [3]

Signers of the Congressional letter say the EPA plan "will do nothing to reduce the existing disparate impacts suffered by low-income and minority communities and may contribute to the future increase of these impacts." [4]

###

SOURCES:

[1] "<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080510140211/http://kerry.senate.gov/v3/cfm/record.cfm?id=241171">Kerry, House and Senate environmental leaders call for administration to reverse backwards march on environmental justice</a>," Sen. John Kerry's website, Jul. 21, 2005.

[2] "<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080510140211/http://www.alceehastings.house.gov/news/press_releases/PressRelease.aspx?id=110">Hastings calls for major changes in administration's environmental justice 'strategic plan'</a>," Rep. Alcee Hastings' website, Jul. 21, 2005.

[3] Ibid. 

[4] Ibid. 

<div>

</div>

</div>