National Black Chamber Says EJ Limits Minority Progress

Harry Alford, left, is president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) and he recently wrote an article in The Washington Informer entitled, "Environmental Justice: The New "White Man's Burden," where he states:

"Environmental justice is the biggest sham in modern day political leadership. It addresses "minority communities" and presents itself as the protector of them. Never mind about civil rights aka economic development, job creation and proactive policy. Environmental Justice seeks to limit progress in minority communities via inertia through excess regulation, bureaucracy and adverse policy in regards to infrastructure and economic progress. It acts like it is there to protect us from evil corporate America and young and new Black entrepreneurs. It demands to stop all industrial activity and progress that might cause another economic shift in the demographics of our communities."

Alford believes that environmental justice legislation in Congress will erode civil rights enforcement by shifting the focus from the Justice Department to the Environmental Protection Agency. The legislation was introduced by Representative Hilda Solis (H.R. 1103) and by Senators Dick Durbin (S. 642) and Hillary Clinton (S. 2549) and will codify the original Clinton Exectuve Order 12898 establishing environmental justice policies in the Executive Branch. Alford continues:

"This would put the Justice Department's responsibilities for civil rights enforcement further into the hole. It would shift to the Environmental Protection Agency. From the US Deparment of Justice (the laws of the land) to the EPA, a quasi agency for the environment and not civil rights, this is so counter to real civil rights enforcement. Our economic future will whither on the vine. Once again, they will order the Congressional Black Caucus to step aside and the Civil Rights Community to turn a blind eye and accept federal grants ("30 pieces of silver" ala Judas). The diversion is creating a formidable infrastructure if we allow this to go on. It's time for new leadership and a return to the tried and proven Civil Rights Act enforcement."

Dana Alston: Remembering An Environmental Justice Heroine

The environmental justice movement will never be the same without Dana Alston, right. This powerful activist spoke truth to power and worked tirelessly for social and environmental justice. Dana was 47 years old when she died in 1999.

Dana Alston received a Bannerman Fellowship in 1992 in recognition of her leadership in the development of the environmental justice movement. The Bannerman Fellowship Program was founded in 1987 on the belief that the most effective approach to achieving progressive social change is by organizing low-income people at the grassroots level. In 2002, the Fellowship Program was renamed the Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program in honor of Dana Alston. Dana died on August 7, 1999 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Dana was a native of New York and lived in Washington, D.C. She was in San Francisco for treatment of kidney disease and consequences of a stroke when she died. Her beloved son, Khalil Alston-Cobb, resides in Washington, D.C.

Senator James Inhofe Offers Energy Justice Resolution

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, offered a Sense of the Senate resolution on Energy Justice during today’s Full Committee Business Meeting. The resolution, which was voted down by Democrats, urged that any “environmental justice policies” should only be considered in “the context of energy justice policies.”

Senator Inhofe’s Sense of the Senate revealed that “high energy prices are most burdensome on the poor and disadvantaged, and that opening access to increased energy supply and helping them to use less energy will lower energy prices for the poor and disadvantaged.”

Full Text of Senator Inhofe’s Sense of the Senate Resolution on “Energy Justice”:

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES—110th Congress, 2nd Session.

To expresses the Sense of the Senate that development and implementation of environmental justice policies must be considered within the context of energy justice policies, that high energy prices are most burdensome on the poor and disadvantaged, and that opening access to increased energy supply and helping them to use less energy will lower energy prices for the poor and disadvantaged.

Whereas environmental justice can be defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income within the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental policies and laws; and

Whereas energy justice can be defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income within the development, implementation, and enforcement of national energy policies and laws with the goal to promote affordable and abundant energy; and

Whereas environmental justice and energy justice are not mutually exclusive; and

Whereas the nation is currently in the grips of an energy crisis; and Whereas according to a recent survey by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, 70 percent of households reduced food purchases, 30 percent reduced purchases of medicine, and 20 percent changed plans for either their own or their children’s education in order to cope with higher home energy and gasoline costs; and

Whereas America has ample supplies of oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, uranium, and wind potential to meet our energy supply needs for the next century and beyond; and

Whereas drilling is currently prohibited by Congress on 85 percent of the nation’s outer continental shelf, which holds an estimated 14 billion barrels of recoverable oil or the equivalent of 25 years of imports from Saudi Arabia; and

Whereas commercial scale oil shale production is currently prohibited by Congress in the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming with nearly two trillion potentially-recoverable barrels of oil which at current rates of consumption could yield enough energy to fully meet America’s oil needs for nearly 240 years; and

Whereas energy is the nation’s lifeblood, the mostly unseen but present force that powers our economic engine, creates opportunities, and improves living standards:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that –

(1) implementation of environmental justice policies must always be considered in context with energy justice; and

(2) affordable energy is the creator of economic opportunities; and

(3) lifting Congressional prohibitions and increasing access to America’s abundant energy supply will lower the price of energy for the nation’s poor and disadvantaged.