(The Root) — As African-American environmental-justice proponentsVan Jones and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins will tell you, environmental sustainability and climate change are, in addition to their general importance, also tremendously relevant to the overall health of America’s communities of color. Though clean energy is a less obvious racial issue than, say, education or criminal justice, it’s becoming increasingly […]
(Chicago Tribune) — Illinois is failing to crack down on water pollution from large confined-animal farms, the Obama administration announced Wednesday in a stinging rebuke that gave the state a month to figure out how to fix its troubled permitting and enforcement programs. Responding to a petition from environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said its […]
(Crain’s) — A deal that allows the city to oversee the cleanup of contaminated properties known as “brownfields” could pave the way for the development of thousands of acres across the five boroughs, city and state officials announced Thursday. The agreement, reached between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis, allows […]
(Atlanta Journal Constitution) — Georgia could create 50,000 “green” jobs by 2016 and ride an environmentally friendly wave to a cleaner, more prosperous future, according to a thought-provoking report by the Georgia Department of Labor. While health care and education are expected to account for most new jobs, the green industry could generate 8 percent […]
(Atlanta Journal Constitution) — According to researchers at Georgia Tech and Duke University, Georgia has one of the least energy-efficient economies in the country. We rank 44th for energy codes and other policies to encourage efficiency in the residential, commercial, industrial and transportation sectors. That’s the bad news. But there’s good news too. Georgia has […]
(Atlanta Journal Constitution) — Last Wednesday, as the magnitude of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico grew starker, environmentalists were handed the perfect weapon to fight drilling off the Georgia coast. Their clean-energy hopes were buoyed further by the Obama administration’s approval that same day of a massive wind-turbine farm off Massachusetts — […]
(TheGrio.com) — It is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Strangely, today’s “celebration” reminds me of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 Independence Day speech when he so poignantly asked, ” What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence?” Today, black America should ask the same question of Earth Day, and more specifically, […]