Environmental justice group to fight 'biggest contributor' to short black lifespan
By Joy-Ann Reid
6:07 AM on 09/23/2010
Wednesday's meeting was chaired by Jackson, and attended by Attorney General Eric Holder, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, General Services Administration Administrator Martha Johnson, along with White House energy and climate Change senior advisor Carol Browner, John Holdren, who directs the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; White House Office of Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes, and representatives from the Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy, Education, Agricultural Homeland Security and Commerce Departments, plus officials from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense.
Miller-Travis, who was director of the Environmental Justice Initiative at the National Resources Defense Counsel in 1994 and who is now vice chair of the Maryland Commission On Environmental Justice And Sustainable Communities, was present when Clinton signed the executive order, and was pleased to see the issue revived.
"We had a report that had been published by the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice in 1987, called 'Toxic Waste and Race in the United States,' and one of the many recommendations from the report was that the [Environmental Protection] Agency and the White House needed to think about a national policy to address this issue of environmental and racial justice," Miller-Travis said.
The report was not acted on by the first Bush administration, she added, "but it did lay the foundation for ongoing discussions with the White House."
Miller-Travis said the issue of environmental justice took off during the Clinton administration, when environmental justice advocates "began a concerted dialogue with the administration that they needed to put the weight of the White House and the federal government into addressing these disparities and not letting these communities languish outside the bounds of federal law, which was happening then and which is still happening." She credits the administration, including Vice President Al Gore, with taking the issue seriously.
But she said the movement fell into a "black hole" during the George W. Bush administration, whose EPA she said tried to rescind or renege on aspects of the executive order, including by "trying to redefine environmental justice so race, income and class would no longer be a part of the definition.
"If you're not talking about poor people, indigenous people and people of color, who are you talking about?" she added.
Still, Miller-Travis expressed faith in Jackson, and relief at the renewed vigor she said the EPA administrator, Attorney General Holder and other agency heads have displayed in addressing the problems of communities at the greatest risk of environmental exposure.
"Today was about the Obama administration's formal commitment across the breadth of government to say we rededicate ourselves to the executive order and the things we were tasked to do in 1994," she said.
Jackson said the inter-agency work was just beginning.
"We realize that a one hour meeting isn't going to solve the many issues that communities are facing, but we wanted to make a start," she said.
The working group will convene again in about a month.
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Thursday, September 23rd 2010 at 10:17AM
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