| By Clem Guttata
Elizabeth McGowan reports on the inaugural environmental justice forum held at the White House in late December in Environmental Justice Knocks Loudly at the White House:
Even though the inner workings of the nation's capital might seem ritualistic, irrelevant and sloth-like on the surface, many explained, the fact that six cabinet heads-Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu missed out due to illness-spoke at the Dec. 15 forum is an indicator that environmental justice is an enormous priority for President Obama.
For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice collaborate on these issues all of the time, explained assistant attorney general Ignacia Moreno with DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator with EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
"I am going to ask for some partnership and some patience," Moreno told the doubters. "You're right, we have to get there. You want to see results on the ground. It will take some time to turn that big vessel. This administration is on it when it comes to environmental justice. We need to figure out how we set priorities together."
Still, there's a limit to what can be accomplished in Washington, DC alone.
Though plenty of other attendees joined Canales in pointing their fingers at the federal government, they admitted that much of their frustration stems from inaction on the part of state and local agencies. Nothing will change, they claim, unless federal authorities wield a heavier hammer.
Sounds a lot like what is happening in West Virginia, doesn't it? Every time the federal government takes action, there are loud voices in West Virginia standing up for the status quo.
"It's changing in Washington, D.C. but it hasn't trickled down," said audience member Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
In making a plaintive plea for the Department of Justice to intervene, she explained that her advocacy organization had uncovered 20,000 Clean Water Act violations in her home state after combing through discharge monitoring reports from three coal companies.
"The feds are trying to help," she told SolveClimate News in an interview, answering "hell, yes" when asked if she's noticed progress under the Obama administration. "They know what we're up against in our state. We are ground zero for energy issues. They need to take this into the field and make sure everyone is playing from the same playbook."
Blanton, sporting a colorful "I Love Mountains" pin said she trekked to the nation's capital because somebody has to be relentless when unsustainable practices by coal companies are flooding residents of Appalachia out of their homes.
"My people are suffering every day because they don't have a clean drink of water and have to breathe in dust," said Blanton, who was appointed to the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council this year.
Is the Obama administration doing enough?
Fellow New Yorker and panelist Eddie Bautista, executive director of the Environmental Justice Alliance, lauded the Obama administration for "shifting the Titanic" with a noticeably invigorated approach to environmental justice.
However, he also warned the audience about an upcoming change that he figured federal government employees couldn't discuss in such a forum. When the 112th Congress convenes in January with a Republican-majority House, some legislators will likely question every penny being directed toward this resurgent environmental effort.
"A lot of these initiatives are threatening to be stillborn," he concluded. "Already, the attack is coming."
It's up to us to keep supporting what has already been done--even while pushing for even more--and to remind our elected officials that there is support here in Appalachia for policies that promote environmental justice for all West Virginians. |
