Environmental Protection Agency

Local EV Policies Can Clean Air, Save Black Lives if Done Right

Air quality has been a daily concern for all Californians in recent weeks due to the fires ravaging our state, but the truth is pollution has been choking Black and Brown communities for generations. It is time to hold our elected leaders accountable and ensure our voices are heard on important policies affecting our ability to breathe.

Senator Doug Jones Emphasizes the Importance of the 2020 Black Voter Turnout

Jones said voting rights had been under attack since the 2013 Shelby V. Holder decision, which eliminated a lot of voter protections. “It’s not the same as the old Jim Crow laws, but there’s still efforts out there to suppress votes and keep people from having that free access to the booths,” he stated. Jones noted that he’s working to restore “teeth” in the Voting Rights Act but doubts that the current GOP-led Senate and President Trump’s administration would approve. “I don’t see it happening, so it’s all the more important to get out and vote in the 2020 elections.”

Harris and Blumenthal Demand Entire Trump Cabinet Cooperate with Ongoing Investigations, Protect Whistleblowers and Inspectors General

U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), both former state attorneys general, on Wednesday sent a letter to every Trump cabinet official calling on them to cooperate with all ongoing and future investigations related to the potential wrongdoing by the President of the United States, preserve all evidence relevant to their departments, and protect whistleblowers and the independence of inspectors general.

Our Planet is Melting. Who Cares?

Our world is melting. Glaciers are disappearing. Oceans are rising. Lowlands (mostly populated by low income and Black people) are disappearing. And, before Democrats took power in this term, few other than Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New Green Deal have been able to address matters of climate change and, in the words of the New Poor People’s Campaign, “ecological devastation.”

Use of the ‘N-Word’ is Far From the Only Measure of Racism

Omarosa Manigault Newman, the president’s former aide, claims there is a tape of him using the vile racial slur. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she “can’t guarantee” that a tape doesn’t exist. Trump tweeted, “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary.” The press pursued the question as if this would establish for one and for all whether Trump is a racist.

South L.A. Neighborhood Residents Sue Oil Company Blamed for Illnesses

A group of people who lived or worked near an urban oil field blamed for causing chronic respiratory illnesses and nosebleeds in a neighborhood near USC sued the company that owned the closed facility on December 10. The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit names as a defendant AllenCo Energy Inc., which in July 2014 agreed to pay a $99,000 penalty for violations of federal environmental laws. The penalty was in addition to the ongoing work identified in an April 2014 consent agreement between AllenCo Energy Inc. and the Environmental Protection Agency.