 WASHINGTON Inhofe Offers Energy Justice Resolution July 31, 2008 Inhofe Offers Energy Justice Resolution
Civil Rights Coalition Seeks to End Weblink to 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.” FACT: 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.” In offering his Sense of the Senate, Inhofe noted that a 2006 survey of Colorado homeless families with children found that high energy bills were cited as one of the two main reasons they became homeless. A coalition African-American civil rights leaders and advocates for the poor have been demanding that Congress look at the impacts of high energy prices on the disadvantaged and the group is demanding more production of American energy from all sources, including renewables, clean coal, oil and gas, and nuclear energy. "Those on the left side of the political spectrum believe that high energy prices are a necessary tool to force Americans to conserve and adopt a lower standard of living," Bishop Harry Jackson, the head of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and co-chair of the Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor, said at a press conference in Washington on July 29. "This is an ethically challenged, immoral public policy position. It is the major driver of the current 'War on the Poor.' And those who preach this type of policy are truly the punishers of the poor,” In March, Roy Innis, chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, warned that high energy prices disproportionately impact minorities. "We are harming our poorest families; we are rolling back the civil rights we struggled so long and hard to achieve; and we are sending many minorities to the back of the energy and economic bus. This must not, and cannot continue," Innis said. (LINK)
Energy Keepers Energy Killers: The New Civil Rights Battle.
Full Text of Senator Inhofe’s Sense of the Senate Resolution on “Energy Justice”: Purpose: To express the Sense of the Senate IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES—110th Cong., 2d Sess. 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 a 2006 survey of Colorado homeless families with children found that high energy bills were cited as one of the two main reasons they became homeless; 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 # # # |
Coming Soon! Ron is available to speak at your next convention or seminar. Call 425-455-5038 Latest Report Releases:
Latest Book Releases:
|
|||||||||
Innis is the author of the new book 
