Obama to divert US taxpayer dollars to new 'environmental justice' programs for minority and poor, new regulations and 'institutional controls'

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12/6/11, "DHS drafts 'environmental justice strategy'," Washington Examiner, J. Gehrke

"President Obama's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) outlined an "environmental justice strategy" that would review how a variety of DHS activities, from interaction with local governments to granting regulatory permits, affect poor and minority populations.

DHS defines environmental justice as "the commitment of the Federal Government . . . to avoid placing disproportionately high and adverse effects on the human health and environment of minority populations and low-income populations."

Efforts to implement environmental justice will influence "our own operations, financial assistance to state and local governments, and [DHS'] regulatory permitting activities," DHS explained in the draft strategy.

To that end, the department will create a Directive and Instruction on Environmental Justice to "outline DHS roles and responsibilities" in the various agencies and programs."

Past examples of environmental justice affecting policy include: "coordinating with Native communities in Alaska on potential impacts of that may occur by increased vessel traffic and ol exploration as a result of melting Artic ice;" and "follow[ing] institutional controls to ensure that . . . non-federal grantees

• consider environmental justice in the delivery of disaster assistance."

You can read the full draft below.

20111116 Dhs Environmental Justice Strategy"

---------------------------- Arizona Indian tribe gets $20 million from US taxpayers via Obama stimulus

3/31/11, "Scottsdale's 3 teams hit baseball jackpot," Arizona Republic, P/ Corbett

"Salt River Fields at Talking Stick is a 140-acre baseball complex northeast of Indian Bend and Pima roads that cost the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in excess of $100 million to build.

The tribe tapped into federal stimulus money to obtain $20 million in tax-exempt bonds to build the stadium and a dozen practice fields, said Diane Enos, Salt River tribal president.

Spring baseball has an economic impact in Arizona estimated at $360 million, according to the Cactus League Association."...(item 5th parag. from bottom)

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Obama Atty. Gen. Holder says 'environmental justice' is a civil rights issue:

1/14/11, "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Helped ‘Plant the Seeds’ for ‘Environmental Justice Movement,’ Says Attorney General Holder," CNS News, Nicholas Ballasy

"(Holder) also said, “Together we are approaching environmental justice just as what it is: It is a civil rights issue. By examining environmental requirements in conjunction with our civil rights laws, I am confident that we can do a better job of assuring fairness and advancing justice.”

Later in his remarks, Holder cited a 2005 report based on EPA data which showed that African Americans were almost 80 percent more likely than white Americans to live near hazardous industrial pollution sites. He said issues like this still exist today.

“In 2011, the burden of environmental degradation still falls disproportionately on low-income communities and communities of color, and most often on their youngest residents:

• our children, my children,”

he told the audience at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington....

Holder, the keynote speaker at the event which also featured EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, said

• “environmental justice” is also a “personal calling.”

“I want you to know that – at every level of the Justice Department, just like here at the EPA – this work is a top priority,” he said, adding, “and, for me, it is also a personal calling,” he said."...

via wz