Recently I participated at an Environmental Justice Listening Session sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus.  This event reenforced my belief that many so called environmentalists are not as concerned about environmental justice as they are their own selfish “causes.”  So I must draw the conclusion that there are two divergent paths emerging in the environmental movement, those who focus on the environment to the exclusion of the people impacted by it, and a second group who believes that a balance can be struck between environmental concerns and the people they affect.  Without question, I fall into the latter group.

As Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus for two years, my commitment to find this balance was so strong I named environmental justice as one of my top three priorities.   The outgrowth of that has been a commission established by the CBC, which has conducted a series of “listening sessions” over the course of the past year.  This commission is comprised of a broad range of stakeholders including representatives from business and industry, health organizations, academia, environmental justice communities as well as tribal, state and local governments.  Their mission is to identify environmental issues and to articulate a range of policy alternatives for consideration by policy makers.  In meeting this goal, the commission will deliberate and report on appropriate roles for human health, environmental protection, environmental justice and economic development considerations in a comprehensive environmental policy.

This process and recent personal experiences have brought me to the conclusion that the term “environmentalist” has a broad connotation.  It is used to label anyone who supports clean air and safe drinking water.  But who doesn’t support these initiatives?   I have been heralded as an environmentalist for my voting record in Congress in support of “environmental issues.” So I suppose I can rightly claim that mantle.  At the same time, I have been criticized, by the same “environmental” organizations that praise me, for trying to build a bridge across Sparkleberry Swamp in South Carolina to provide the opportunity for a better quality of life for my constituents in a four county area.  I am also being criticized for trying to run a water line from Moncks Corner, South Carolina to the communities of Honey Hill and Shulerville, whose well water contains so much iron it stains clothes, sinks and toilets and has tested positive for human waste.

While in California for the last CBC Listening Session, I heard some familiar stories one of them from Oakland Council President Ignacio De La Fuente.  In his testimony, Mr. De La Fuente eloquently explained the obstacles so-called environmentalist posed as his community of color sought environmental justice.  He said, and I quote:

        “To a great extent, the ‘environmental justice’ movement has become a movement whose goals and objectives are being defined by a small group of progressives who live outside of the areas for which they fight, and who don’t particularly look like the people who live in those communities.  And they are fighting battles that are not necessarily the battles of the multitude of residents from these communities.  But when the real battles emerge, these environmental justice ‘leaders’ are no where to be found.”