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Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator: Now "Green" is Reaching Out to Blacks & Browns
BSoul.tv exclusive interview with Lisa P. Jackson, U.S.E.P.A. Administrator
It’s easy to talk to US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson. Well, no...it’s not always easy in terms of making it happen. Sometimes, like in my case, you have to go through schedulers and press secretaries weeks in advance to get to her and she’s so busy that you have to catch her for 15 minutes as she speeds to another engagement, but when you talk to her, it is very easy. She’s relaxed, personable and comfortable in her role as the nation’s primary orchestrator of environmental policy.
Mrs. Jackson, 47, is the first African-American to hold this high-profile position, an incredible responsibility that she respectfully acknowledges, but it’s not like she wasn’t prepared for it. Jackson graduated with honors from Tulane’s School of Chemical Engineering and got her masters in the same discipline from Princeton. She then put in 16 years with the EPA before joining the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and eventually ending her NJ career as chief of staff to the governor. So when President Obama tapped her to lead the EPA into a more inclusive future, she was ready and received unanimous Senate approval.
The Administrator seems especially intent on “casting a broad net” to reach out to low-income and Black and Brown communities not typically represented at the “green” policy decision-making table. This is most likely a result of her upbringing and experience. Born in Philadelphia, but raised by adoptive parents in New Orleans’s 9th Ward, she is able to relate to those of lesser means who practiced “sustainability” for survival reasons long before it was cool.
“Sustainability is a buzz word. When my mother did certain practices, she didn’t call that environmentalism, she called it keeping out the cold. She called it being sensible about her electricity and oil bill; but those are all the things we learned just growing up.”
Unfortunately, even closed doors could not hold back the raging flood waters that ravaged New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Mrs. Jackson’s mother lost the family home to the storm. This left an indelible impression on the future EPA Administrator. “I know the importance of protecting wetlands and what can happen when we don’t.”
As a mother herself, Jackson sees her mission in the context of preserving the earth’s resources for her children's future as a primary driver of her carrying out her myriad duties as a standout in the Obama administration.
According to Jackson, the biggest policy shifts in this administration versus the previous have been those related to the “president’s commitment to a green economy. The president knows that creating a green economy isn’t about just sustainability but is also a way to get us out of this economic crunch.”
A green economy entails creating solutions for prosperity that go with the evolving circumstances and not flail against the inevitable. A green economy replaces jobs lost to off-shoring and the reduction of manufacturing jobs with new jobs in alternative fuels, wind power and other industries that reduce America’s reliance on imported oil.
“Sustainability and profitability are not mutually exclusive,” assures Jackson.
Let’s hope she’s right.
Connect Mrs. Jackson on Facebook/LisaPJackson or on the EPA's official website EPA.gov/Lisa.
What "green" habits do you practice either for the environment or to save money?
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Chevy Volt:230 Miles-Per-Gallon! What Took Them So Long?
The 2010 Chevy Volt will get a reported 230 MPG rating! That's per gallon...not per tankful!!! It's a truly staggering number to think about with gas prices inching up again. The big question is why did it take a crashed economy, bankruptcy and a federal bailout for GM and the US auto industry as a whole to get it?!?
In order to come up with this official mileage number, there was some fuzzy math used because the car is a hybrid and uses gas and electric power based on how it's driven, so the figure combines the two. Just straight up driving using the gasoline engine alone, the mileage number is down around 50 MPG, but even that is great considering that this is a mid-size sedan and not a tiny little Prius.
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CARS' Cash For Clunkers Program Runs Out Of Gas
Apparently there are more hoopties in America than the government thought. The federal government's Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program, more commonly called Cash for Clunkers, run out of gas. The program, offering $3,500 or $4,500 incentives for trading in fuel inefficient vehicles, was supposed to last until November 1st, exhausted its funding within a week!
The Transportation Department, as of Thursday evening, has asked auto dealers to stop offering the rebate until more funds can be earmarked, but this message was slow in making it to the program's official website www.cars.gov which as been overwhelmed with traffic.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, offered this statement, “We are working
tonight to assess the situation facing what is obviously an incredibly
popular program. Auto dealers and consumers should have confidence that
all valid CARS transactions that have taken place to date will be
honored.”
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Pres. Obama Backs Bullet Trains
High-speed “bullet” trains like those commonly in use in Europe and Asia have been made a priority by the Obama administration. Six major corridors have been identified that would benefit most readily from improved rail service and $8 billion dollars, with possibly another billion added, has been earmarked for the program.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says high-speed rail could be a signature issue for Obama. "I do think this is the transformational issue for this administration when it comes to transportation," LaHood said. "I think President Obama would like to be known as the high-speed rail president, and I think he can be."
Right now, the closest thing we have to high-speed rail in the U.S. is Amtrak's Acela service, running from Washington, D.C., to New York and north to Boston. The trip to New York is supposed to take 2 hours and 46 minutes, averaging 86 miles per hour. Which is pretty good, but that's only about half the speed of France's TGV trains.
Personally, I think fast, efficient and affordable rail service is long overdue. We walked away from rail, for the most part, but it’s time to go back to this mode to help ease our reliance on individual automobiles.
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West Africa Becoming Dumping Ground For Toxic Waste
West Africa, particularly Ghana and Nigeria, is becoming a popular place for Western European countries, particularly the U.K., to dump trashed computers. This practice is creating hazardous conditions in the landfills in which they end up because PCs can be loaded with many toxic materials including mercury, cadmium, lead and other cancer-causing dioxins.
What makes it even worse is that the landfills containing these items are often scavenged by children and teens for parts and materials to sell exposing themselves to these toxic conditions.
"Chemicals like lead are very dangerous especially for children. They affect the brain when it is developing and therefore cause a lower IQ when they grow up," Greenpeace's Kim Schoppink says. "Other chemicals we found cause cancer or disrupt your hormone system."
Computers for kids in Africa sounds like a great idea. This just isn’t quite what I had in mind, though.
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