Rev. William J. Barber II, a Baptist minister who addressed the Unitarian-Universalist Association’s General Assembly in 2017, is fighting for environmental justice in Greensboro. A coal-fired power plant is polluting the waters of a lower-income colored community with coal ash, disposed in unlined waste ponds that contaminate wells. Rev. Barber was joined in late August 2018 by Al Gore, fighting coal power generation as part of his fight against climate change. Gore linked the issues: “Both are necessary byproducts of our addiction to fossil fuels.” Rev. Barber put the issue succinctly: “Jesus said love your neighbor. I don’t care how many times you tell me you love me, if you put coal ash in my water you don’t love me. Because if there was nothing wrong with the coal ash, then put it in the wealthy communities.”
Barber’s message is a clear example of environmental justice and its connection to politics. “This is the real question, not if Democrats are going to get elected, not if Republicans are going to get elected, but if America is going to be America, she’s going to have to address systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, and our false moral narrative of religious nationalism.”
Would residents of Greensboro be able to rely on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the Duke Energy, the operator of the plant, to reduce pollution? The Trump EPA has changed regulations on coal ash to make it easier for utilities to avoid costly storage. Duke Energy has been sued for dumping coal ash into surface water and connected groundwater. It doesn’t seem that either will want to address the problem.
(Information from New York Times, August 24, 2018)
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