by Jakada Imani
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Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights<\/p>\n
All of the polling to date tells us that voters of color will be the deciding factor for Proposition 23, the Texas Oil company attack on California’s clean air law. Communities United Against the Dirty Energy Prop, a deep and broad coalition has come together to make sure voters of color don’t fall for polluter-promoted lies. Communities United is made up of the state’s most well respected social\/environmental justice and community-based organizations. Our core partners will focus in their own backyards. It also happens to be in the very communities that are most negatively impacted by pollution and have the most to gain by protecting the state’s clean air laws. Already, more than 80 Latino, African American and Asian\/Pacific Islander Groups have come together to form this historic grassroots campaign.<\/p>\n
Proposition 23 will hurt low-income communities and people of color first and worst. This Dirty Energy Proposition will guarantee more air pollution and fewer jobs, especially in communities already burdened by too much pollution and poverty.<\/p>\n
Prop 23 is funded almost exclusively by two Texas oil companies. Valero and Tesoro are among the nation’s worst toxic polluters in the state. Their refineries are listed among the top ten polluters in California, as detailed in a recently released report detailing the environmental violations and fines assessed against Valero and Tesoro refineries in the city of Wilmington, CA. I am always appalled to see the way that special interests try to buy the ballot box. Saying “No” to Proposition 23 tells Big Oil that California air is not for sale.<\/p>\n
Contrary to the lies being peddled by the oil companies, Prop. 23 would kill jobs, not save them. Times are hard. Unemployment is up. And joblessness impacts folks of color at higher rates. But I also know that green jobs are the fasting growing part of the California economy. And that only a green economic recovery will truly build a California with more jobs and less pollution for all of us.<\/p>\n
A poll last month by the Public Policy Institute of California found that voters of color were more likely than whites voters to be concerned about climate change and more likely to see air pollution as a problem. This is not surprising to me as a West Oakland resident, where every day I see first hand the impacts of pollution on brown and black folks. Low-income communities are facing epidemics of asthma and lung disease due to air pollution and Prop. 23 will ensure it stays that way.<\/p>\n
Communities United is mounting an aggressive, statewide grassroots campaign to educate voters of color about the Dirty Energy Prop. In the coming weeks, we will be ramping up the campaign, with statewide days of action, the naming of the campaign’s co-chairs and The Clean Energy Hip-Hop Tour, a statewide music tour bringing together the arts, activism and education on college campuses to mobilize the young vote. We’ve been taking our message to media outlets that reach Asian\/Pacific Islanders, African-Americans, and Latinos, to expose the lies behind Prop. 23.<\/p>\n
Our recent experience with Prop 16, shows us that Californians know how to follow the money. Once we do, we will see that the supporters of Prop 23 are putting their profits before the health of our children or our economy.<\/p>\n