THE P.L.E.D.G.E. PLATFORM
2. MORATORIUM NOW
Cancer Alley is full. Majority-minority communities are overburdened with toxic pollution and dangerous petrochemical infrastructure. We ask that candidates stand with Cancer Alley residents suffering decades of poor health outcomes as a direct result of environmental racism and corporate greed in opposing any and all new petrochemical and fossil fuel infrastructure in environmental justice communities, including infrastructure associated with false solutions like LNG, carbon capture, and blue or gray hydrogen and/or ammonia.
1. NO FOSSIL FUEL MONEY
We ask all candidates to reject any and all contributions from fossil fuel companies, petrochemical companies, and private utilities that profit off of pollution and environmental destruction, as well as individual corporate executives in those sectors.
3. FEDERAL PROTECTION NOW
Residents of District 2 lack basic regulatory safeguards for their health, safety, and environment because state agencies such as the Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Natural Resources & Energy, and Department of Health are underfunded or do not adequately address the public health and environmental impacts of rampant petrochemical pollution. We ask that candidates act to ensure that federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Army Corps of Engineers act with the interests of Cancer Alley residents in mind, rather than the interests of petrochemical profit. Further efforts to combat regulatory capture by industry-associated organizations and individuals and limitations of conflict of interests on federal and state regulatory authorities are sorely needed, including open access real-time air monitoring. We expect candidates to act to remove representatives of corporations poisoning our communities, like Dow Chemical and Altria, from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Advisory Board. In their place, we envision and support board membership reflecting real clean energy solutions for our district and world, including representatives of wind and solar firms and labor unions, such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). We hope to see candidates push for federal legislation to rectify the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron decision and the resulting upheaval of administrative law at the core of sensible regulation.
4. NEW ECONOMIC FUTURE
Cancer Alley needs more good and green jobs that allow for a transition of the local and regional economy away from petrochemicals and towards truly clean energy, and economic development that centers community rather than extractive profit. We expect candidates to support renewable energy buildout, primarily wind and solar, to provide quality green energy jobs to area residents, and oppose the proliferation of ineffective and irresponsible projects like LNG expansion, carbon capture, and blue hydrogen that all still depend on fossil fuel usage. Residents would also benefit from economic diversification to provide opportunities in new and emerging sectors, such as ecotourism and historical tourism of sites threatened by industrial expansion, as well as vital services such as small local specialty farms, grocery stores, and basic commerce that have been under-resourced or lacking in majority-minority areas as they are abandoned to industrial use. Any job creation must afford residents a true living wage, and not a bare survival wage. We ask that candidates provide innovative economic solutions and new opportunities that help communities to build themselves up, rather than tear them down.
5. REMEDIATION AND RESTITUTION
The harm done by the petrochemical industry is lasting and severe. Residents of areas overburdened by pollution, industrial activity, and improperly discarded waste deserve restitution for the impacts to their health and their communities. Furthermore, to meaningfully recognize the Black Louisianan experience across centuries, from the evils of their oppression to their struggle for liberation, sacred and historic burial sites threatened by industrial expansion deserve vigorous protection under the provisions of the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act and a fully-funded African American Burial Grounds Preservation Program. We expect candidates to support programs that can provide for the needs of those most affected, to defend the legacy and memory of the ancestors who maintained the land both in slavery and in freedom, and to repair any and all damage done to environmental justice communities by the petrochemical industry.
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Our Coalition
