The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies today joined forces with the National Minority Quality Forum to create a database that will offer lawmakers and community activists access to important data on local health and environmental conditions.

As a result of this collaboration, local civic and political leaders, other community activists and residents will have a powerful visual tool to assist them in communicating their concerns about health and environmental burdens in their neighborhoods.  Additionally, it will enable those making health and environmental decisions to better target their actions by understanding where these problems are most severe and where the most help is needed.

WASHINGTON, DC—The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies today announced a partnership with AME Church Bishops Vashti Murphy McKenzie and Adam Jefferson Richardson, Jr., and GREEN DMV to help local congregations raise their environmental awareness, make their churches more energy efficient and redirect cost savings to carry out the churches’ mission.

GREEN DMV, a non-profit organization that promotes the use of clean energy and the development of green jobs as a way out of poverty, will work with selected churches in the bishops’ districts to assess their energy use and to implement low- and no-cost strategies for reducing energy use.

The results will be shared with other AME congregations when thousands convene in Nashville, June 27-July 4, for the 49^th Quadrennial Session of the AME Church General Conference.

The American Association of Blacks in Energy will hold their 35th Annual National Conference, The Power of Energy: Winning Our Future, from April 17 to April 21, 2012 at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel in Long Beach, California. Danielle Deane of the Joint Center's Energy and Environment Program will be a panelist at this event.

For more information, visit the American Association of Blacks in Energy.

WASHINGTON, DC—The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, one of the nation’s leading research and public policy institutions, has announced the appointment of Danielle Deane as the first Director of its Energy and Environment Program.

Deane, who recently completed the full eight-year term as an Environment Program Officer at the Hewlett Foundation in California, will guide the program’s strategic direction and operations and manage the activities of the Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change. The Commission, a national panel of leading experts from government, industry, academia, labor, consumer protection and environmental interests, was established by the Joint Center four years ago with support from the Bipartisan Policy Center. Its goal is to help enhance African Americans’ awareness and understanding of climate change and to advance their perspectives in critical policy forums. Ms. Deane will begin her new duties at the Joint Center on March 8, 2012.

While at the Hewlett Foundation, Deane was responsible for investing over $20 million during her tenure to broaden and strengthen the environmental movement in California. She designed and implemented the “New Constituencies for the Environment” initiative that expanded the engagement and impact on environmental issues of a range of multicultural, medical, faith-based, labor, and industry partners.  The initiative was a key driver of large-scale clean air and climate policy advancements in California that are expected to save billions of dollars in health care costs.  Deane also served on the board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association and was a 2007-2008 Connecting Leaders Fellow of the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE).

This paper lays out a number of major issues facing people and ecosystems in “marginalized” communities emphasizing the experience of Americans of African descent and in the global South. It considers dominant policy frameworks advanced to address climate change and offers critiques of those perspectives from these voices in the global South. The struggles facing the global South community are then linked to key challenges confronting African American communities. The paper also explores alternative policy frameworks and community-based responses and visions for moving toward climate justice. The piece draws on numerous sources, including documents produced by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and scholars.

A report by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides an expanded review of six new air quality regulations proposed or recently adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA). These include the first national standards for reducing dangerous emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants.

Though the cost of implementing the new regulations is estimated to be about $195 billion over the next 20 years or so, the economic, environmental and health benefits amount to well over $1 trillion, considerably outweighing the control costs, according to the report, which was issued by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Read more at Terradaily.

An expanded review of six new air quality regulations proposed or recently adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) is provided in a report by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

These include the first national standards for reducing dangerous emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. Though the cost of implementing the new regulations is estimated to be about $195 billion over the next 20 years or so, the economic, environmental and health benefits amount to well over $1 trillion, considerably outweighing the control costs, according to the report, which was issued by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C.


Read more at Med India.

Accompanying Poll of African American Adults Shows Support for Strong Government Action to Deal with Environmental Quality

WASHINGTON, DC – A new report issued today by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies provides an expanded review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) cost-benefit analysis of six new air quality regulations that have been proposed or implemented by EPA, and finds that the benefits of implementing the rules outweigh the costs.  This report comes at the heels of EPA’s release of the first national standards for reducing dangerous emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants.

The report, “Health and Economic Benefits of Clean Air Regulations,” authored by Patrick L. Kinney, ScD, professor of Environmental Health Sciences and director of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health’s Program on Climate and Health, and MPH candidate Amruta Nori-Sarma, also examines the role that environmental justice issues play in the development of EPA regulations, and analyzes these findings in relation to a new poll conducted by Dr. David A. Bositis, Joint Center’s Senior Research Associate in conjunction with the report, “Three-City Survey of African Americans on EPA Regulations, Climate Change and Health.”

This three-city survey builds on earlier Joint Center national surveys that looked at the views of African Americans on climate change, health and conservation behaviors. In the national surveys, clear majorities said they believed climate change and global warming were a major problem, and they believed that global warming will have significant adverse effects on public health, economic instability, fires, and droughts-and that these problems will be worse for future generations. In this study, the Joint Center focused on African Americans living in three cities (Atlanta, Cleveland and Philadelphia) with large black populations and a variety of air quality issues. The survey questions probed respondents about the air quality where they lived, the sources of pollution, and their views of EPA regulations that seek to reduce health risks and costs. The questions about EPA regulations were clearly framed to present both costs and benefits to the American public.

Download the companion White Paper: Health and Economic Benefits of Clean Air Regulations

A literature-based white paper that discusses the range of potential health benefits that could be gained by people of color in the three cities
as a result of proposed EPA regulations. The paper considers the impact on reduced exposures to PM2.5 and ozone pollution, and the potential for reductions in premature deaths due to respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, and lung cancer. There is also an examination of the potential reductions in asthma. One important component of this work is an expanded review of EPA's technical analyses of health benefits that are expected
from regulations, building on existing available data. In addition to summarizing main findings from the EPA analyses, the paper evaluates the extent to which the EPA methodology addresses health benefits from an environmental justice perspective.

Download the companion Research Brief: Three-City Survey of African Americans on EPA Regulations, Climate Change and Health