The American Spectator

Note this release from the White House about two full-court press events today:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 2010

Environmental Leaders, Cabinet Secretaries to Participate in First White House Environmental Justice Forum

WASHINGTON - On December 15, Obama administration officials will convene the first-ever White House Forum on Environmental Justice. Environmental leaders from across the country will attend the day-long forum featuring White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. 

This forum will focus on the Obama administration’s commitment to ensuring that overburdened and low-income communities have the opportunity to enjoy the health and economic benefits of a clean environment. The event will bring together environmental justice and community leaders, cabinet members, and senior officials from federal, state, local and tribal governments for a discussion on creating a healthy and sustainable environment for all Americans. 

Chair Sutley and Administrator Jackson also will host an online question-and-answer session to engage with the public on the subject of environmental justice. The White House forum and the question-and-answer session will be streamed live at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Information on the forum agenda is below.

WHO:               Nancy Sutley, Chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality; Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Eric Holder, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice; Ken Salazar, Secretary, U.S. Department of Interior; Hilda Solis, Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor; Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Steven Chu, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy; Janet Napolitano, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

WHAT:              White House Forum on Environmental Justice

WHEN:             Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. (EST)

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WHO:  Nancy Sutley, Chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality, Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

WHAT:  Live questions and answer session on Environmental Justice

WHEN:  Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 12:50 p.m. (EST)

WHERE:  To watch the chat live go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/live

Questions will be taken from viewers at http://apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive/

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AGENDA

10:00 a.m.  Opening Plenary Session featuring Nancy Sutley, Chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality and Lisa Jackson, Administrator, EPA 

10:20 a.m.  Green Jobs, Clean Energy Session featuring opening remarks by Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor and Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy

11:40 a.m.  Legal Framework for Advancing Environmental Justice Session, featuring opening rremarks by Eric Holder. U.S. Attorney General

1:50 p.m.   Healthy Communities and Place-based Initiatives Session, featuring opening remarks by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services

3:15 p.m.  Climate Adaptation Session, featuring opening remarks by Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior and Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security

4:25 p.m. Closing Session, Nancy Sutley, Chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality

I address this re-branding and approach in Power Grab, in Chapter 7,  “Obama’s ‘Baptists and Bootleggers’”, subchapters Send in the Community Organizers, and Showtime at the Apollo Alliance.

An excerpt:

Other schemes also emerged guaranteeing a heightened role for green NGOs in the effort to organize society, one notable program being an offshoot of the “Van” Jones push to prepare “the environment” as the next vehicle for minority group activism, wealth transfer, and even litigation demanding environmental, social, or some other form of “justice.” You are free to read the latter point as a legal “settlement” practice in which suits are threatened or brought with the idea of some sort of tribute being paid to end the unpleasantness. Even activist attorneys general do it now in the name of “global warming.” …

Now recall how the Obama administration also hurriedly sought to expand its “environmental justice” programs. These are premised on, as Van Jones famously described, the idea that white people are forcing pollution into minority communities with nefarious intent.

The Obama EPA raced to finalize a database to track pollution “scores” for minority and low-income neighborhoods which, you may be shocked to learn, reflect Mr. Jones’s worldview. Of course, this calls for increased roles for ACORN-type groups and assorted other goons, and is another excuse for funneling taxpayer money to politically friendly and useful constituencies.

At about the same time that this was announced, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson urged black journalists to, in essence, step up coverage of Jones’s theory. She enlisted them to help the movement “tell the stories that need to be told” about the importance of environmental issues in poor African American neighborhoods. She told the audience at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual meeting: “You have a central role to play, because you are the keepers of the conversation,” while also making plain her goal of changing the image of the environmentalism movement. (citations omitted)

It then continues in more detail. As trotting out half of the cabinet indicates, expect to see this ramp up next year as Obama pushes his new ‘ways to skin that cat’.