BLACK LEADERS SAY TOP-RANKING BLACK IN CONGRESS IS NOW HELPING TO DIRECT THE 'WAR ON THE POOR'
Civil rights, faith-based leaders attack new commission on blacks and climate change as "unholy alliance" of special interests waging the "war on the poor"
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 29, 2008) -- A coalition of African American, civil rights and faith-based leaders charged Tuesday that “an unholy alliance” of environmental extremists and left-wing politicians are behind a new commission to engage blacks in the climate change issue, and they challenged the top-ranking black in Congress -- U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) -- to debate and defend policies that are raising energy prices and discriminating against minorities.
At a news conference in Washington, D.C. today, representatives from more than a dozen organizations and churches from coast-to-coast attacked the formation of the "Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change" by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Information on that development is here.
"Forming a commission to engage blacks in climate change is patronizing and insulting," said Niger Innis, National Spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality and a co-chairman of the national Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor (http://www.stopwaronpoor). "This is little more than a sham effort by environmental extremists to convince politicians that black Americans actually want policies forced on them that will raise energy prices and reduce our standard of living."
"Our community doesn't need a commission to tell us how we are being increasingly enslaved by high energy prices forced on us by extremist groups and politicians who actually want prices to rise," Innis said. "What we need are political leaders with the courage to fight against the economic terrorism that is being waged against us by those who are working to drive energy prices higher."
"Those on the left side of the political spectrum believe that high energy prices are a necessary tool to force Americans to conserve and adopt a lower standard of living," said Bishop Harry Jackson, head of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and co-chair of the Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor. "This is an ethically challenged, immoral public policy position. It is the major driver of the current 'War on the Poor.' And those who preach this type of policy are truly the Punishers of the Poor."
The two black leaders issued a public challenge to Rep. Clyburn, the senior ranking black in the U.S. Congress, to debate in a public forum the issue of how minorities are being hurt by energy and climate change policies coming from Washington, D.C. and various state capitols.
"I am personally outraged that the senior ranking black Member of the Congress would have anything to do with those extremists who are waging this war on America's poor," Bishop Jackson added. "Rep. Clyburn knows better. But he clearly has bought into the arguments of the environmental extremist community. In doing so, he has effectively signed on to help direct the war on the poor. He is clearly out of touch with the real concerns of real people in the African American community. I hope he will agree to debate this issue with us, because it very badly needs a public airing."
Among those speaking at Tuesday's press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. were the following:
- Niger Innis, National Spokesman, Congress of Racial Equality
- Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., Chair, High Impact Leadership Coalition
- Democratic State Senator Bill Vasey (WY), Chair, Americans for American Energy
- Kevin Martin, Project 21
- Bishop Larry Brandon, Sr. Pastor, Cathedral of Praise Church (New Orleans, LA)
- Bishop Randolph Gurley, Sr. Pastor, The Tabernacle (Laurel, MD)
- Bishop Janice Hollis (Philadelphia, PA)
- Pastor Rick Bowers, Sr. Pastor (Columbia, MD)
- Pastor King Rhoades
- Pastor Olden Thornton, Sr. Pastor, Raleigh international Church (Raleigh, NC)
- Bishop Eugene Reeves, Sr. Pastor, New Life Church (Woodbridge, VA)
- Pastor Derek McCoy, President, Maryland FPC (Annapolis, MD)
- Pastor Terry Millender, Sr. Pastor, Victorious Life Church (Fairfax, VA)
- Pastor Joshua Shonubi, Sr. Pastor, New Life Chapel (Hyattsvile, MD)
- Pastor Damien Hinton, Sr. Pastor (Baltimore, MD)
- Pastor Bruce Clark, Sr. Pastor, Advance Church (Silver Spring, MD)
- Pastor Dean Nelson, Director, NPAC (Washington, DC)
"There is a war of economic terrorism being waged right now by an unholy alliance of extremist groups and left-wing politicians against low-income families and people of color," Innis said. "It is a war fueled by high energy prices. It is a war waged by those who want and support higher energy prices. It is a war that targets the most innocent and disadvantaged citizens of our nation. And it is an unjust and immoral war that must be stopped."
"America has the energy resources to move to true energy independence and begin to reverse our current dependence on foreign oil,” said Democratic State Senator Bill Vasey, Chairman of the non-profit Americans for American Energy. “But inaction by Congress and a stream of lawsuits from environmental extremists are stopping us cold. If projects like offshore oil drilling, ANWR, the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, the Roan Plateau in Colorado and other areas could move forward, we would see downward pressure on crude oil markets. Just the announcement of a decision to move forward on these projects would be received favorably by futures markets and serve to help lower prices to consumers."
“The left says that African Americans need to be 'engaged' in the debate over climate change solutions," Innis said. "This is both patronizing and insulting. African Americans are already engaged in this debate because we and other minority populations are already suffering economically at the hands of those with climate change 'solutions.' We don’t need a 'Commission to Engage African Americans in Climate Change.' We need political leaders who can disengage and protect our folk from the economic terrorism that is being waged against them by those who want to punish the American people with higher energy prices and a lower standard of living."
"Those on the left say that we must take radical action to address catastrophic climate change, because such catastrophic climate change will hurt poor and disadvantaged peoples more than any other population segment," Bishop Jackson said. "Regardless of what one thinks of catastrophic climate change over the science of future climate change, the impacts of so-called ‘climate change solutions’ are hurting poor and disadvantaged people right here, right now. We should be concerned as a nation on the economic devastation caused to today’s poor, not the theoretic harm predicted by a few computer models trying to tells us what the weather is going to be like 100 years from now."
The group advocated for passage of legislation such as the Americans for American Energy Act (H.R. 6384), which will encourage more production of American energy from all sources, including renewables, clean coal, oil and gas, and nuclear energy. They also called for greater energy efficiency and conservation measures – especially with regards to more energy saving insulation in affordable housing construction – and increased funding for low-income energy assistance and weatherization programs.
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