The Moral Liberal

Liberty Alerts, Corruption Chronicles

The federal agency that’s spending a fortune to bring “environmental justice” to poor and minority communities around the U.S. has just dropped an additional $6.2 million to train low-income residents for “green jobs” in one city alone.

It’s all part of the Obama Administration’s costly crusade to help underserved populations obtain the same degree of protection from health and environmental hazards as their wealthy counterparts. Here’s how it works; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gives money to leftwing groups—including some dedicated to helping illegal immigrants—that teach black, Latino and indigenous folks how to recycle, reduce carbon emissions through “weatherization” and participate in “green jobs” training.

In the last few months alone the EPA has doled out nearly $10 million for environmental justice causes that include a multi million-dollar study on how pollution, stress and social factors affect “poor and underserved communities.” A New Jersey nonprofit (Lazos America Unida) that advocates on behalf of the “Mexican immigrant community” and a Missouri farm workers’ group that will increase awareness about the dangers of sun and heat exposure in migrant populations were among the recipients of that grant.

As if this weren’t bad enough, the EPA keeps wasting taxpayer dollars on these dubious causes. The latest allocation of $6.2 million will go to 21 “community groups” that will “recruit, train and place unemployed, predominately low-income residents in polluted areas” in Atlanta. Uncle Sam’s investment will “create good, green jobs that protect the health of local families and residents and prepare communities for continued economic growth,” according to Obama’s EPA chief, Lisa Jackson.

Program participants will master valuable skills such as “environmental site sampling” and “green building techniques” as well as “construction and demolition debris recycling” and “energy auditing and weatherization.” Graduates will use their skills to improve the environment and people’s health while supporting economic development in their communities, according to the EPA. Ideal candidates are “hard to place residents that live in the disadvantaged communities that will benefit the most through these projects.”

In Jackson’s short tenure the EPA, which was created 40 years ago to protect the environment and human health, has become a bastion of costly leftwing programs and a symbol of Obama’s big government crusade. The agency’s budget has surged 34% (to $10.3 billion) since Jackson took over and nearly half of it goes to grants that fund state environmental programs, nonprofits and educational institutions that help promote Jackson’s agenda.

Used with permission of Judicial Watch.