By: Simone Lewis, Communications Intern After years of activism from Indigenous, environmental, and community groups, TC Energy announced on June 9, 2021 that the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline project would finally be terminated. The announcement ends a more than decade-long battle over fossil fuel use and the right to protect land and water sources. I was in high school when the pipeline first started making national news because of the sustained protests from residents, farmers, and business owners along the proposed route from Montana to the Gulf Coast. The

By: Anabelle Farnham, Communications Intern Just over one week ago, on May 25th, activists gathered to mark the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, which was the spark for powerful anti-racist protests and calls to action across the country in 2020. The same day this year was marked by gatherings, marches, and celebrations of life to honor him and the fight for Racial Equality that his death has come to symbolize. As an intern with the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), Racial Justice and Equality are some things that I

By Judith Eppele, Community Organizing Intern Have you ever wished you were a tomato? Probably not, but in the context of health issues, you may change your mind. Think about how fast health authorities respond to E. coli outbreaks in lettuce, Listeria in milks and cheeses, or even Salmonella in–you guessed it–tomatoes. Now think about health issues caused by pollution. How long has Flint, Michigan been without clean drinking water? Objectively, way too long. The disparity between the length of these responses–or lack thereof–is obvious and appalling. Thankfully, CHEJ has

By: Julia Weil, Community Organizing Intern As we have seen countless times, hazardous contamination is disproportionately present in areas where more minority and low-income people live. Though this has been both protested at specific sites and researched on a larger scale for many years, it not only continues, but the companies responsible both refuse to take responsibility and even deny the environmental racism that drives their decision-making. The process of moving potential contaminating facilities out of white neighborhoods and into majority minority neighborhoods can be seen in the case of

By: Tony Aguilar, Organizing Intern In constructing his cabinet, President Biden appointed Deb Haaland, a Native American woman and former U.S. representative from New Mexico to be the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Department of the Interior manages America’s natural resources and Native American relations in Bureaus such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Since Haaland’s confirmation, she has put together a diverse team in the DOI, including other Native American additions like Lawrence Roberts and Heidi

By: Kristen Millstein, Communications Intern After several months of working on the Make Polluters Pay campaign with CHEJ, hearing that President Biden’s infrastructure bill included a Polluters Pay Tax felt like a breath of fresh air. The Polluters Pay Tax, which expired in 1995, funded the Superfund program and was used to clean up toxic waste sites when the responsible party could not be identified or was unable to pay. Since then, money to clean up toxic sites has come from general tax revenue. These funds are not sufficient, and