The organizations working together to build the Moving Forward Network are dynamic, active in a variety of social justice activities, and effective. Here are a few examples, from the latest news.
Big Oil, Bad Air: Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas
Larry Soward, a former TCEQ commissioner with a reputation for being tough on industry, said the agency’s enforcement strategy is shaped by its top-down management style. Its upper ranks consist of people who share Gov. Perry’s business-friendly point of view, he said. Its middle managers and investigators “know the parameters very well in which they can operate. It’s not unclear, especially to the field staff, who they can go after and who they can’t.
“You have a regulatory system that says, ‘Well, even if you did something bad, we’re just going to say don’t do it again, or slap you on the wrist,’ and companies in industry know that,” Soward said.
People who live close to oil and gas development — whether in Texas’ Eagle Ford, Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale or Wyoming’s Green River Basin — tend to report the same symptoms: nausea, nosebleeds, headaches, body rashes and respiratory problems. Public health experts say these shared experiences point to a pressing need for improved air monitoring.
Saturated with oil money, Texas legislature saved industry from pollution rule
“Let’s be blunt. That is not really a body of voters that the power structure in Austin [the state capital] has any real concern about,” said Larry Soward.. president of the board of Air Alliance Houston, an organization dedicated to reducing air pollution.
LA’s first Bicycle Friendly Business District is coming to Northeast Los Angeles
“For the pilot, the LADOT Bike Program has partnered with Occidental College Urban and Environmental Policy Institute…