Project 21: Papers

Engaging in the global warming debate is often akin to a journey into the surreal. Proponents of the theory that man-made greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, are dangerously heating up the planet urge politicians and the American people to support U.S. Senate ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty signed by the Clinton Administration that would require the U.S. and other developed nations to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions. What is surreal, however, is that the Kyoto treaty, which would severely harm the economy by causing major job losses and price increases, addresses a crisis for which there is minimal ...

Environmental laws are unfair to minorities and the poor because, although they are least able to pay, they must bear the greatest costs for adhering to those laws through lost jobs and higher prices. The time is long overdue for government to start considering the negative economic impact of proposed environmental laws on impoverished minorities before implementation. So concludes the results of a recent survey of 69 environmental justice groups conducted by the National Center for Public Policy Research. These groups represent a diverse collection of African-American, Hispanic and Native American activist organizations. These groups have also identified themselves, to ...

Black Americans have made remarkable progress in recent decades. The income levels of black households have tripled over the past 24 years, and the number of black-owned businesses more than doubled between 1987 and 1997. If these trends hold, racial economic parity may become reality in the not-too-distant future. But not if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has anything to say about it. For progress in the black community to continue, the government must allow a free economy where businesses can grow and consumers can accumulate wealth. At the same time, the government must ensure its policies are not harmful ...

If the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established to safeguard the nation's environment, then why does it require people to purchase gasoline that pollutes the water and makes them sick? That, after all, is the result of the EPA's controversial policy of requiring certain regions of the nation to sell gasoline that contains methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive that was supposed to help the environment. Pursuant to the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, the EPA required that areas of the nation with the worst ozone smog problems use "environmentally-friendly" reformulated gasoline (RFG) to help achieve the agency's clean ...

There has never been a worse time for the government to enact policies that raise gasoline prices. In just the past 12 months, gasoline prices have skyrocketed - rising almost 45%.1 Desperate citizens are urging the government to intervene. It has, but not in the way money-drained citizens had in mind. It seems unimaginable that the government is actually doing something to drive gasoline prices even higher. This, however, is exactly what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, there are five primary factors contributing to the current high gas prices ...

Do you ever feel like you're being taxed to death? The estates of many Americans are taxed when they die - sometimes creating terrible problems for those still living. And these unfair taxes may be the death of new African-American prosperity. As more Americans reach higher income brackets and open their own businesses, death taxes are an increasing problem. According to figures in Project 21's soon-to-be-published Black America 2000 report, the income levels of black households have tripled in the past 24 years. Black-owned businesses more than doubled in number between 1987 and 1997. This black prosperity and perseverance, however, ...

Agricultural biotechnology, a dynamic new science that uses genetic engineering to enhance the output and value of many agricultural products, may hold the key to helping stop world hunger. But if the environmental movement has its way, further development of this promising new technology will be halted, consigning hundreds of millions of impoverished residents of the developing world to additional decades of starvation and misery. Environmentalists argue that agricultural biotechnology poses too many risks to human health and the environment, and that its use should be sharply curtailed or even banned altogether. However, an overwhelming number of scientists from around ...

When Select Steel Inc. proposed construction of a $175 million steel mill that would create 200 jobs in the economically-distressed community of Genesee County, Michigan, the majority of local residents welcomed the proposal. But thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) so-called environmental justice policy, which purports to protect minorities from being disproportionately affected by pollution, last year the company was forced to locate to a more affluent area, depriving economically-disadvantaged minorities the opportunity to get high-paying manufacturing jobs.1 When Select Steel announced its plan to establish a plant in Genesee County in 1998, a majority of residents very much ...

With gasoline prices rising to well over two dollars a gallon in the Midwestern United States, America's love affair with the automobile may be headed toward a break-up. But before we ditch our wheels, we should first demand the government get rid of policies helping to drive up fuel prices. Our biggest roadblock to reforming gas prices is Bill Clinton. Although he says he understands the needs of poor and minority citizens, his energy and regulatory policies hurt the poor and minorities more than any other segment of the population. And he has fought hard to protect these hurtful programs ...

Wouldn't you rather eat a banana than get a shot? I know that I would. Science now makes it possible to get a vaccination against hepatitis, which kills an estimated 100 million people per year worldwide, simply by eating a banana. A breakthrough in the field of biotechnology, it virtually eliminates the storage and sterilization concerns previously necessary for injections. It also saves money, costing just two cents for a banana instead of $125 for a shot.1 But this and other marvels of genetic-modification are at risk. Environmentalists are attacking biotechnology, trying to convince the government and the public that ...

"Be it required that there be a finding that a proposed federal environmental policy, program or regulation not have a disparate economic impact on minority populations and low-income populations before implementation." So should read one of the first Executive Orders the next president should issue upon taking office in 2001. This Executive Order is needed as African-Americans bear a disproportionate share of supporting the nation's environmental programs. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average American family pays $3,000 per year for environmental protection.1 This is a steep demand for the government to make on any family, but it ...

On November 3, California voters will cast their votes for or against Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Initiative. If passed, the measure would increase the tax on cigarettes by 50 cents per pack to fund early childhood development programs. California's status as a bellwether state gives every American - smokers and nonsmokers alike - a dog in the fight over Proposition 10. The outcome may determine whether similar tax-and-spend measures are introduced in other states. Indeed, one such big-government, money-grabbing proposal, the tobacco legislation sponsored by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), has already gone up in smoke. Proposition ...

The millennium computer bug has bitten Vice President Al Gore. I'm not talking about the Y2K programming crisis. Gore's gigabyte-size problem stems from his role as head cheerleader for the Clinton administration's plan to wire all schools and libraries to the Internet by the year 2000. Under the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) e-rate (education rate) program, schools and libraries would receive Internet hookup discounts ranging from 20 percent to 90 percent. Since there's no free lunch - even in cyberspace - the administration's "virtuosity" will be paid through a new surcharge on consumers' phone bills. When AT&T, MCI, radio host ...

April 22, 1998 marks the 28th annual Earth Day celebration, but like many other people of color I will not be celebrating. To me, Earth Day is merely an annual reminder of the environmental movement's insensitivity to the needs and concerns of the nation's minorities the other 364 days of the year. Environmentalists say they want to save planet, but from whom? Apparently, from people just like me. Earth First! Founder Dave Foreman, for example, once said "I see no solution to our ruination of Earth except for a drastic reduction of the human population." Since minority populations are rising ...

A new report from the Milton E. Eisenhower Foundation claims the predictions of the 30-year-old Kerner Commission have come true: America has become two separate societies, one black and one white. Among other problems, the urban policy group cites high inner-city unemployment rates, large numbers of incarcerated black males and low minority academic achievement as a call for more social spending, cuts in the military and other liberal policies. It is sure to cause old-line civil rights types to cackle for more government intervention into the problems of the poor. Few liberal social engineers realize government intervention is the problem, ...

A showdown is brewing between President Clinton and Senate Republicans over civil rights. Even if Clinton wins, it may hurt Democrats at the polls. After Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee made clear their intention to block the nomination of Bill Lann Lee, Clinton's choice for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Democrats used parliamentary tactics to send it back to the White House without a vote. This lack of a vote with Congress out of session gives Clinton the ability to install Lee by "recess appointment," keeping him there for the duration of the 105th Congress. Lee was chosen ...

Black America 1997How Government Harms Charities ...and How Some Are Succeeding AnywayPublished by Project 21 20 F Street, NW #700 Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 507-6398 Fax (301) 498-1301 [email protected] Copyright 1997: The National Center for Public Policy Research ABRIDGED VERSION Introduction In recent years many anecdotes have illustrated the burden excessive government regulations have placed on small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs, but there have rarely been any reports of the burden borne by community service organizations that find themselves caught between the competing needs of low-income communities and the demands of government bureaucrats. This report is an abridged edition of ...

The Clinton Administration's narrow interpretation of what constitutes "environmental justice" could place thousands of blacks, Hispanics and other disadvantaged Americans at greater risk. On February 11, 1994, President Clinton committed his administration to an environmental justice strategy by signing Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice inMinority Populations and Low-Income Populations. The Order directs federal agencies to identify and address "disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations." But just three years after the President issued the directive, it's clear that neither he nor his ...

OverviewHouse Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Dan Coats (R-IN), and Sam Brownback (R-KS) have introduced legislation, "District of Columbia Student Opportunity Scholarship Act of 1997," to grant scholarships to nearly 2,000 low-income students in the District of Columbia to attend a public or private school of their choice. Some provisions include: * Students whose family incomes are below the poverty line may receive a scholarship of up to $3,200. Students whose family incomes are above the poverty line but below 185 percent of the poverty level may receive the lesser of 75 percent of tuition or ...

The meek may be blessed, but they're not likely to inherit the earth anytime soon. In May, President Clinton stood proudly before an audience of law enforcement, community leaders and others at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. to announce preliminary Justice Department figures citing a 7 percent drop in crime from 1995 to 1996. What he neglected to mention is that juvenile crime is rapidly on the rise and does not show signs of slowing down. A recent Justice Department study revealed that in 1995 14 percent of all violent crimes were committed by juveniles, up from 10 percent in ...