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News Release Archive - The U.S. Economy

EPA Office of Civil Rights “Dysfunctional”

April 26, 2011

Politico reported Monday: “A whistleblower group is calling on the EPA to fire its civil rights director in response to allegedly sexist and racist remarks he’s made involving ‘pink elephants’ and Rosa Parks.

“The National Whistleblowers Center sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Wednesday demanding the immediate dismissal of Rafael DeLeon, director of the agency’s Office of Civil Rights. …

“EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said Thursday that the agency will look into the allegations,and that Jackson is ‘deeply committed to issues of environmental justice, civil rights and a healthy workplace for all.’”

MARSHA COLEMAN-ADEBAYO, nofearcoalition at aol.com
RICHARD RENNER, rr at whistleblowers.org
Coleman-Adebayo was one of the subjects of the disparaging remarks. She has been described by Time Magazine as “a former EPA employee whose complaints of a ‘racially toxic’ environment there led to the signing of the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2001.” She is currently working on a book No Fear: A Whistleblower’s Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA.

Renner is legal director of the National Whistleblowers Center. He said today: “Dr. Coleman-Adebayo is an environmental whistleblower who raised concerns about the dangers of vanadium mining in South Africa. When her concerns focused on the role of U.S. companies in apartheid South Africa she became the victim of a hostile work environment. Ms. [Susan] Morris [another woman apparently disparaged by Mr. DeLeon] raised concerns about EPA’s compliance with the Civil Rights Act and then suffered a removal from her supervisory position.”

The National Whistleblowers Center recently wrote to EPA head Jackson: “The Office of Civil Rights under your administration has failed. As its name suggests, OCR should be at the forefront of eliminating discrimination and advancing civil rights and liberties within the Agency. Instead of taking positive actions to correct the endemic problems, your newly appointed director, Rafael DeLeon, has exemplified a continuation of the old mode of denying that any problems exist and defending management. The recent Deloitte Consultant Report on the civil rights program described OCR as essentially dysfunctional. Yet, the very man placed in the office to ‘fix it,’ is someone that numerous women have filed complaints against. During a recent MSPB hearing, under oath, Mr. DeLeon stated that he could not ‘remember’ how many complaints had been filed against him. …

“It has come to our attention that during a recent Agency-wide conference call, Mr. DeLeon bragged about actions taken against two senior female civil rights leaders, calling them ‘pink elephants.’ As you are no doubt aware, the term ‘pink elephant’ was popularized during the last presidential election. The pink elephant refers … disrespectfully to women who are characterized as pitbulls with lipstick.”

The NWC also stated: “A recent Deloitte Consultant report found that the EPA’s Office of Civil Rights was essentially dysfunctional. … Mr. DeLeon fired former EPA employee and NWC Board of Director’s Member Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo.”

The Deloitte Consultant report: “Evaluation of the EPA Office of Civil Rights” PDF

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: , Tagged With: enviornment,

Targeting Environmentalists

April 21, 2011

WILL POTTER, will at willpotter.com
Author of the new book “Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege,” Potter said today: “With Earth Day approaching, everyone is talking about ‘going green.’ But most people are unaware that anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists and animal rights activists. In Pennsylvania, a counter-terrorism firm was used to spy on people who attended film screenings of the documentary ‘Gasland.’ In California, activists have faced terrorism charges for chalking slogans on the sidewalk. And environmentalist Tim DeChristopher is now facing 10 years in prison for non-violently disrupting an oil and gas auction. Industry groups have created the term ‘eco-terrorism’ to demonize a group of people because of their political beliefs. And their campaigns have successfully turned these groups into the FBI’s ‘number one domestic terrorism threat.’”

Background: “‘Bogus Bidder’ Convicted Of Disrupting Energy Auction”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: enviornment,

Pickens’ Gas Fracking Offensive Debunked

April 19, 2011

T. Boone Pickens and Ted Turner speak at the National Press Club this afternoon. At 10 a.m. ET, a group of environmentalists and scientists are holding a conference call to expose what’s behind Pickens’ plans. For more information, contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch

Food & Water Watch reports: “Congress’s upcoming consideration of the NAT GAS Act (H.R. 1380) … would funnel $5 billion in subsidies to the natural gas industry, while making the U.S. dependent on shale gas drilling for a generation to come. … The process of injecting shale rock with water to extract gas for energy, fracking has been shown to contaminate water supplies. To date, there have been more than 1,000 documented cases of water contamination near drilling sites around the country.”

A.R. INGRAFFEA
Ingraffea will participate in the conference call and is one of the Cornell University researchers who co-authored the recently-published study “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations.” He said today: “We have a preliminary conclusion that it is possible that the life cycle of natural gas produces more greenhouse gases than the life cycle of other fossil fuels. … ‘Natural gas’ basically means methane.” See: “Study: Fracking May Be More Harmful Than Coal Use.” PDF of study

JOSH FOX
Fox made the film “Gaslands,” which has won numerous awards. He and will also be on the 10 a.m. conference call. He said today: “T. Boone Pickens is an just an oil baron turned gas baron trying to game the system into subsidizing his business interests. The Pickens plan does nothing to reduce emissions and would push unregulated toxic gas drilling into overdrive, further contaminating huge areas of the United States. His plan won’t work, not just because it is costly and toxic, but because there are literally millions of Americans living in the drill zones in 34 states who are not willing to have their health, water and air put at risk by drilling. I have seen the strength of the movement against gas drilling all across the United States, it is resilient, smart, democratic, non-violent and adamant in opposing this massive drilling plan.

“Pickens promotes his plan under the guise of clean energy and independence from foreign oil. But his plan is dirty as any fossil fuel and just means more dependence on T. Boone Pickens and his oil and gas buddies. Renewable energy and biofuels are a much better way to go. There are numerous plans that exist today that don’t include risking the permanent contamination of the water supply.”

For a map of all the areas that T. Boone Pickens would like to drill go to the homepage of gaslandthemovie.com

MAURA STEPHENS
Stephens is a co-founder of the Coalition to Protect New York. She just wrote the piece “Meet the Gas Geezers,” which traces the interests of both Pickens and Turner — whose talk together today is billed as a “debate” — regarding gas and water.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: enviornment,

Cost of War “Elephant in Room”

April 14, 2011

President Obama said yesterday: “This larger debate we’re having, about the size and role of government, has been with us since our founding days. And during moments of great challenge and change, like the one we’re living through now, the debate gets sharper and more vigorous. That’s a good thing. As a country that prizes both our individual freedom and our obligations to one another, this is one of the most important debates we can have.”

JO COMERFORD, CostofWar.com
Comerford is executive director of the National Priorities Project, which features the chart “Tax Day 2011: Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go? Breakdown of One Dollar.” It gives the following breakdown: “27.4¢ on Military, 21.5¢ on Health, 13.8¢ on Interest on Debt, 10.9¢ on Income Security & Labor, 4.9¢ on Housing & Community, 4.2¢ on Food, 3.9¢ on Veterans’ Benefits, 3.5¢ on Education, 3.3¢ on Government & Commerce, 3¢ on Environment, Energy & Science, 2.2¢ on Transportation, 1.2¢ on International Affairs.”

The group’s blog includes an analysis of the recent budget agreements and proposals: nationalpriorities.org/en/blog

BRUCE FEIN
Fein is author of American Empire: Before the Fall. He said today: “We have failed to have a vigorous debate on the $1.2 trillion per year national security budget that makes us less safe. It’s the elephant in the room. Both Republic and Democratic administrations are guilty.”

Fein is speaking this afternoon at an event along with members of Congress including Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Walter Jones (R-N.C.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on the costs of the war in Afghanistan. The event is being organized by rethinkafghanistan.com/iou — the webpage gives you an estimate of the amount of your tax bill that goes to war in Afghanistan.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: ,

Fracking and T. Boone Pickens’ Myths

April 13, 2011

MAURA STEPHENS
Stephens is a co-founder of the Coalition to Protect New York. She said today: “T. Boone Pickens has President Obama and a lot of other politicians buying into his propaganda that ‘natural’ gas is a clean domestic fuel.

“But it’s not clean, it’s filthy. A new study shows the entire process of high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracking — going on in places like the Marcellus shale of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and threatening New York — is as bad as or worse than coal in its greenhouse gas emissions.

“And fracking is not going to supply us with fuel. Much will be shipped overseas, where industry can get a higher price. There’s a glut of gas now, so Pickens creates a perceived need for drilling and does a hard sell on this bill to convert vehicles.

“Pickens has a lot to gain by pushing fracking. He’s bought up huge tracts of land that sit on aquifers. When fracking pollutes our water supplies, he’ll sell us bottled water. My mother would call that a sin.

“Fracking is not clean. It is not good for our country. It ruins air quality, poisons our clean, fresh water and jeopardizes our entire food supply. If we want to maintain the health of our communities and our families — and not contribute further to the kinds of devastating climate disruptions we see with increasing frequency — we have to stop pimping filthy fossil fuels and start investing in clean, renewable energy technologies.

“Otherwise we just further enrich über-wealthy marauders like Pickens who push a dirty, dangerous process that harms us all.”

Background: “Methane and the Greenhouse-Gas Footprint of Natural Gas” from Shale Formations, by Robert W. Howarth, Renee Santoro, and Anthony Ingraffea (embargoed until online peer-reviewed publication in Climatic Change [4/14] but readable meanwhile at this PDF link):

“Pickens and water privatization,” Business Week, June 12, 2008

PR Watch

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: energy, enviornment,

* Medicare * Real Deficit “Courage”

April 13, 2011

STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER, M.D., MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D.
Woolhandler, a professor of public health at CUNY and visiting professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, is a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. She said today: “Congressman Ryan promises to save money by ending Medicare and instead giving seniors a voucher to pay for private insurance. But this scheme only saves money by leaving seniors to pay a larger and larger share of the premiums out of their own pockets — something few can afford. This unraveling of Medicare would return us to the bad old days before Medicare when most seniors couldn’t get the care they needed. And his plan for Medicaid mirrors this turn-the-clock-back approach. As in the 1950s, he’d give states limited block grants to care for the poor — grants that weren’t (and won’t be) tied to the actual cost of that care. If his plan is implemented, thousands will die; seniors unable to afford the miracles of modern medicine, and the poor denied even the most basic level of care.” Flowers is a congressional fellow at PNHP and recently wrote the piece “Ryan turns knife on Medicare, Medicaid.”

THOMAS FERGUSON
Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a senior fellow of the Roosevelt Institute. He said today: “As we await the President’s plan for the deficit and the next round of the Congressional follies on the debt ceiling, we had all better remind ourselves of a few basic facts. Firstly, in America’s polarized money-driven political system, the politicians who just voted a two year extension of the Bush tax cuts for the super rich aren’t showing ‘courage’ when they try to gut Medicare and Medicaid and deprive Americans of access to basic health care — they are just rewarding contributors. Real courage would lead Congress and the President to change the law to allow the the government to bargain with Big Pharma over drug prices and enforce anti-trust laws on hospital chains, testing laboratories, and medical practices that are forming ‘networks’ with even more market power. Secondly, no matter how many politicians and experts claim the opposite, it’s obvious from the last Trustees’ Report that Social Security is not going broke and doesn’t need fixing for decades, if ever.

“If you are seriously concerned with the deficit, it cannot make sense to repeat the errors of the Great Depression and keep chopping government expenditures at a moment when states are cutting back and banks and corporations are still trying to dig themselves out of past debts. But cheer up — there is a silver lining: With polls showing that even many Tea Party members want Social Security left alone, there is hope that lawmakers who respond to money and blankly ignore the will of the people will get exactly what they deserve in the 2012 elections.”

Recent interviews with Ferguson: huffingtonpost.com and video on The Real News

Recent papers by Ferguson: “A World Upside Down? Deficit Fantasies in the Great Recession”

“Legislators Never Bowl Alone: Big Money, Mass Media, and the Polarization of Congress” [PDF]

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: deficit, medicaid, medicare, social security,

Equal Pay Day: Obama to Back Cuts Hurting Women?

April 12, 2011

TERRY O’NEILL, via Lisa Bennett
O’Neill is president of the National Organization for Women. She said this morning: “Today we mark Equal Pay Day, which occurs at a pivotal time for U.S. workers, particularly women. As feminists call attention to the persistent gender wage gap, we would do well to demonstrate its link to the various ways government and big business are breeding economic injustice in this nation.

“Tomorrow, President Barack Obama will offer his deficit-reduction plan for the 2012 budget cycle. Will he stand with women? Or will he, in the name of misguided ‘compromise’ with extremists, support cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security?

“Currently, women are paid 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. Women workers — full-time, year-round workers, mind you — have been stuck making between 70 and 80 percent of male salaries for two decades now. Equal Pay Day is a vivid reminder of this inequity — it illustrates how far into the new year the average woman must work in order to catch up with what the average man was paid in the previous year. It’s important to note that women of color’s salaries, compounded by race-based discrimination, lag even further behind the average.

“The wage gap makes women especially dependent on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These programs keep millions of middle-class women out of poverty — just one of the reasons a majority of voters strongly support these programs.

“The Republicans’ 2012 budget, introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, would voucherize Medicare, block-grant Medicaid and cut Social Security benefits, all in order to pay for increased tax breaks for corporations and multimillionaires.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: equal pay, medicaid, medicare,

Budget “Decimates” Water Protections

April 12, 2011

WENONAH HAUTER, via Darcey Rakestraw
Executive director of Food and Water Watch, Hauter said today: “The latest agreement between Congressional leaders and President Obama decimates water protections. The ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to help municipalities deliver clean water to U.S. citizens has been seriously threatened with cuts to the Clean Water and Drinking Water SRFs [State Revolving Funds], the mechanism by which the federal government dispenses funds for the upkeep of our tap water and sewerage systems.

“The budget agreement for the six month fiscal year 2011 Continuing Resolution announced yesterday includes a $997 million cut to the SRFs as compared to FY2010, and a $797 million cut as compared to the President’s FY2011 request.

“The cuts to the SRFs account for about 2.6 percent of all cuts agreed to in the CR, but in FY2010 they accounted for only about 0.1 percent of the budget. If Congressional leaders were looking for budget savings, they should have looked elsewhere. If they were aiming to gut the EPA, they moved a step closer to accomplishing their goal today.

“The cuts to food safety, while not as dire, will make it hard for the Food and Drug Administration to implement recently-passed food safety legislation, with $11 million cut from the FY2011 budget request for the FDA. And $10 million has been cut from the U.S. Department of Agriculture meat and poultry inspection budget, hopefully falling short of the need to furlough inspectors, but putting programs like catfish inspection in jeopardy.”

Background: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “CBO Report: Ryan Plan Specifies Spending Path That Would Nearly End Most of Government Other Than Social Security, Health Care, and Defense by 2050”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: budget, water,

Japan Disaster to Level Seven: “The Explosion of Nukespeak”

April 12, 2011

The Japanese government has raised the emergency at the Fukushima nuclear plant to level seven, from a level five. This puts it at the highest level, as was Chernobyl.

KARL GROSSMAN
Grossman and others have been advocating raising the emergency level as a first step for weeks. Professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, Grossman is author of Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power and Power Crazy.

He said today: “Finally, the Japanese government is acknowledging a little reality. But the sad fact is that the Fukushima disaster is beyond a level seven disaster, it’s off the books. You have multiple reactors and cooling pools.

Grossman just wrote the piece “Fukushima Nuclear Disaster at One Month: The Explosion of Nukespeak,’” which states: “The classic book on disinformation on nuclear technology is Nukespeak, published in 1982. It is dedicated to George Orwell, author of 1984, and written by Stephen Hilgarten, Richard C. Bell and Rory O’Connor.

“It opens by declaring that ‘the history of nuclear development has been profoundly shaped by the manipulation through official secrecy and extensive public-relations campaigns. Nukespeak and the use of information-management techniques have consistently distorted the debate over nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Time and time again, nuclear developers have confused their hopes with reality, publicly presented their expectations and assumptions as facts, covered up damaging information, harassed and fired scientists who disagreed with established policy, refused to recognize the existence of problems … claimed that there was no choice but to follow their policies.’”

See: IPA news release “Chernobyl Experts: Fukushima Could be Worse” from March 23.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: , , Tagged With: enviornment, nuclear,

$1.6 Trillion Spent on Military; Global Day of Action

April 11, 2011

JOHN FEFFER
Feffer is a fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies. He said today: “Just-released figures for global military expenditures by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show that the world spent more than $1.6 trillion on the military. Even in the middle of a global economic crisis, military spending has increased, with the United States responsible for nearly half of all expenditures. With the U.S. government in a budget crisis, it’s urgent that we move from military deeds to human needs. Meanwhile, other crises have put a great strain on the world’s resources: climate change, earthquakes, global poverty, nuclear proliferation, and the threat of health pandemics. Ever greater funds are necessary to repair the societies that have been damaged by war and conflict, including the latest war in Libya.”

The Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. and the International Peace Bureau in Geneva, Switzerland are organizing the first Global Day of Action on Military Spending on Tuesday. Organizers say that people in more than 35 countries, as well as Columbus, Dallas, Kansas City and dozens of other cities throughout the United States, will participate. Organizers state: “Actions will include a protest in front of the White House at noon. Other U.S. cities include San Francisco, New York, Boston, Fairbanks, San Juan, and Honolulu. There will be actions at the United Nations offices in Geneva, a march in Kampala, a demonstration in Dhaka, a women’s peace gathering in Seoul, and much more. More than 100 organizations, including Religions for Peace, Scientists for Global Responsibility, the American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War, and Fellowship of Reconciliation have endorsed it.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: , Tagged With: military spending,
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