Article: Pres/CEO Harry C. Alford in Investor's Business Daily: EPA Clean Power Plan Will Hit Blacks And Hispanics Hardest

President and CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce.

[W]hat effect will the regulation itself have on minority communities? A new study commissioned by my organization, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, answers this question.

The Clean Power Plan will lead to lost jobs, lower incomes and higher poverty rates for the 128 million blacks and Hispanics living in America. This should serve as a warning to federal and state lawmakers as they prepare for this sweeping regulation to go into effect in the coming months.

The Justice Department has been pushing a doctrine called "disparate impact." That is, if something, anything has a disparate impact on women or any minority, then it is by its very nature, sexist, racist, etc.

In fact, one basis for the new EPA regulations is that most coal-fired power plants are near concentrations of minorities. For example: 

The NAACP study, “Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People,” looked into the overall toxicity of emissions or the “dirtiness” of coal plants. It combined the emissions of power plants with demographic data to rank a coal plant’s impact on the people who lived in communities near the facilities. 

The NAACP study examined the emissions of 378 plants and found 75 of them deserved an “F” rating. That would affect the environment for the approximately 4 million people who live near the lowest-rated plants.

The study showed 78 percent of African-Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired plant and 71 percent live near the dirtiest plants.

Most African Americans live in a big city. Most older power plants were build near the point of highest energy usage, that is, cities. There is nothing intrinsicly racist about the siting of power plants, but that does not stop the doctrine of disparate impact.

By the standards of the NAACP, the EPA, and the Justice Department, regulating coal-fired power plants, with its increase in energy costs and its decrease in energy reliability will hit minorities hardest.

The EPA's own regulations are objectively racist.