Do not worry about the absence of comments right now. I know sites that get hundreds of hits each day but not many comments. I think part of it is the audience you attract, which in and around Washington, DC is government employees and others afraid of losing a job or otherwise negatively affecting their lives by placing their ‘real’ opinions out in the public domain.

I check your site often but do not necessarily comment. It is a great service and provides valuable information that is educational for me. That is the great service. It is also why I enjoy our blog so much. Hang in there. You and the public will get great joy over time with your truly great blog.

And just remember, much of the public does not believe that Blacks are interested in these issues.

Diversity of opinions means you can’t measure the adequacy or qualifications of an environmentalist by an opinion poll of where they stand on the issues.

Mike Ewall is free to disagree with Norris McDonald on every point. I appreciate George Jackson publishing his comments. I also appreciate Mr. Ewall citing references for the information presented – the exchange of information is an attempt to persuade, which I can respect even while I disagree, because it’s not a manipulative attempt to shut down debate, which it might appear had not the links been incorporated.

I appreciate Mr. Jackson who permits the open exchange of opinion, but I support Norris McDonald and his efforts. Even though you might disagree with him, you cannot deny that he is public with his opinions, open to sharing information with all, and the organizations he represents are interested in educating people with the facts that underly their opinions.

I have learned a great deal from Mr. McDonald personally, as well as from attending events that his organizations have sponsored. Some of what I’ve learned has been very troubling, as they relate to racial issues and environmental damage. I respect him for being willing to teach me (or anyone) and being willing to learn from anyone, and for never telling someone, “Your information is not welcome here.”

He has, indeed, spent a career supporting what he believes in and teaching others the facts for why he believes it.

Norris, my hat is off to you.

I do not think so. And Black folks want the American dream that was denied to us for hundreds of years. That takes energy. THEY should go live in the woods and leave the rest of us Americans alone instead of trying to force their purist, elitist agenda on the rest of us.

My initial OP-ED post and letter to organizations about this is hoped to bring out discussion on issues within the the environmental movement and community that seem to be rarely talked about. Not a “bash fest” on any organization. I welcome the opinions of all and I appreciate that not everyone in the movement always agree. That’s why I published your post. Thanks for the comments which are always welcome.

He runs some sham “environmental” groups that have legitimate-sounding names, but are mostly just him. This includes the “Environmental Justice Coalition” and the “African American Environmentalist Association.” He also runs some front-groups that sound like industry trade associations and think tanks, like the “Center for Environment, Commerce & Energy” and the “Nuclear Fuels Reprocessing Coalition.”

McDonald’s primary function — as far as I can tell — has been as a front group for the nuclear industry, though he seems to be branching out to promote other (mostly anti-environmental) agendas as well. See http://groups.msn.com/AAEA/ (and his new site: http://aaenvironment.com) for plenty of evidence of his love of nukes (more details below). McDonald is considered a “fraud” and a “wacko” by respectable national anti-nuclear groups. McDonald provides much needed public relations for an industry notorious for its racism. McDonald’s main justification for being pro-nuke is that he and his son have asthma.

On his older website, about half of the issues topics on the side bar were on nuclear issues (all of which are in support of nuclear development). As an anti-nuclear activist, I can tell based on his writings that he’s obviously well tied into the nuclear industry. You can look at older versions of his website in archive.org (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://groups.msn.com/AAEA/) and see that the main thrust of his “group” has been to promote nuclear power — the most racist of energy industries.

Norris McDonald’s position on nuclear power is here: http://groups.msn.com/AAEA/announcements5.msnw

On his “President’s Corner” page (http://groups.msn.com/AAEA/presidentscorner.msnw), in 2003, he stated as one of his main goals for 2003: “Promote Electric Vehicle and Nuclear Power Plant Construction, Uranium Enrichment, Spent Fuel Reprocessing & Mixed Oxide (MOX) Reprocessing.”

On the same page at the time, you could see that most of his activities in 2002 were pro-nuclear activities, such as promoting the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump (on Native American lands in Nevada), promoting specific nuclear reactors and supporting nuclear reprocessing. He lies and calls the Indian Point nuclear power plant “emission-free” (no nuclear reactors are emission-free). On other pages (like his announcements page), he called nuclear reactors a “reliable source of green power.”

On his “history of collaboration” page, he admits working with the Nuclear Energy Institute in 2002 to promote Yucca Mountain. One of the links to AAEA’s website is from the Nuclear Energy Institute’s website.

African American Environmentalist Association is a member of the new nuclear industry PR group that former EPA administrator Christine Whitman now works for, the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition. See: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Clean_and_Safe_Energy_Coalition

McDonald’s “Nuclear Fuels Reprocessing Coalition” (http://groups.msn.com/nuclearfuelsreprocessingcoalition) lists his number as one of the two contact phone numbers and says the following to describe the group:

“The Nuclear Fuels Reprocessing (NFR) Coalition has been established to promote the construction and operation of nuclear fuels reprocessing facilities. NFR promotes reprocessing commercial spent nuclear fuel that is generated by commercial nuclear power plants. Reprocessing dramatically reduces the amount of high-level radioactive waste that would have to be stored in a geologic repository. We also support reprocessing plutonium and highly enriched uranium from nuclear warheads into fuel for use in commercial nuclear power plants.”

Reprocessing and MOX (using plutonium in commercial reactors) are among the dirtiest nuclear processes ever.

Not only is he pro-nuclear, but he’s not even opposed to fossil fuels and the exploitation of African oil regions.

On his announcements page (http://groups.msn.com/AAEA/announcements4.msnw), he used to have text up there promoting the exploitation of African oil and even went as far as promoting ExxonMobil’s highly controversial Chad-Cameroon pipeline.

On his support of IGCC (coal gasification power plants), see: http://groups.msn.com/aaea/coal.msnw

On natural gas…

You can find Norris McDonald promoting Liquefied Natural Gas terminals on several sites here: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Norris+McDonald%22+LNG

http://www.aaenvironment.com/SparrowsPointTestimony.htm “The African American Environmentalist Association supports LNG terminals because of the need for additional natural gas for electricity generation.”

I hope this is more than enough to lay to rest any legitimacy that McDonald is seen to have. No legitimate environmentalist could support all of these terrible things. There IS a legitimate national environmental justice organization for African Americans. It’s called the National Black Environmental Justice Network (http://www.nbejn.org). I wasn’t at the recent conference in Asheville, but I think the only mistake made was that McDonald was invited in the first place. The last thing we need in any grassroots environmental movement meetings are people who are serving as eyes and ears (and often, as a mouth) for the nuclear industry.

We’ve done a lot of principled work fighting environmental racism, and I know that some of the other sponsors of the recent conference have as well. The only racism involved here is not that a black nuclear industry flak was kicked out of the event, but that Norris McDonald is a long-time supporter of the very industries responsible for the environmental racism he pretends to be fighting.

Mike Ewall
Energy Justice Network
215-743-4884
http://www.energyjustice.net

Thanks for the comments and the encouraging words about the BICEP Bulletin. I’d happy to hear from you about developments with this or any other relavent issue. Lets show’em that the african americans community and other minorities do care about what happens in their neighborhoods and environment when given the opportunity and means to make ourselves heard!