Environmental justice exists because Black communities have always organized for clean air, safe water, healthy homes, and dignity. From fighting toxic dumping to defending land, housing, and public health, Black environmentalists have shaped the movement—often without recognition. We must thank Black leaders for addressing the interconnection between civil rights, labor safety, housing, and environmental health—their advocacy continues to shape how environmental law understands equity, participation, and accountability today.
Check out this blog for some fun resources, including a zine to print and share with your community!
Residents throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, are raising the alarm as new data centers, warehouses, and industrial facilities move in rapidly leading to public concerns surrounding noise, water, and power-usage. How is this happening so fast? Too often, municipalities approve these developments through quiet but completely legal rezoning processes. Many communities are left wondering: Can zoning rules really be changed that easily? Why don't we know about it? How can we get involved before final decisions are made? How does this work, and is there anything I can do about it?
Here's how the zoning process works, how municipalities change their zoning maps and codes, what the legal requirements are, and how you can better advocate to protect your community from these unwanted changes.
In H.B. 96, the Ohio General Assembly snuck anti-environment provisions into the bill at the last minute that removed important protections for Ohioans who want to file complaints against polluters while also invalidating community air monitoring data. These statutory changes have no relationship to Ohio’s budget and thus violate the Ohio Constitution’s requirement that all legislation include only one subject.
Have you ever gone for a walk outside, heard the birds, and felt it clear your mind? Even lift your mood? There's a reason why people say they need to "get outside" – our surroundings have a profound impact on the way we think, feel, and cope with our situations. But what is the effect when those surroundings are polluted, neglected, or even unsafe? Our environment impacts more than just our physical health; it has a substantial impact on our mental health too.
How Can We Help You?
As environmental justice and law nonprofit, we are excited to support systems-change that strengthen environmental justice outcomes. This can include:
Building Connections
Legal “Translation” + Bridging Information
Researching, Strategizing, and Educating about Legal and Policy Levers
Drafting Generalized Legal and Policy Templates
Engaging Community and Amplifying Issues
We can provide any of this support to nonprofits, coalitions, residents, and municipalities at no-cost. Please reach out today and let’s get to work.
There is a pervasive myth in America that individualized estate planning is only available to the very wealthy. For some, the message has even been that these services are only appropriate for the rich. Still others may know that individual planning is available, but believe that they and their loved-ones cannot benefit. They believe that because they do not have sufficient assets, nothing can be done.
This presentation, recorded as part of Fair Shake’s 2015 Community Fair, provides an introduction to my practice as a sharing economy lawyer. The sharing economy is a general trend towards sustainable economic and community development in a way that facilitates community ownership, localized production, cooperation, small-scale enterprise, and the regeneration of economic and natural abundance.
Looking at environmental concerns through a reproductive justice lens (and looking at reproductive concerns through an environmental justice lens) can help attorneys articulate needs that might otherwise go unaddressed and unnoticed in conversations about legal concerns and potentially available remedies. Recent statements from the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics on environmental justice, concerns surrounding the spread of Zika virus, and the impact of black lung on Appalachian families all demonstrate the unique way our environment impacts our reproductive health and the impact that has on our ability to plan and provide for our families. These scenarios demonstrate the way an individual’s ability to exercise their reproductive rights and gain access to reproductive healthcare can contribute to how successfully that individual navigates the environmental concerns they may be facing. They also demonstrates the way economic and social factors impact an individual’s exposure to harm and access to justice.
A fellow attorney once told me that what I am saying boils down to “nothing happens in a vacuum.” However, I think working at the intersection of environmental and reproductive justice means much more than that. As an attorney committed to serving modest-means clients and an attorney committed to addressing the environmental legal concerns of women and families in particular, using these lenses to tackle a legal problem brings unique counseling and fact-gathering skills and provides an opportunity for novel approaches to legal action.
To counter the market forces favoring development, the Pennsylvania Farmland and Forest Land Assessment Act, often referred to as “Clean and Green” or Act 319, provides preferential tax assessments for qualifying farmland and forestland. The question is: Can a landowner maintain Clean and Green status while also implementing a renewable energy project on the property?
I have to stretch my memory to recall a time when I have heard the word “jurisdiction” used outside of the realm of legal beagles. The best I can do is to think of various times when a police or fire vehicle appears in a completely different city or town than the one displayed on the side of the vehicle. When that happens, we’ll often say: “I wonder what she’s doing outside of her jurisdiction?” As a general matter, most people seem to understand, then, that jurisdiction refers to the area where that governmental actor has power to do something.
Over the weekend, the American Red Cross and other volunteers distributed water to the residents of Sebring, Ohio following concerns about elevated lead levels in the Sebring Public Water System. In response to the concern, Sebring’s schools cancelled classes on Friday and held a lead screening clinic for children under 6 and pregnant and breastfeeding women on Sunday. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants, and children receiving water from the Sebring Public Water system remain advised to use bottled water for cooking, drinking, and formula preparation, and the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency continues to distribute water through the Sebring Community Center.
More than ever, for-profit businesses today are striving to highlight their ethical sourcing, environmental consciousness, and positive influence on society. For consumers, the question of whether they are supporting a true social enterprise or being misled by savvy marketing is sometimes difficult to answer. But, it is a question that businesses can take steps to address upfront. One way businesses do this is through Benefit Corporation designation. For clarity, there are two different types of B Corp designation. The first is a third party certification, similar to Fair Trade. The second is a state-created business entity that requires meeting environmental and social standards not required of a typical corporation. Both types of Benefit Corporation are explored further below.
Lately we have heard a great deal about the lead poisoning of children in Flint, Michigan, which may have some wondering about lead in their own communities. According to Ohio’s Department of Health, lead poisoning is the greatest environmental threat to children in Ohio, and in the past 15 years 40,000 children have suffered lead poisoning in Cuyahoga County alone.
In 2015, the toxic cyanobacterial algal bloom in Lake Erie was the worst in recorded history. You may not be aware of this, simply because the situation received much less press than in previous years, such as 2014 when enormous clouds of microscopic bacteria clogged Toledo’s public water treatment system. A lot has been done in recent years in Canada and the United States, as well as here in Ohio, to strengthen the laws and regulations designed to protect surface water, in an effort to slow the contributions of chemicals that feed these algal blooms. It is too early to say whether these efforts have succeeded; due to the pollution storage capacity in the lake, it will take years to understand how much effect these efforts have had.
Whether you are considering installing solar panels on your residential home, a wind turbine at your commercial manufacturing facility, or a biodigester on your farm, one of the biggest hurdles is often developing a plan for financing your renewable energy project. An attorney, accountant, or specialized consultant can help you develop this plan. To jump-start planning, this post outlines three major financial resources available for renewable energy projects in Pennsylvania, including: tax incentives, loan programs, and grant programs.
