NAACP: Coal is racist

Yes, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is (for whatever reason) weighing in on energy policy, specifically taking sides in President Obama's war on coal.

A new study (PDF) released this month by the NAACP has determined that coal is, in fact, racist, as the McIver Institute points out:

The study, titled Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People, claims coal-burning power plants are the end of the world, and minorities will be hardest hit. They studied 378 coal-burning plants to evaluate each plant "in terms of its environmental justice performance (EJP), i.e., how it affects low-income communities and communities of color."

The EJP score was determined by "five factors: SO2 and NOX emissions; the total population living within three miles of the plant(s); and the median income and percentage of people of color among the total population living within three miles of the plant(s)."

Among the racial effects of coal is the amount of CO2 gas emissions, theoretically contributing to anthropogenic global warming. Global warming, according to the study, is responsible for racist hurricanes and tornadoes.

"Indeed, Hurricane Katrina and the tornadoes in Pratt City, AL have already vividly demonstrated that the shifts in weather patterns caused by climate change disproportionately affect African Americans and other communities of color in the United States -- which is a particularly bitter irony, given that the average African American household emits 20 percent less CO2 per year than the average white American household. The six states with the largest proportion of African-Americans are all in the Atlantic hurricane zone, and all are expected to experience more severe storms as a consequence of global warming."

So when the average white suburbanite decides he's going to watch the football game on Sunday on his giant screen television with full surround sound, he's doing so at the peril of his African American neighbors.