A new environmental study from an unlikely source highlighted a serious failing of the federal government and revealed the enduring influence of powerful business interests.  The NAACP has been surveying the impact of coal power plants on working class and minority families across the nation, and my region of West Michigan was given disappointing news. Two power plants in close proximity to working class neighborhoods—one in my home of Holland and another north of us in Muskegon—were given failing grades on what the NAACP called “environmental justice.” (more…)