New York City and the Northeastern region from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes and East Canada lost electricity due to a faulty grid system. The sad part about this situation is that officials responsible for reliability of the system knew the system was inadequate and they have been reporting it for some time.

African American Environmentalist Association (AAEA) President Norris McDonald recently briefed democratic presidential candidate Rev Al Sharpton at his New York Headquarters on environmental issues in preparation for the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) presidential debate in Los Angeles, California on June 26, 2003. They reviewed the Energy Justice Act of 2003 and Environmental Justice Act of 2003 drafted by AAEA. They also covered a wide range of other environmental issues from off shore oil drilling and air pollution to forest policy and water resources. It will be interesting to see how much support Rev Sharpton receives from the environmental community. The environmental movement is now a $6.4 billion per year multinational industry. LCV is the largest green group contributor to political candidates. However, the LCV PAC only contributed $6,000 to the entire Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in the 2002 elections. LCV also did not contribute very much to the Republican Party, but contributions to House Republican congressional candidates far exceeded contributions to the CBC.