Why is the Clean and Safe Energy (CASE) Coalition hostile to AAEA? What did we do? We publicly supported nuclear power many years before ANY other current or former environmentalist or environmental organization in the United States. These are established facts. Is it 'African American' in the name? What? CASEnergy Coalition was blatantly hostile during the original announcement ceremony and continues its hostility to this day.
Clearly a decision was made to marginalize or ignore us. Of course, outright hostility was not expected. It is being reported that the PR firm hired to handle the coalition is being paid millions to provide outreach and publicity. No publicity for AAEA. We were run off and our contribution to the nuclear renaissance ignored. In fact, others are being given credit for adding the 'environmentalist' spark. Although history will evidently be rewritten and broadcast to reflect a preferred perspective, we were there when nobody else cared or dared to stand up.
Clearly a decision was made to marginalize or ignore us. Of course, outright hostility was not expected. It is being reported that the PR firm hired to handle the coalition is being paid millions to provide outreach and publicity. No publicity for AAEA. We were run off and our contribution to the nuclear renaissance ignored. In fact, others are being given credit for adding the 'environmentalist' spark. Although history will evidently be rewritten and broadcast to reflect a preferred perspective, we were there when nobody else cared or dared to stand up.
AAEA withdrew from the CASEnergy Coalition due to the hostility shown to us. Some token gestures are being taken to distract from and to avoid acknowledging AAEA's groundbreaking work as the first environmental group to support nuclear power, its president as the first environmentalist in the U.S. to publicly support the technology and AAEA as the ONLY environmental group currently supporting nuclear power. It takes some real effort to avoid acknowledging these facts. It represents the continuation of an ugly historical trend to avoid acknowledging African American inventiveness and achievement.
AAEA gets extra contempt from antinuclear activists and segregated environmental groups for being pronuclear. Contempt and avoidance from most of the nuclear industry for being pronuclear seems to be irrational. Such marginalization clearly dimnishes our effectiveness and effective outreach by the nuclear industry. Blacks have been almost entirely excluded from meaningful participation in the energy sector. It is a shame that this is a continuation of that exclusion.
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