{"id":364064,"date":"2017-03-21T02:30:28","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grist.org\/?post_type=grist-50-profiles&amp;p=364064"},"modified":"2017-03-21T02:30:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:28","slug":"nicky-sheats","status":"publish","type":"grist-50-profiles","link":"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/nicky-sheats\/","title":{"rendered":"Too many communities breathe dirty air. Nicky Sheats writes policy to help neighborhoods breathe easier."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"g50-profile__stats-block profile__stats-block--profile-364064 \">Director, Center for the Urban Environment, Thomas Edison State College<br \/>\nTrenton, New Jersey<br \/>\nAge: 60<\/aside>\n<p>Nicky Sheats has done his homework. After getting his degree from Harvard Law, Sheats went back to get a PhD in biogeochemistry, also at Harvard, and did a quick post-doc at Columbia. (Did we mention he went to Princeton for undergrad?) When his studies brought him to an environmental justice conference, Sheats saw a cause that united all his interests.<\/p>\n<p>Over his career, Sheats has leaned on academic research to write policy initiatives for cleaner air in communities of color, which typically suffer from higher rates of air pollution. Recently, Sheats helped develop a municipal ordinance in Newark, New Jersey, that calls for stricter regulation of pollution caused by development projects. After six long years of campaigning, Newark passed the ordinance in July 2016.<\/p>\n<p>[pullquote share=&#8221;true&#8221; hashtag=&#8221;Grist50&#8243;]\u201cWhile we\u2019re fighting climate change, how do we make sure we\u2019re addressing equity?\u201d [\/pullquote]<\/p>\n<p>Another win: When, in 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the Clean Power Plan, a set of rules that require electric power plants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Sheats saw huge gaps in policy and regulation that could potentially hurt low-income communities and communities of color. He gave lectures and wrote to policymakers, advocating for mandatory reductions of air pollution around these communities &#8212; not just for greenhouse gases, but also for \u201cco-pollutants,\u201d other toxins commonly released from power plants.<\/p>\n<p>The EPA ended up adapting some of Sheats\u2019 policies, albeit without including any concrete mechanisms to achieve that goal. \u201cWe think that if you don\u2019t use climate change policy to reduce inequalities,\u201d Sheats says, \u201cyou\u2019ll miss a big opportunity to help environmental justice communities that may not come around again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This lawyer connects justice and the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57007830,"featured_media":490287,"menu_order":13,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[10],"class_list":["post-364064","grist-50-profiles","type-grist-50-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","grist-50-cities","grist-50-energy","grist-50-13","grist-50-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Too many communities breathe dirty air. 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