Lob talk radio
Welcome, welcome, welcome ladies and gentlemen to another exciting edition of Solar Now and
the Future with his economic impact on black America and I'm your host Ronald DeFate and
you know if you've gone us on a regular basis.
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such as Solar Now and the Future with his economic impact on black America.
Also ladies and gentlemen you know I'm your host Ronald DeFate and today's date is January
3rd, 10th, 2025 and once again we're back on the platform of Black Talk Radio because
we had some communications issues with the Black Talk.
The last show will be done on January 31st of 2025 so that's why we're doing a redo
today of the show that we did several weeks ago talking about addressing the impact of
the Biden-Harris administration not codifying offices through the six federal agencies of
the federal government which have played a tremendous impact as it relates to three words
justice, equity, inclusion and diversity which seems to be a term that the incoming administration
which we refer to as COVID-45 plus two, the President Trump have decided that they're
going to completely eliminate it.
The problem with that ladies and gentlemen is that we have to realize that during the
course of the development of the Biden-Harris administration the first executive order that
President Biden signed was Executive Order 008 which made it very very clear that Build
Back Better and the Inflation Reduction Act that came out of the Invest in America initiative
that gave rise to the Justice 40 initiative which we will be addressing this morning has
very substantive consequences if the offices of energy, justice and equity are eliminated
across all six federal agencies.
Now because it was done by executive order it was not codified has not been codified
by the 118th or 19th Congress and that is what this show is about today ladies and gentlemen
trying to shine a light on the issue that have some very serious repercussions and implications
as it relates to our federal workforce as we know diversity and equity and inclusion
has been targeted by the mega group and by various conservative think tanks in this country
and they're being rolled back at our colleges and universities but can we really afford
for them to be rolled back in our workplace and these are some of the discussions that
we will be having this morning.
Now if you join us on a regular basis you know that that call in number is 6466682948
once again that call in number is 6466682948 please remember to press 1 on your phone pad
after dialing the call in number because you'll be in our green room and we want to bring
you right on into our living room so we can have this discussion around this in very important
subject matter that we're going to be discussing this morning and as you know ladies and gentlemen
I don't have a scheduled guest this morning we have been working very very diligently trying
to tap into a number of public communications offices around a number of topics and subject
matters which we intend to bring to this platform solar now and the future with its economic
impact and we'll have that discussion a little later on but you know who brings you this
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at PositiveChangePC.com you want to go over to our GoFundMe link and you'll be able to
find that information now with that being said ladies and gentlemen we're not going
to beat around the bush this morning because we have some very very important issues that
we really want to talk about this morning and bring to fruition on this show now as
we indicated we launched here at the Positive Change Purchasing Cooperative we launched
back on February the 27th a national campaign to try in fact to bring light to this issue
surrounding the Biden-Harris administration to work with at that time the 18th we're still
in the 118th Congress the 119th Congress has been sworn in so we want to be pushing as
hard as we can to get this information out to concerned stakeholders and there are some
very concerned stakeholders ladies and gentlemen when we look at the initiatives what they
have bought to the table the Justice 40 Initiative now we need as everyone we always need to
know what is at stake with this initiative the Justice 40 Initiative and where are these
challenges and what do we stand to gain or lose because of these initiatives being on
the line and as most of you know that living in the DMV area we know that there will be
a tremendous number of residents who reside in Maryland and Virginia impacted by this
initiative of completely eliminating these offices through the next administration incoming
administration and it was very very interesting to me ladies and gentlemen I've had the issue
chance to clearly look at this over time and the question becomes you know over the last
six four years the words equity diversity and inclusions have been constantly used through
our six federal agencies but the question becomes what do they really mean as it relates
to when the US Department of Energy Justice and Equity is getting ready to be eliminated
across all six federal agencies which we've indicated now when we begin to look at the
issue what is the issue the issue is these agencies were created by an executive order
which President Biden signed the first day he came to office what's the implications
it means the next president that comes to office can eliminate that if it is not codified
and if Congress does not vote to approve the budget for that agency it goes away now as
we look at this the fact is that 1.7 trillion dollars has been spent over the last two years
for our African-American community less than 2% of that money has been directed to African-American
owned banks businesses CDFIs and non-profit organizations so why and and how are we so
late coming to the game because the question that I raised here on this platform going
back to 2020 is where is the green economic development plan in the implementation of
the Biden invest in invest in America agenda build back better and the inflation reduction
act many of you know if you've been following me on this platform so the now in the future
with its economic impact America we have constantly beat the drum the irony of this ladies and
gentlemen is that the largest benefactor of the government's contractors laws over the
last 20 years have been white women and 53% of them just voted for Donald Trump in this
past election and put him over the top with white men and Hispanic male votes and it's
they voted against their own interest because they've been the ones who financially has
benefited the greatest of this from this a day contracting law under the government so
when we begin to look at coupled with the project 25 makes the case that the new administration
in the US Department of Energy Justice and Equity is will be done if we don't just make
up our minds and get real serious about getting the 119 Congress and Senate to make sure that
they go to battle to make sure that this is taken care of the codification of this agency
one of the most and that's official opportunities which Biden has a chance to do before he goes
out and which would truly submit his legacy now the impacts of racial disparities in the
government contracts now there has been a recent report put out by the White House office
on economic advisors and they've used data from a number of various studies that provides
new evidence that discrimination likely plays a significant role in CEA contracting opportunities
as it relates to African-American and of the minority firms which provides new evidence
of discrimination and analyzes the two studies and summaries of hundreds of individual studies
with racial disparities and ratios of state and local government contracting opportunities
that cover the funding that's coming out of our six federal agencies and that's very important
ladies and gentlemen because here in the state of Maryland I have worked with working with
my delegate state delegate Mrs. Dana Tardis who has who last year introduced the Justice
40 initiative here in the state of Maryland even though it did not get out of committee
we were able to get that legislation introduced and we'll be working with her once again
to see how we can move the baton forward because out of a 12.4 billion dollars as of January
1 of 2024 and 174 major construction projects in the state of Maryland not one African-American
developer had a lead position in the contracting and we have a black governor the first of
its in the history of the state less more so there's a lot of work that we need to do
and things that have to get done and we're going to have to get it done nobody's going
to say what's better now as we begin to look at the broad categories in industry and span
contracts between 19 look going looking back at from 1990 1977 to 2019 this the CEA has
re-examined these combined data and has linked data to the studies now racial disparities
in contractors dollars exists with minority-owned firms receiving smaller share of contracting
dollars in their representation among available firms representation gaps are not restricted
to any one ethnic group and significant gaps exist between white-owned firms black Hispanic
Asians Native Americans or other minority-owned firms disparities have not improved significantly
since the 1900s and were largely in the years leading up to 2019 then the period which was
covered in the data disparities disparate the disparities are much more pronounced in
terms of contracting dollars opposing to bring a contract at all this is due to minority
firms being much less likely to be primed contractors and generally receiving smaller
contracts than non minority-owned firms disparities by race are largely geographic locations which
are more measured by racial bias so these are actual reports ladies and gentlemen and
this data was put out by the White House Biden Harris administration okay and as we began
to look at the fact sheets that are put out by the strategy outreach and communications
this is where we have this data so this is not something that we are making up we're
just simply repeating and looking at the numbers and the facts so as we have indicated there
is definitely an issue it has been an issue for a long time about the funding coming out
of these federal agencies and contracts so as we begin to look at the opportunities the
executive order 1408 created and invest in America and the build back better which we
know is the inflation reduction act which gave rise to once again the Justice 40 initiative
now as we look at the Justice 40 initiative we need to understand really what's at stake
with the US Department of Office of Energy Justice and Equity being eliminated the Justice
40 Act initiative covers includes 24 offices and more than a hundred billion dollars in
investment it includes federal investment categories such as energy efficiency training
workforce development other clean energy technologies through community benefits plans DOE remain
committed to ensuring that such investments lead to tangible economic benefits to underserved
communities increasing access to new energy industries industry enterprise creation jobs
energy security and overall energy affordability for our low and lower income communities these
are the things that are at stake as we look at where we're going coming into this administration
and their sole target is to look at the money that already been approved through the legislative
process through the executive order now some of the things that are somewhat at stake are
the regional energy democracy initiative now the EJE established five resilient hubs to
strengthen community energy resilience for Puerto Rico through a co-operative agreement
nearly one million dollars was dedicated in funding that supports by reliable electricity
doing great events and climate related disasters funding efforts and developments for reasonable
energy systems such as solar plus storage systems community serving facilities that
have historically lacked access to reliable electricity and experienced prolonged outages
after the disasters which we know we have a serious problem in this country trying to
combat climate change all we have to do is look turn on the news and look at the wire
fires in the west look at the storms coming across the US right now as I said here in
Washington DC right outside of our nation's capital in Washington DC and Tacoma Park Maryland
in my in my office we're looking at it feels like Siberia here and and and and that's using
it and being very very kind as we relates to looking at the adjustments in the temperature
gauge as it relates to where we are where we were and how the temperature has just plummeted
but we are still blessed ladies and gentlemen because we're not in LA facing those Santa
Ana winds with wind gusts of a hundred miles an hour and to look at the misinformation
campaign that has come out concerning the mayor of California and she's been doing an
outstanding job there she happened to be on a in Africa business trip representing Los
Angeles and this fire started at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and escalated so quickly it has burned
more is the largest fire ever recorded in LA and the surrounding sand and Anna and the
valley out there and if anybody's familiar with the Los Angeles you know that when you
go into the area where these homes were destroyed these were very very wealthy areas that have
been destroyed by these fire farms so our plans go out to those families and their loved
ones and their loss but we have to get a real grip that climate change is a real phenomena
and that's what this is about ladies and gentlemen how do we address climate change and how and
why is it that we have the African-American community who we didn't get the 40 acres of
the mute in the mute but the justice 40 initiative we have 40% of the investment was supposed
to be directed to low and moderate income communities and guess what ladies and gentlemen
when we began to look at the numbers they just don't add up because we as African-Americans
are at the bottom of the burrow as relates to the amount of actual funding that has come
to our communities less than 2% of 1.7 trillion dollars and I will continue to beat the drum
around this issue now the EJE here in Washington DC as I indicated they have done I felt an
outstanding job and there was a recent letter that was put out by the acting director Mrs.
Tamela Gordon director of the principal director for the office of energy justice and equity
and they put out a year in review and in that year in review it went on to say this has
been a year of growth and change for the office of energy justice and equity EJE yet throughout
2024 EJE has also been a beacon of hope faithfully dedicated to the decade long goals of providing
underserved low and moderate income families with the ability to take part in the American
energy systems by working with colleagues across the department of energy and the national
laboratories field and their entire family this past spring I came aboard as the principal
director of EJE joining a team with a legacy of DOE itself now the reason why this is important
to me ladies and gentlemen is because I have been in communications with Mr. Antoine Thompson
who is the director of the greater Washington clean cities collaboration group and he brought
this to my attention around the fact that the offices were created through an executive
order and that he had approaches Mrs. Shalonda Baker who was the former director of this
office to speak with Mrs. Jennifer Granholm who has been the head of the department secretary
department of energy under the Biden Harris administration we have gotten little and no
traction from that administration about addressing this issue about codification of this office
and these offices around the six federal agencies of course she would have to work with the
other secretaries at the various agencies but they have blown it ladies and gentlemen
they are out of office now and there are so many initiatives that have come out of these
various agencies and we want to go back to sharing some of those initiatives and things
that are at that stand to be lost because there has been no action as we indicated we
talked about the resilience hubs in Puerto Rico that were established also ladies and
gentlemen for the last three years here in Washington DC the department of energy has
hosted a justice and I have attended all three of those justice week events and they have
been very inspiring to me as one who has served as president of the national association of
blacks and solar from 2018 to just recently we reelected a younger president Mr. Nathaniel
Daly to take over that position and I am now serving as chairman of the board of directors
for the national association of blacks and solar and we have done a great deal of advocacy
work around these issues of trying to gather more funding for creation of more young African
American African-American coming into this green economy and this energy space.
Now as we begin to look at the solar industry looking at the last data that was put out
by the solar foundation and SIA who are charged the solar industry trade association and the
solar foundation which is charged with your tax dollars they prepare the studies and they
look at the issues of diversity and equity in the solar industry the last numbers that
we were able to look at somewhere around African-American around 8% in the workforce.
Hispanics are somewhere around 16% in the workforce as you begin to look at the installation
as installers but when you begin to look into the administrative levels and look at the
number of firms that are doing business in the US we have over 13,000 solar installation
and design firms doing business in the US and we have less than 35 African-American
owned firms nationwide and when you look at the total number of firms whether it be IT
software investment firms which are African-American owned and run in the green energy space they
are less than 100 firms total in total so there is a tremendous amount of need to support
African-American based firms.
Mrs. Denise Fairchild who heads Emerald City's organization has done an outstanding job in
developing a community playbook which was also one of the things that came out of the
EJG office at the Department of Energy but we are going to look at also at the program
called faculty applied clean energy sciences.
The EJG launched this this year and from that the clean energy sciences spaces program provided
clean energy research opportunities to science, technology, engineering and math and STEM
faculty from minority serving institutions including tribal colleges and universities
historically black colleges and universities.
Places programs goals are to promote diversity inclusion in the energy sector and help teachers
inspire more minority students to go into the STEM area and pursue careers in the new
clean energy area.
These are the things that are at stake ladies and gentlemen.
This is why we did a we are doing a what we would call a retake with this particular live
stream when we originally did this several weeks ago we were not able to deliver this
message the way we wanted to deliver this message because we did not have all of quite
a bit of data that we at that time that we have now.
Now we also know that through the Department of Energy EJG office that a low income community
bonus credit program was created.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act EJG successfully partnered with IRS to complete the first two
years of low income bonus credits.
DOE supports IRS and its administration of the program and oversees the program applicants
portal.
With 23 in 23 the program year resulted in 3.5 billion dollars in private and public
clean energy investments.
Let me repeat that ladies and gentlemen.
Until year 2023 you had 3.5 billion dollars in public private investment in clean energy
investments from more than 49,000 solar facilities in low and moderate income communities are
directly benefit from this in low and moderate income households from across the country
including 48 states the District of Columbia the 2020 FAR program received 50,000 applications
to this date.
Historic programs represent the most significant tax incentives in US history to promote clean
energy investments in low and moderate income communities, tribal governments and written
affordable housing.
These are the things that are at stake ladies and gentlemen as we begin to talk about the
elimination of the offices of EJE across all six federal agencies.
We're going to hit on and talk about several of the other programs that are coming out
of several other federal agencies but we're basically now just looking at what was done
over the past year at the Department of Energy here in Washington DC through their EJE office.
DOE second equity action plan the EJE unveiled and released DOE second equity action plan
outlining the programs was made by DOE thus far it has strategies to further advance equity
in all Americans the plan also develops an agency wide framework for effectively working
with tribal and underserved communities to reimagine a clean energy future through real
investments and technical assistance that ensure community voices and decision making
are integrated in DOE funding research and programs.
Now I know firsthand how important this is ladies and gentlemen because we have in fact
spoken to a number of mayors we had the opportunity to speak with the honorable Johnny Ford who
heads the historically black towns and townships which there are over 106 of those historically
black townships smaller towns with populations under 50,000 in population and this was one
of the major concerns they wanted to know how they could access this funding well yours
truly I shared with them a very very basic phenomena you have to apply for the money
but when you don't have grant writers because your city is so small that you don't have
that technical assistance then someone has to provide that technical assistance so that
is one of the reasons why the plan was developed now in response to President Biden's February
16, 2023 executive order 14091 further advancing racial equity and support for underserved
communities through the federal government the US Department of Energy has unveiled its
2023 equity action plan this plan outlines DOE dust ball and when you click on that plan
ladies and gentlemen it gives you all the data and the facts and this information comes
from the Department of Energy here in Washington DC and what their plans and goals are it is
a tremendous amount of information here and I don't have time to go through all of that
information but we will get upon some of the highlights of the information from the program
because we like to provide news that our folks can definitely use so with that being said
ladies and gentlemen we have to make this a little larger so we can look at what was
actually being said in the document because as you can see I am wearing spectacles now
as we entered the clean energy transition equity and justice must be at the forefront
of the Department of Energy here and after DOE and the Department mission for too long
tribal nations communities of color and low-end communities have been buried the blood of
pollution the clean energy revolution must lift up communities that have been overburdened
by pollution and excluded from the economic prosperity to ensure they are particularly
fully participate fully in the benefits of the Department to start investment in clean
energy.
From the household grappling with issues of energy related pollution and energy insecurity
to the university advancing basic research within Department funds and businesses and
community-based organizations that partner with DOE to deliver on its mission the Department
has an extraordinary reach to fulfill the mission the DOE must embed equity throughout
policy and programs on his first day President Biden signed executive order 13985 advancing
racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government
this order recognized that through equal opportunity is part of the American dream to many Americans
the dream remains out of reach in that order the President calls for agency to examine
barriers for accessing resources to increase the Department's release of its first ever
equity action plan in April of 2022 five strategies have been advanced through that addressing
gaps in data collection to facilitate data information for equal equitable decision making
number two increase opportunities for new increments into DOE's procurement and financial
assistance increase participation by individuals and institutions that are underserved DOE
research and development RDA program supports through federal assistance for expand tribal
engagement and stakeholder engagement across DOE number five improve access for equity
and DOE weatherization assistance programs much has been achieved since the executive
order 13985 was signed however advancing equity is not a short-term project it is committed
that the requires substantial focus and partnerships with communities and on February 16 2023 Biden
signed this my issue with this ladies and gentlemen is that as we have indicated out
of this funding less than two percent of this investment that comes to our communities now
we have some serious serious issues that we have to address here and we they have to be
addressed now because without the codification of the EJ offices across all six federal agencies
and as I won't be redundant because by needed by executive order we know this is what the
Trump administration has indicated that they're going to go after and I think we need to take
a look at how much money is on the line and we're going to take a slight pause for the
cause here ladies and gentlemen on solar now in the future with its economic impact on
black America as we are basically sharing this information and we do we we're blessed
to have a guest online with us this morning and I'm going to bring our guests right on
into the live airways here on solar now with this economic impact on black America yes
good morning call you know I hear what you're saying as far as so was concerned I don't
believe in climate change I believe in weather change and I am an African American and I'm
not as a solar I was still erected from the 70s up until 2000 erected structure still
building and bridges and I supported Donald Trump because of his terrorist and I wish
that people would realize that that all don't think alike now you absolutely right the stem
programs that are in schools that occupied by predominance of black students are so I'm
not saying they subpar but the academic data is very dismal and that's not the question
if you since you said that you were in the energy arena no I said I was the structure
still arena and I have built structures that were supportive of solar arrays okay well
with that experience in your background could I ask the question how many African American
lead developers were on those projects that you participated in over the years that you
saw or were most of those after American firms involved in that subcontractors well I was
in I was especially contracted like I said I erected the structure still that's which
supports everything else on as far as the building is concerned and you had African
Americans that was in electric they let the electrical contractors you had some that was
in rebark ownership of the firms that was that had the car you know I can't structure
of their ownership I own 100% of mine okay fine that that's great that's what I want
to hear that because that's what we what we've been advocating for this program here at solar
now in the future with this economic impact on black America but I want to be very very
clear of what this is about we're looking at the Biden-Harris administration capitalizing
one trillion dollars in private investment and there's over eight hundred billion dollars
in investment and it's over sixty six thousand projects across the country nationwide how
and where being there when this investment came into existence it only came in existence
because of executive order in which we both can agree that the next president can do away
with that because if Congress does not codify funding for this agency EJ it will go away
do you feel based on the data that has been put out by the White House that the playing
field has been a level playing field for African American firms to be able to get their fair
share these contracts that's my question to you sir well the thing is are you producing
those firms are you producing the firms you you ask me a question about who's producing
these firms before I can answer that question okay listen I'm a black contract and you
arguing with me sir I'm not arguing with you this is a question I'm trying to make a statement
and you were ridiculing me it happens all the time sir you know what I'm a Trump I supported
Trump program I asked you got to produce you wanted you wanted to come on my airways and
share with me I've asked you some valid questions and you refused to respond to my question
I asked the question do you feel that the playing field was level and he hung up well
that is what I thought sir that no it is not a level playing field and you know it's not
a level playing field and I'm not arguing with you I'm basing this on facts that have
been released by studies that have done been done from 1977 to 2019 and you've been listening
to my show because I have been giving out information that is based on facts not my
opinion we can all have our opinion ladies and gentlemen but we can't always have the
facts and this is why I did this show as a redo as a do-over because I realized that
we have folks in our communities that are out here that are going around putting out
misinformation about the Trump administration the Trump administration let me be clear didn't
do a damn thing for African-American firms but told us he wasn't going to do nothing
and he didn't do anything and he's going to make a very plain and clear that he's
not going to do a damn thing for African-American based firms this time around so with that
being said since there has been an agency that has been created by the by the Harris
administration which I have been reading the information called the Justice Energy Justice
and Equity offices through the EPA office there is an initiative called the Greenhouse
Gas Initiative which twenty seven billion dollars came out of that initiative for EV
charging infrastructure for school buses electric school buses and for a program pilot program
which was started here in Washington DC called the solar for all program which stands to
benefit nine hundred thousand low and modern income residents across this country the question
is the sixty applicants which were awarded back on April 22nd of 2024 on Earth Day have
been announced by EPA they didn't sign contracts till the first week of December of 2024 this
funding has not gotten out the door there has been collaborations built with the African-American
firms and nonprofit organizations not in enough numbers at the table to be able to even talk
about the regress of how do we get out there share of this opportunity now I'm not blaming
anyone but us because of this type of mentality this gentleman comes on my show and says I'm
arguing with him when I'm giving him I asked him a question what did the Trump administration
do for you what do you feel has been done and because that's what I wanted to ask what
do you think will be done in the future and I was I know the answer to the question it's
called slim and none slim didn't show up to work and none took a six months sabbatical
it's not going to happen ladies and gentlemen and unless we rally around who we can work
with I am a registered independent let me be very very clear I'm not a Democrat not
a Republican so I'm not out here spurtin how great that are the Democratic Party because
I have some very very serious problems with how the Democratic administration under the
Biden has administration has responded to requests from yours truly when we were just
simply trying to get guests to come on this platform to talk about these programs that
they have created and what are the rollout dates who will win with this money be going
out to these recipients who are the grantees who are receiving this funding funding we're
talking about seven billion dollars through the so far program here in the state of Maryland
we have the Maryland Clean Energy Center if you go to their website you will not find
any information on when you actually apply so with that being said ladies and gentlemen
we've come to the end of another exciting edition of Solar Now and the Future with its
economic impact on black America and I'm your host Ronald DeFay and you know if you join
us on a regular basis that this show is brought to you by the Positive Change Purchasing Corp
LLC which serves as an economic blueprint for renewable energy companies both large
and small along with the working share for African and African-American renewable energy
companies to address the impacts of climate change and the high energy costs at our historically
black colleges and universities to bring down the under and underemployment of young African
and African-American men and women locally nationally and throughout the diaspora also
to educate the African and African-American community about the economic impacts of climate
change and the need for environmental education through Black Talk Radio programs such as
Solar Now and the Future with its economic impact on black America and until next week
ladies and gentlemen we're not going to ask you to meet us here we're going to ask you
to meet us here as we close another exciting edition of Solar Now with its economic impact
on black America and as we do it every week we say go in peace as we close another exciting
edition of Solar Now and the Future with its economic impact on black America and until
next week ladies and gentlemen we're going to close another exciting edition of Solar
Now and the Future with its economic impact on black America and until next week ladies
and gentlemen we're going to close another exciting edition of Solar Now and the Future
with its economic impact on black America and until next week ladies and gentlemen we're
going to close another exciting edition of Solar Now and the Future with its economic
impact on black America and until next week ladies and gentlemen we're going to close
another exciting edition of Solar Now and the Future with its economic impact on black
America and until next week ladies and gentlemen we're going to close another exciting edition