ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM: Newly-elected Congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweets that “we need to invest directly in areas that have been harmed by environmental racism—the pollution and environmental degradation experienced by communities of color and indigenous nations.” Okay, maybe. But when the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights did an empirical study on coal ash deposits, most of its members expected to find these deposits are disproportionately found in African-American communities. But surprise! It found the opposite. So of course buried those findings in its lengthy report on environmental racism. I’m not sure race is the best lens through which to look at the problem environmental degradation. If it should be cleaned up, clean it up. If some other action is more appropriate, do that—no matter whose community it is near.