Now is the time.

―We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.‖ This report is dedicated to the memory of our friend Luke W. Cole, a tireless advocate for environmental justice and a leading legal practitioner in the field who died in a tragic car accident while traveling on sabbatical in Uganda with his wife Nancy in May of 2009. Luke brought groundbreaking cases as a staff attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance and was a major contributor to the field of environmental justice through his writing, teaching, legal advocacy and through the entity he founded and led until his death, the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment. He was a persistent and unwavering voice on the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and served at one time as chair of its Enforcement Subcommittee, where he led the charge to require EPA to fully enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights of 1964 and begin to adjudicate Title VI complaints submitted by environmentally overburdened communities. Luke was an inspiring and enthusiastic colleague, friend, teacher and mentor to activists and groups across the country who was engaged in the effort to bring about environmental justice and equal treatment before the law for all communities. We miss him more than words can express. Dedication I From 1992 through 2000, many exciting efforts were underway at the federal level to identify, research and act on incidences of environmental injustice. Agency, there was a sense that the federal government was working with communities to address the disproportionate burden of pollution borne by indigenous, low-income and communities of color. These efforts seemed to cease in 2001, when the George W. Bush Administration , with its easily distinguishable and less dynamic views and priorities on the environment , civil rights and justice came into power. Approaching the end of eight full years with few meaningful …