Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins

This Mother's Day is a very special one for me. I'm expecting my first child in just a few weeks. It's a time filled with anticipation and hope. But most of all, this new addition to my family and my life has given even more urgency to our effort to...

As tax day rolls around, hardworking families are meeting their obligations to our nation by paying their taxes. This year, Americans will pay an estimated $2.62 trillion in federal taxes and $1.42 trillion in state-local taxes. But at the same time, the reality is many of the wealthiest...

Everyday, millions of unemployed Americans anxiously wait for their chance to get back to work. And as gas prices skyrocket, millions more are desperately searching for affordable, reliable ways to get to their jobs each day.

Congress has a chance right now to pass a transportation bill that will...

Our country is built on the promise that anyone can come up with an idea that changes the world. We've seen it time and again, a subtle improvement or a whole new creation that captures the world's imagination -- spawning new industries -- from Facebook to the iPhone to the...

When Dr. King was assassinated, President Obama was 7.

It was 1968. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson was 6. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, was 23. Naomi Davis, a Green For All Fellow and one of Chicago's most celebrated environmentalists, was 13.

Many...

We can protect our children's health and put Americans back to work.

The EPA is expected to release a new baseline today limiting the amount of mercury and other toxics that coal-powered plants can spew into our communities. The new rules will not only keep us healthier...

I have a plan to put every single unemployed person to work tomorrow: pay them all a dime a day to cut down every tree they see. There. That wasn't so hard, was it?

The problem with our economy isn't only that people aren't working. It's also that job quality...

This post originally appeared on Treehugger.

In 1969, a river caught fire.

People of a certain age probably remember when it happened. The Cuyahoga, which runs through northeastern Ohio and outlets into Lake Erie in Cleveland, was heavily contaminated -- so much so that stretches of...

I'm not fazed by the President not explicitly identifying green jobs in his announcement of the American Jobs Act. It's politically touchy, to be sure -- but it's also a tacit recognition of something else: green jobs are an integral, inextricable part of the American economy. They need to be...

Yesterday, America learned that that Solyndra, a Bay Area solar panel company, was shutting its doors.

The beauty -- and danger -- of capitalism is that it's survival of the fittest. Some companies, a few of them, survive and thrive. Many -- most -- don't. Unfortunately, Solyndra didn't.

Last year, Lara and Kenneth Lane's son Ja-Mickeal died of an asthma attack in his sleep. He was just five years old. His asthma was severe. The attack was sudden. And, the outcome devastated his family and community.

Ja-Mickeal's death was not an isolated case. In recent...

Did you know that your chances of falling down on the sidewalk increase the more you walk?

Did you also know that your likelihood of getting sunburn rises when you are out in the sun longer?

Somehow, those revelations didn't make the pages of the Los Angeles Times. Here's...

Cross-posted from Jack & Jill Politics

Quick question: Do you think that tax subsidies for the "big five" oil companies -- which earned $32 billion in profit during the first quarter of the year -- are more important than the financial aid we give to low-income college students?

My...

"We're only talking about four billion dollars."

That's how former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin defended the tax breaks going to the some of the world's richest corporations: oil companies.

It may "only" be four billion dollars to these entities; after all, they are reaping windfall profits...

In 2008, Americans were fed up. Wars, a terrible economy, dishonesty, adrift from our core beliefs. That November, Barack Obama said, "Change," which may basically have meant, "Not that." Not that direction for America. Not that economic policy.

And it worked. America didn't want that. America wanted something different.

Now,...

One year ago today, British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit exploded in the Gulf of Mexico -- a catastrophe that most Americans will never forget.

Eleven people lost their lives. According to Good, roughly 5 million barrels of oil gushed uncontrollably into the Gulf -- eventually covering...

Last weekend, I was proud to join the likes of former Vice President Al Gore and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson as a keynote speaker at Power Shift 2011.

There was an incredible energy; more than 10,000 young leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., to work towards two common goals -- a...

While you were brushing your teeth this morning, did you ever, for a moment, think that the water coming out of your faucet would make you nauseous or damage your kidneys?

Probably not. But, unfortunately, not...

If a fire broke out in your office right now, would you know what to do? Would you know where to go? You likely would, thanks in large part to codes requiring fire exits and fire drills.

Today, we accept these basic standards without even pausing; they are plain common...

Progress is a slog. It always is: occasionally pushed forward by a burst of energy; often knocked backward by opposition. In politics, it's an evolutionary process that depends on gradual re-alignment and re-consideration of views.

Consider pollution. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the new factories driving the Industrial...