Texas man wins environmental prize

Washington Post : A Texas man has been awarded this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize for the North America category. Hilton Kelley grew up in Port Arthur, Texas, known for its oil refineries and petrochemical plants. After a stint in the US Navy, he revisited his hometown in 2000 and was troubled by the pollution—the city and surrounding county had one of the highest levels of air pollution in the US, and residents suffered from cancer rates that were 23% higher than the state average, according to the Texas Cancer Registry. In response, he started the Community In-power and Development Association, which held protests and threatened legal action to expose the lack of pollution controls and lax protocols of such companies as Shell Oil. According to Lorrae Rominger, the Goldman group’s deputy director, Kelley won this year’s prize because “his community had almost been destroyed from the pollution, which was the reason people were moving out. It was the children’s health. He did something that affected thousands of people.”