Catlin Johnson, a journalist turned community organizer, is a different kind of environmentalist. That's earned her a spot on the Plain Dealer's Smart Creatives 2016 list.
"During my now three-year-long involvement in this issue, I have been troubled by many of Ohio's policies favoring the wealthy and powerful oil and gas industry over the well-being of its own citizens" Caitlin Johnson told the Ohio House Ways and Means Committee in 2014. A graduate of Cornell University and holding a freshly earned master's degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism, Johnson wanted to make a difference.
Today the Boston native is a Clevelander doing what few journalists can do -- trying to make a difference by organizing people to help them find a voice that government and corporations will hear, and she hopes laying the foundation for a revival of the progressive movement in Ohio.
Johnson is the lead organizer for Communities United for Responsible Energy, or CURE, which is part of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a statewide movement funded by foundations, unions and individual contributions. The non-profit collaborative began in Youngstown.
Along the way from her first news job at ABC, Johnson also worked for CBS.com, PBS in New York, and locally, Ideastream.
And she earned a second graduate degree - a master's in public administration from Cleveland State University, before winning a fellowship with the George Gund Foundation.
In a recent interview Johnson talked about her career switch, the importance of a strong Fourth Estate, what environmentalism's goals ought to be, her decision to become an organizer and the imperative to balance corporate influence on government with the everyday needs of people.
Q: Is your organization, Communities United for Responsible Energy, or CURE, an environmental organization?
A: I think a lot of environmentalism traditionally was an outgrowth of conservation, which is really an outgrowth of patriarchy, that is, rich white guys.
That has changed, but environmentalists, including me, still have a stigma they have to overcome with low-income communities and communities of color, who are exactly the people we need to reach. So, yes, CURE is an environmental organization, but we are intentional in grappling with issues of race, class and gender in our work.
Q: Please explain that. Rich white guys?
A: I am thinking about the conservation movement that goes back to Teddy Roosevelt. He loved nature. And he liked to hunt.
I love nature because it protects the health and welfare of people who live in it. At the end of the day, the environmental movement needs to be about people and people focused.
Q: And that's how you end up opposing FirstEnergy's pending rate case -- because of its coal burning and carbon dioxide emissions that environmentalists say is causing climate change?
A: I am not doctrinaire about climate science. I am not really interested on that level. I am less concerned about polar icecaps melting and polar bears, though I love polar bears. I believe climate change is real and a threat. But I am more concerned about people.
Q: Are you saying power plants should be wind and solar? What about natural gas?
A: At the end of the day the environmental movement needs to be about people and people focused. I am less interested in hearing that gas burns cleaner. I know what a natural gas boom does to communities whether or not it burns cleaner than coal.
We are trying to connect the dots between urban Ohio where priorities might be different from those in rural Ohio. But we still need to build a base to push for energy justice and equity.
Q. You appeared to have been partly responsible for the sizable crowd last December at the Cleveland City Hall public hearing on FirstEnergy's rate case, and its special subsidy for two of the company's older power plants. Isn't that correct?
A: We did a lot of outreach to churches. And we partnered with other local organizations.
What riled me was corporate welfare on the backs of people who are struggling to pay their own bills. They are the people who will be most affected if FirstEnergy gets its way at the PUCO.
Q: That sounds like CURE's opposition to FirstEnergy may go beyond the rate plan and these particular subsidies. Does it?
A: There are other reasons to oppose FirstEnergy. FirstEnergy is a leader of bad things, when it comes to energy policy in Ohio.
We know they throw money around more aggressively than their counterparts. They are the most politically aggressive corporation in Ohio and they are right in our back yard. It makes a lot of strategic sense to try to take it to them. They deserve it because of their political agenda.
Q: In your mind, then, environmentalism goes well beyond where many people see it and really is part of social activism?
A: Look at Pope Francis' Encyclical on Ecology. I have read most of it. He did a good job of connecting the dots. It's not just environmental justice, it's justice. The threat to justice anywhere is a great threat to justice everywhere. That is what environmental justice is all about.
CURE is about the environment. But the Ohio Organizing Collaborative is the largest, non-partisan civic engagement program in Ohio. The collaborative is trying to build a transformative progressive base in Ohio.
Q: OK. Talk a little bit about how you would help people connect the dots.
A: The idea is that you really want to build a robust, people-driven environmental-justice movement. We need to be organizing in the front lines of shale gas extraction, which is in Appalachia and in the Ohio Valley where there is also waste dumping.
And we also need to organize in our population centers. Where the energy use is the highest.
Q: Then you have also been organizing in parts of Ohio where shale gas is being produced?
A: That was my charge in 2013 when there was more going on in shale areas. Gas producers were in Carroll County and Columbiana County. That is where I put my flag.
Q: But weren't there already a number of anti-shale gas groups getting organized?
A: There were tons of grass roots organizations just organically popping up. And I think there was a lot of discord on strategy, on what strategy would be the strategy that all groups working on fracking would adhere to.
I spent most of my time collaborating with a group in Carroll County called Carroll Concerned Citizens, and then trying to build a base in Columbiana.
And we did that. We did a listening project. We surveyed almost 800 people. Had a team of 20 volunteers helping me do that.
Q: I can understand that that alone was an accomplishment, but did you accomplish anything else, in terms of having an immediate impact on what was going on?
A: We were instrumental in making some improvements. We were able to help a community stop a fracking waste landfill from coming in. We were able to shutdown an illegally operating frack fluid recycling facility.
Q: How did you do that?
A: We kept asking ODNR whether the recycling plant had a permit. We did records requests. Eventually, ODNR got back to us. It did not have a permit. The company was not able to set up shop.
Q: What did that tell you about ODNR? The agency did respond.
A: To me it typified how quickly this industry moves. ODNR did not seem to have the wherewithal, the staff to know about it. Also the listening project put us on the map. We were able to hire a local person to continue the organizing.
Q: Do you think your strategy is resonating with the public?
A: It is starting to. Look at Bernie Sanders. He has a message that people are grabbing onto. I think people are sick and tired of corporations, the ultra rich playing games with their lives. I think that is what it is.