Clean Air will be participating in Climate Week this year!

Join us here in Buffalo at these two events –

• This Solar Panel Fights Fascism – Buffalo for a Solar Powered Equitable Future: Sunday September 21, 1-3pm, Trinity Church (371 Delaware in Buffalo.) Part of the international Sun Day mobilization, we will review the implementation to date of the Build Public Renewables Act, the massive technological advancements in solar energy in recent years, and facilitate a conversation about how we can organize locally for publicly-0wned renewable energy projects. This event is cosponsored by our friends with Third Act Upstate NY and Public Power NY.
• September 2025 General Meeting: Wednesday September 24, 5:30-7pm, hybrid event (in-person at Trinity Church.) Our focus topic this month will be the impacts of recent deregulatory actions at the EPA.
• Additionally, keep an eye out for information on planned actions here in Buffalo on Saturday September 20th for the national Make Billionaires Pay day of action! Clean Air will be in attendance supporting these actions.

You can also join us in NYC on Wednesday September 24 from 10am-1pm at Convene 237 Park for a series of panels hosted by our friends at EarthJustice – Bridge will be speaking on a panel entitled “Powering AI Sustainability: Aligning the Data Boom with a Clean Energy Future” about how data centers are impacting WNY at noon! Space is limited, so if you will be in NYC and would like to attend, please register here.

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Clean Air members and members of peer environmental and climate organizations from local, state, and national groups came together yesterday, August 25, 2025, to rally outside of Governor Hochul’s birthday fundraiser, held at the Powerhouse venue at 140 Lee Street.

Groups included – PUSH Buffalo, SURJ Buffalo, the WNY Peace Center, West Valley Action Network, Seneca Lake Guardian, Food and Water Watch, Public Power NY,  Alliance for Nuclear Free NY, and Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Our message to the Governor is that we support her actions to protect democracy and resist the MAGA agenda by using NY’s congressional districting process and through coordinated actions with peers in other states and through court challenges, but that she should also similarly be using NY’s energy and macroeconomic policies to this end – specifically, by fully supporting a 15 GW renewable energy build goal for NYPA, and by telling NYISO and the PSC to stop approving energy allocations for data center projects that are not being built with specific public benefit in mind (such as research by public institutions) and that presently largely lack any sort of regulations for environmental justice impacts. The crisis we collectively are fighting requires using all the tools available to us, and NY’s energy and economic policies could be what turns the tide.

In short, “Data Centers Power MAGA but Solar Power Fights Fascism!”

We also urged Governor Hochul to consider the havoc and damage that her former rival Lee Zeldin is causing at the EPA, and to strengthen the NYS DEC in response, giving them greater resources, authority, and onus to take action to hold polluters in NY accountable.

We also worked to raise awareness among rally attendees that Jon Williams, the owner and developer of the Powerhouse venue as well as industrial brownfield sites throughout the region, including the former Tonawanda Coke and American Axle sites, generally prefers to lease his properties to data center operators, specifically cryptocurrency miners, and that he donates significant amounts to MAGA-supportive candidates. During 2020 election cycle, Williams donated over $36,000 to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, making him Erie County’s largest Trump donor, and as recently as 2023, he donated $2500 to Florida’s Ron DeSantis. We urged attendees to ask Williams about these donations, and to tell him they support solar power development at the former Tonawanda Coke over his proposal for data center operations.

We further rallied to raise awareness of three important public comment periods related to NY’s energy policy that are presently open –

• the NYPA renewables plan
• the DEC’s DGEIS on cryptocurrency mining
• The NYS Energy Plan

Links to quick one-click digital actions for all three can be found at https://linktr.ee/cleanairwny.

Rally participants handed flyers to attendees of the fundraiser, danced and played music, and signed a giant birthday card for the Governor with these messages.

Clean Air’s organizer Bridge Rauch, who had a ticket to attend the fundraiser, then attempted to enter the fundraiser with the signed birthday card. While they were met at the door by state police and were not allowed into the main fundraiser space, they were allowed into the atrium, where they had a productive conversation with Governor Hochul’s staff members.

We look forward to productive continuation of our conversation with the Governor’s team in meetings in the near future.

You can find photos, our flyer, as well as our press release below. If you are interested in joining future similar actions, please contact our staff organizers and inquire about our Rapid Response team or our campaign teams!

Download (PDF, 593KB)

Download (PDF, 162KB)

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The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has released it’s draft generic environmental impact study on the environmental, climate, public health, and other impacts of cryptocurrency mining, particularly proof-of-work based processes.

You can read the DGEIS by clicking here. More information about this study is available on the DEC’s “Climate Change Statutes, Regulations, And Policies” webpage under the “Cryptocurrency Mining Law” header.

Public comments are being accepted by DEC through September 25 by emailing climatechange@dec.ny.gov with the subject line “Crypto Draft GEIS.”

We have also set up a digital letter campaign that you can use to submit your comments – click here to send a letter using our ActionNetwork tool!

Also don’t forget to submit a comment to the Public Service Commission before this coming Monday July 28 opposing the sale of the Fortistar gas-fired power plant to Digihost – this blog post has guidance for how to submit a comment.

Back in November, EarthJustice won an appeal on the behalf of North Tonawanda residents against the Public Service Commission’s decision to approve the sale of the Fortistar gas power plant without taking the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act into account! This means, though, that the PSC needs to hear from us that we oppose this sale.

The PSC is accepting comments on this until July 28.
>>>>>> click HERE to submit a comment. <<<<<<

We urge pointing out the enormous energy demand, the lack of job creation, the noise pollution, and the predicted increases in air emissions.

Below is a template example comment which you can copy/paste. We strongly urge editing this template to add your personal thoughts.

I write to you as a resident of (place of residence) to request that the N.Y. Public Service Commission reject the Application for the Transfer of Ownership Interests from Fortistar North Tonawanda LLC (FNT) and Digihost International Inc. (Digihost) in a 55 Megawatt Natural Gas-fired Cogeneration Facility Located in North Tonawanda, NY because of the negative impacts on the community and its noncompliance with New York State law.

The power plant, serving a behind-the-meter bitcoin mining operation, has led to enormous increases in:

• Local air pollution
• Greenhouse gas pollution, 
• Noise pollution, and 
• Water pollution,

among other negative impacts. These operations adversely impact our community, and damage vital environmental resources and our health. 

I am also worried that my electricity and water rates will go up because of this facility’s increased operations. In places where other cryptocurrency mines have gone in, electricity prices have skyrocketed for households and small businesses. The Digihost facility uses municipal water and discharges into our public wastewater system, which now needs major upgrades. 

Additionally, I am worried that this facility, and others like it, will prevent the state from meeting its critical climate mandates established under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).

The PSC should deny the Application for the Transfer of Ownership Interests to protect the state and the community from the negative impacts from this facility’s operations.

Respectfully submitted,

Name

Please also send this blog post to folks in North Tonawanda specifically who you think would be interested in submitting a comment!

You can also click here to visit the “Matter Master” page and click the “Post Comment” button on the upper right. Submitted public comments are also available for review under the “Public Comments” tab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a related note, the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Study of cryptocurrency mining has been released! We urge taking a moment to read it by clicking here or visiting the DEC’s webpage (scroll down to the “Cryptocurrency Mining Law” header.) Comments are being accepted until September 25 by emailing climatechange@dec.ny.gov. We will be launching a letter campaign later this month, and in the meantime we urge attending one of the online hearings this month listed on the DEC’s webpage.

Click here to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter, and view this month’s edition by clicking the “More” link just below.

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We pause today to remember the victims of the white nationalist terrorist attack here in Buffalo on 5/14.

Roberta Drury, 32
Margus Morrison, 52
Andre Mackniel, 53
Aaron Salter, 55
Geraldine Talley, 62
Celestine Chaney, 65
Heyward Patterson, 67
Katherine Massey, 72
Pearl Young, 77
Ruth Whitfield, 86

We pledge that they will never be forgotten, that the explict white nationalist and white supremacist ideology that the shooter ascribed to will always be recognized, and that we will continue to fight back against all forms of white nationalism, including systemic bias and environmental racism.

Pray for the dead. Fight for the living.

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