Happy May Day, {{ FirstName | commonize | default: ‘Friend’ }}!
We celebrated International Workers Day last week with our Annual Dinner – be sure to scroll down to see photos from the event as well as from actions held in WNY on May Day and this past month, including a couple from the massive April 6 Buffalo United March.

We also attended a hearing last Wednesday for a current comment period on the implementation of NY’s Cumulative Impacts bill – click here to send a letter to the DEC urging robust and strong guidelines for implementation, and here to watch a webinar regarding this current comment period. Comments are being accepted until 11:59pm this Wednesday May 7, so be sure to submit your thoughts on this as soon as possible. This is the first of three public comment periods, and we will let you know when the next comment period begins.

With Bread and Roses,
Bridge, Chris, Cindy, Gia and Kiera

There’s still a long fight ahead of us, but we feel buoyed by the number of people beginning to turn up for rallies and direct actions, all the new and returning faces as well we see at our events, and especially the growing long term coalitions developing from these gatherings!

With that note, please keep your eyes out for announcements this month of the next Buffalo United rally in June, and sign up to join us at Buffalo Pride on June 1. We are again participating in a marching bloc of membership-based community and labor organizations for Buffalo Pride – click here to sign up your group by May 19, or here to sign up individually. Learn more and see the list of organizations registered at https://linktr.ee/bflojusticebloc

We are also looking forward to the WNY ALF’s annual dinner at the end of the month – if you are a Clean Air member who would like to attend, please let us know, we will have a couple extra tickets for members!

There’s been some movement recently with both the clean up and future development plans for Huntley – first, the DEC has announced that Interim Remedial Measures (ie, a clean up process that is quickly undertaken to address contamination outside of the primary clean-up plans) to address polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and arsenic in the soil from the coal pile will begin this month and run through the summer. This will primarily involve digging up 3,700 cubic yards of contaminated soil and it trucking off-site – read more in the DEC announcement or in the Buffalo News.

The Town of Tonawanda’s eminent domain process for the facility building is expected to be completed this year, possibly even within a month or so. A core piece of this project will be gaining ownership of the raw water intake on site – Town officials earlier this month held a press event with state representatives to urge that NYS include $26 million funding for the raw water project in the state budget. Last week, Governor Hochul announced a “general agreement” on the state budget, so we will soon know if this request was funded.

ABC National News recently featured coverage on the labor and environmental justice concerns at the Goodyear facility in Niagara Falls – click here to watch. Local press also continues to cover the ongoing implementation of the consent order.

Our work in recent years has been affected by the emergence of data center-focused industrial development and related energy demands, so this series by MediaJustice caught our eye – “WTF the Rise of the Broligarchy Political Education Series“

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency announced that they have approved plans for tax claw backs from Sumitomo – this is the largest corporate payback for previously approved tax breaks and incentives in the state.

NYS Focus recently featured some updates on the implementation of the Build Public Renewables Act.

Public Power NY is sponsoring a letter campaign urging strong actions against Trump rollbacks on renewables.

 Join the community for the National Day of Awareness for Murdered & Missing Indigenous Women today at 11am – wear red and meet at Niagara Square for a walk in remembrance.

First up this month, several United Farm Worker leaders have been detained by ICE. UFW is holding emergency rallies outside the Batavia Detention Facility in response – click here to sign up for updates.

Second, workers at the Hyatt Hotel in  downtown Buffalo are holding a picket this Friday May 9 at 11am. Read more about their fight in this profile on TruthOut, and check out the news on their recent NLRB win!

Third, a coalition of labor unions have come together to defend federal workers – click here for updates.

Next, the NYS Building & Construction Trades Council and the NYS AFL-CIO are calling for improved wage standards on publicly funded projects.

In addition to Buffalo, over 1150 cities across the nation and world turned out for rallies on April 6 – click here to see the map of documented rally locations.

In Sackets Harbor NY up near Watertown, nearly 1000 people turned out to demand the return of 3 children ICE had detained – the population of Sackets Harbor is only 1450, and Tom Homan has vacation home in the community. In part due to the widespread community outrage at the detainment of these children, they were soon released!

A quiet win came this month in the form of a lack of news – an executive order was widely expected on Earth Day which would have targeted the 501c3 status of environmental and climate justice organizations. EJ & CJ organizations prepared for the EO, built coalitions to fight back, and braced for the news…  which never came, possibly because of all the preparatory work! We suspect that this is still a fight on the horizon, but for now it’s not one we need to tackle.

Finally, check out this video from when Mohsen Mahdawi was released from ICE custody last week.

The NYS DEC has announced a public comment period for a Draft Investigation Work Plan for a brownfield clean up at 22 Fillmore Ave in the City of Tonawanda – click here for more info.

With the ongoing deletion of public resources on the EPA’s website, we wanted to highlight some efforts to archive this data to maintain public access, as well as some new resources that have been developed in response to cuts at the EPA.

Archived back-up of the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool

The Inflation Reduction Act Tracker

The Environmental Justice Data Action Portal

The EPA Pollution Pass Map

The Impact Map

The Erie County Department of Health will be holding two Free Rabies Vaccination Clinics this month –

• Saturday, May 10, 2025, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. 
  Town of Tonawanda Highway Garage, 450 Woodward Avenue, Kenmore, NY 14217 
  (Located off Military, North of Kenmore Avenue) 
• Saturday, May 17, 2025, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. 
  School 84 (Parking Lot), 462 Grider Street, Buffalo, NY 14214 
  (Located off Kensington Avenue, on ECMC Campus) 

Click here for the full announcement. 

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Congressmember John J. LaFalce this past month. Congressmember LaFalce was an early champion for environmental justice, fighting for the residents of the Love Canal community in Niagara Falls and playing a pivotal role in bringing national attention to the crisis.

Rebecca Dzombak, The New York Times – Almost Half of Americans Breathe Unhealthy Air, Report Finds

Kim Kelly, In These Times – Trump Just Escalated His War on Coal Miners. Their Unions Are Fighting Back

Rebecca Baird-Remba, City and State – New York’s offshore wind industry is under assault from the Trump administration

Colin Kinniburgh, NYS Focus – Trump Targets New York Climate Laws. But Is It Just for Show?

Sharon Lerner, Propublica – Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters

Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg Opinion – This Red Midwestern State Is a Global Paragon of Clean Power

Madiba K. Dennie, Balls and Strikes – Trump DOJ: Providing Basic Sewer Services to Black People Is Actually “Illegal DEI”

Grist Magazine

• Zoya Teirstein – Project 2025 was extreme. Trump’s first 100 days have been even more radical
• Akielly Hu – A forthcoming Supreme Court decision could limit agencies’ duty to consider environmental harms
• Zoya Teirstein & Jake Bittle – FEMA moves to end one of its biggest disaster adaptation programs

Canary Media

• Kathryn Krawczyk – The bid to kill Empire Wind is Trump’s biggest swipe at offshore wind yet
• Clare Fieseler – Trump said no new offshore wind farms. One just got underway — quietly
• Jeff St. John – Trump looks to radically reshape power plant oversight — and boost coal
• Jeff St. John – Why coal won’t solve the looming grid-reliability crisis

Inside Climate News

• Liza Gross – Sen. Bernie Sanders Brings His Fighting Oligarchy Tour to Conservative Rural California Districts
• Dan Gearino – Will US Tariffs Make World Leaders Value the Stability of Renewables?

CACWNY Events

• Buffalo Pride Parade – June 1, marching in parade!
• Buffalo Juneteenth – June 14, tabling at the festival!

Upcoming Training Opportunities, Conferences and New Resources

Are you a Clean Air member or supporter who is engaged with a current campaign, and is there a training opportunity that you would like to pursue to strengthen your organizing? Please let a staff organizer know, as we budget to support leadership development! All Clean Air members and supporters also have free access to trainings from the Advocacy Institute.

• WE ACT TCTAC – resources, technical and policy trainings on demand, and numerous upcoming online trainings this month! 
• EPA Contaminated Site Clean-Up Information Center – multiple webinars, both live and on demand recordings
• EPA Superfund Training and Learning Center – multiple webinars, both live and on demand
  
• Little Sis – on demand webinar recordings

New This Month – 

• Ongoing – Broligarchy Series

Community and Coalition Events

• May 8 – Bike Breakfast at Trinity Church
• May 9 – The Revolutionary Life of Martin Sostre book release
• May 10 and 17 – ECDOH Rabies Clinics 
• May 17 – Buffalo Solidarity Bike Ride to remember the victims and survivors of the 5/14 white supremacist terrorist attack
• May 17 – WNY Women’s March
• May 28 – WNYALF Annual Dinner
• May 31 – Buffalo Votes Day Of Action 2025

Public Comment Deadlines and Hearings

• May 31 – deadline for comments related to the brownfield clean-up at 22 Fillmore in the City of Tonawanda

Also see our regularly updated list of events at bit.ly/CleanAirEvents and linktr.ee/cleanairwny

You can also click here to join the Buffalo Snow Brigade. We also suggest checking out the resources at mutualaiddisasterrelief.org as well as their new website relieftoolkit.com. If interested in joining mutual aid efforts with Clean Air, particularly in the realm of community resiliency amid climate change,
please reach out to Bridge about trainings or to Gia about our events and membership committee.

Interested in connecting with CACWNY generally as an organization, have an emerging campaign or issue you’d like CACWNY to consider, or are you interested in joining our Peabody Street or  Lovejoy campaigns?
Do you know of a grant opportunity that might support our work?

Interested in joining our Tonawanda Just Transition campaign teams, our work to regulate cryptocurrency mining, our Energy Democracy work, or have a submission for this monthly newsletter?

Interested in supporting Clean Air’s grassroots fundraising efforts, or joining our events or membership committee, including our Rapid Response Team?  

Want to join our American Axle campaign or support our work in the Delavan-Grider neighborhood and greater East Side, or support our statewide climate justice work with NYRenews,?

Interested in donating to support our work?