{{ FirstName | commonize | default: ‘Friend’ }}, we have a very busy month of events ahead of us – we hope you can join us at one of the following festivals and rallies in the next few weeks. Please reach out to Bridge to connect about volunteering – we will be canvassing and tabling all summer long, and could use some additional help!

• Buffalo Pride Parade – Sunday June 1, line-up at 10am at Buff State Lot R-14, look for SEIU’s RV to find us
• Buffalo Juneteenth – tabling at the Juneteenth Festival Saturday June 14 at MLK Park in Buffalo
• Community Health Day at the Buffalo Science Museum to celebrate Juneteenth – Thursday June 19, 10am-2pm
• Buffalo United Coalition Rally and March for Freedom and Liberation – Saturday June 21 starting at 11am at Niagara Square in Buffalo.
• Niagara Falls Pride – Saturday June 28 at 1pm at Old Falls Street in Niagara Falls

We are also holding a training for Clean Air members on how to have a one-on-one on Saturday June 7 from 10-2; please contact Gia to sign up.

There’s even more throughout the month coming up – scroll down for everything else!

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

PS – tonight is the WNYALF Annual Dinner, and we have a couple extra tickets available. If you’re a Clean Air member and would like to attend, please contact Chris or Bridge!

You might have seen the article last week in the Buffalo News “NY electric grid operator stresses need for more renewables” in which a representative from the NY Independent System Operator (NYISO) cautioned that the growing data center economy is consuming energy at an exponential rate, and that this, in NYISO’s mind, means we need to re-invest in fossil fuel based energy.

In response to these comments, our Tonawanda Just Transition Campaign Team worked together to write a response in the Another Voice column, “Slow pace of renewables means go faster, not go fossil.” We feel that while NYISO is correct that the current pace of renewable energy development is too slow to meet these growing energy demands, but disagree with their analysis that this means we need to undo progress we have made towards decarbonization, and counter instead that NYS should robustly implement the Build Public Renewables Act, with NYPA committing to build 15 GW of renewable energy projects across the state, and that our representatives in Albany need to pass regulations for this new industrial sector.

While the impacts of the emerging data center industry are currently largely felt in the Tonawanda and Niagara Falls areas of our region, the potential of a data center at STAMP is a concern for residents who live nearby and there there is a data center at the American Axle site.

We also want to flag that this could very quickly become a concern for our South Buffalo members, as Tesla is currently investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the plant to build “Dojo”, a supercomputer to support it’s AI products and it’s automated driving technology. In Memphis Tennessee, a similar investment into a Telsa facility has caused an acute public health crisis among residents, because to meet the power demands, the corporation brought in dozens of methane gas powered generators, and, based on our previous experiences with Tesla, we feel that there is no reason to believe that Tesla won’t practice the same environmental injustices in Buffalo.

We need to take action throughout WNY to develop local regulation of this new industry in the absence of state and federal oversight.

Clean Air will be holding an Environmental Justice meeting for Niagara Falls residents on Tuesday June 24 at 6pm at the Main Library at 1425 Main Street in Niagara Falls to scope the environmental justice concerns.

We will be following up this meeting with a series of workshops for Niagara Falls residents to prioritize issues and to mobilize community leaders.

More information will be shared on our social media this month as the event approaches – if you are a Clean Air member and want to volunteer or you know folks in Niagara Falls who you think would like to help with this event, please reach out to Bridge.

Clean Air will again be hosting a Cornell High Road Fellow this June and July to help us out with research projects! Rebecca Nezezon is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations and is very excited to start her work with us in a couple of weeks.

Earlier this month, Bridge presented on our work in Tonawanda for Smart Growth America’s Climate-informed Zoning Series, part of The Center for Zoning Solutions’ programs.
Check out the recording here!

We’re sad to share that the WEACT TCTAC, a technical assistance program for environmental justice groups funded by the Inflation Reduction Act that Clean Air was a local liaison for, has been forced to close due to the ongoing program defunding by the current administration.

The resources on their website will remain available, and we plan to continue to build on the relationships we established with peer organizations across the state and throughout EPA Region 2.

There are two huge news items about the River Road Industrial Corridor in Tonawanda that we wanted to flag in case you missed it –

State budget includes $20 million for Town of Tonawanda industrial water project

GM investing $888 million in Tonawanda engine plant

There are also some promising signs of momentum with the Sumitomo facility, and of course there’s a lot of movement ongoing with the redevelopment of Huntley and Tonawanda Coke. We are also very excited about the momentum at the Cherry Farms landfill which closed in the 1990s and could finally be redeveloped as a waterfront park in the near future! Join our Tonawanda Just Transition Campaign Teams to get involved.

New York finally passed it’s state budget a couple weeks ago – check out some in-depth analysis by NYS Focus here and here.

In DC, the House passed a budget that includes some inhumane and monstrous cuts which, if they survive the Senate’s revisions, will cause very real harms to people all across the nation and right here at home. There are also some alarming non-budgetary portions that were included n the House budget, such as a prohibition on the regulation of AI, which would greatly constrain local control over data center regulations as well as statewide labor protections.

We encourage calling Senator Schumer at (202) 224-6542 and Senator Gillibrand at (202) 224-4451 to urge them to invoke the Byrd Rule about the proposed prohibition on AI regulations.

The Byrd Rule prohibits “extraneous” provisions from being included in budget reconciliation bills. This rule aims to ensure that reconciliation bills primarily focus on budgetary matters, such as changes to spending and revenue, and not on unrelated policy issues.

Send a letter today to our representatives in Albany urging the passage of the Equality NY legislative slate, including two bills that will prevent book bans!

Our friends with NYRenews are urging the Department of Environmental Conservation to Release the Regs for Cap and Invest – send a letter now by clicking here, and sign up for a webinar tomorrow Thursday, May 29th at 6:30 to learn how you can get involved in upcoming hearings!

The NY Senate and Governor Hochul formally apologized this month to the Seneca Nation for the state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing at the Thomas Indian School in Irving NY. These apologies were accompanied by a formal visit to the Seneca Nation by Governor Hochul, and is believed to be the first time a sitting NY Governor has made an official visit.

While we applaud these historic actions by our representatives, we also urge them to listen to the Tonawanda Seneca Nation and stop supporting the development of the STAMP facility.

Please take a moment to send a letter today voicing your shared opposition.

Our friends with Beyond Plastics are hosting a call-in party today May 28 at noon to help pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S1464/A1749) – sign up here and contact your representative in Albany today!

Our friends at 1199SEIU went on a 7-day strike at 5 Western New York nursing homes earlier this month – they and CWA announced yesterday that they agreed to extend current contract with Kaleida Health through 6/14 at 11:59PM. Click here to send a letter in support of nursing home workers, and stay tuned for what comes next (or join us at Pride where we will be marching with 1199, and talk directly with some of the members while you stroll down Elmwood!)

Teamsters Local 264 are also on strike at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport (4200 Genesee St.) and at SP+ Niagara Falls (2035 Niagara Falls Blvd.)

We were buoyed this month by the solidarity shown by EPA employees in response to the authoritarian and fascist attempt to target supporters of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the agency – not one of the more than 15,000 employees in the agency responded to demands to report on fellow workers!

We also applaud the work of downstate environmental justice organizers, particularly the work of UPROSE, who managed to overcome the Trump administration’s blockade on wind energy projects through their organizing.

We recognize that these are not easy times to organize, we also wanted to share this series of Activist Well-Being Workshops that our friends at the Partnership for the Public Good are hosting.

The ongoing cuts to federal agencies are endangering our health and safety.

Case in point, check out this coverage of how the cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service will undercut not only our ability to predict dangerous snow storms and other extreme weather, but also algae blooms in Lake Erie.

On Saturday, June 7, from 10am-2pm, our friends at CCWE are hosting their annual native plant fundraiser sale on the Alt Nature Preserve (2489 Whitehaven Road, Grand Island, 14072). Come find those native plants that will work well in your garden and yard to support the wildlife around you!

Kiley Bense, Inside Climate News – Nighttime Flaring at Shell Plastics Plant Lit Up Beaver County ‘Like Dawn’

Anita Hofschneider & Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist Magazine – What Pope Leo means for global climate action and colonialism

Rosemary Misdary, Gothamist – Plan to power down NYC’s polluting peaker plants faces delays due to Trump

Kelly Hayes, Truthout Magazine – We Live in Fearful Times. Our Safety Comes Through Preparing Together.

CACWNY Events

• Sunday June 1 – Buffalo Pride Parade, line-up at 10am at Buff State Lot R-14, look for SEIU’s RV to find us

• Saturday June 7 – One-on-one training for Clean Air members from 10-2; please contact Gia to sign up.

• Saturday June 14 – Buffalo Juneteenth Festival tabling at MLK Park in Buffalo

• Thursday June 19 – Community Health Day at the Buffalo Science Museum to celebrate Juneteenth from 10am-2pm

• Saturday June 21 – Buffalo United Coalition Rally and March for Freedom and Liberation at Niagara Square in Buffalo,  starts at 11am

• Tuesday June 24 –  Niagara Falls Environmental Justice Forum, 6-8pm at the Niagara Falls Main Library,  1425 Main Street in Niagara Falls

• Saturday June 28 – tabling at Niagara Falls Pride at 1pm at Old Falls Street in Niagara Falls

   

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.

• 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 – 

• Environmental Law Institute’s 2025 Summer School Series

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?