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While we hope you are taking some time this month to relax and recharge, we do have a couple events this month we hope you can join us at:

• On August 16 Clean Air will be supporting the Buffalo United Day of International Friendship at Beaver Island State Park
• On August 27 we are having our next New Member Orientation, click here to register

Looking further ahead, we also have several save the dates for September:

• On September 1, we will be participating in the Labor Day Parade, contact Chris or other staff if you’d like to march with us
• September 4 – Clean Air’s Annual Tonawanda Community Meeting 
• September 10 – Niagara Falls Workshop
• September 21 – Sun Day
• September 24 – Clean Air’s next General Meeting

There are also several public comment periods that are currently open on NY’s energy policy which will will be concluding at the end of September – be sure to scroll down for our one-click toolkits, and stay tuned!

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

Over the past five years, Clean Air has been leading the growing opposition to the use of fossil fuel power for unregulated data center operations, particularly proof-of-work based cryptocurrency mining and certain artificial intelligence uses which kill jobs and are not in the public interest.

This month that work came to the forefront of public discourse, as President Trump signed a number of bills and measures into law which explicitly double down on the use of fossil fuels to power data centers. Among the many harms, these moves will spike energy prices, which threatens the US manufacturing sector. Clean Air joined the People’s AI Action Plan sign-on in response to the Trump Administration’s actions.

Closer to home, we are happy to note that resident organizing action in North Tonawanda has led to Digihost being issued multiple noise violations, and over 30 comments were submitted to the Public Service Commission last month in opposition to the sale of the Fortistar gas power plant, which the PSC has been ordered to reconsider in part due to Clean Air member organizing.

As these legal processes proceed, we have a few actions you can take to voice your opposition to fossil fuel power for unregulated data center operations.

First, New York DEC recently released the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Study of Cryptocurrency Mining, and they are accepting comments through September 25.

You can either directly email your comments to  climatechange@dec.ny.gov with the subject line “Crypto Draft GEIS” or use our one-click toolkit today.

Second, the New York State Energy Planning Board also recently released the State Energy Plan. We are still reviewing it, but there are some immediate red flags, notably that the state is projecting a massive energy demand from data center operations, but does not appear to suggest any denials of these power requests, and instead urges “repowering” fossil fuel based energy infrastructure.

The NYEPB is accepting comments through October 6 on the draft plan. Clean Air will be sharing a one-click toolkit from our colleagues at Public Power New York which is currently being developed but is expected to be published this week.

In the short term, please mark the following two dates on your calendar –

September 3 – the Buffalo hearing on the State Energy Plan

September 21 – Sun Day National Mobilization

We are still deciding our exact plan, but Clean Air will be leading an action for Sun Day as part of a series of events that week to urge our lawmakers in Albany to take the climate crisis and Just Transition seriously. More info coming soon!

If you are a Clean Air member and have a specific idea that you’d like to be considered, please reach out to Bridge.

Clean Air joined the Partnership for Public Good earlier this month for the release of a new report on the TESLA plant in South Buffalo, and joined PPG’s call on our elected leaders to open the facility lease to an RFP process to ensure that TESLA is the best tenant for the site.

Read the report by clicking here.

Clean Air urges contacting Town of Tonawanda representatives, NYS DOT, GBNRTC, and other relevant entities to voice your support for bike lanes, especially separated bike lanes, in the Town.

Proposed bike lanes on Colvin have been postponed, and while DOT has recently added bike lanes on Sheridan, which does improve upon the prior conditions, they chose not to include separators, which would make these new lanes much safer.

The Tonawanda Tomorrow plan specifically calls for bike and pedestrian improvements across the town, and these projects align with those goals, but if officials only hear from those in opposition, these projects will be considered failures, and these goals will be set aside in favor of other priorities.

We also urge attending the NFTA hearing on August 19 from 6-8pm at Sweet Home Middle School, 4150 Maple Rd in Amherst,, for the recently released Metro Rail Draft Environmental Impact Study.

Like the bike and pedestrian improvements mentioned above, NFTA enhancements are supported in the Tonawanda Tomorrow plan, and Clean Air specifically urges implementing stronger east-west bus connectivity from the proposed Metro expansion area to the waterfront.

Our 2025 High Road Fellow Rebecca Nezezon concluded her summer fellowship last week. We’re grateful for her time with us, and look forward to seeing her next steps as she finishes her classwork at Cornell.

Clean Air is part of Smart Growth America’s 2025 Zoning for Equitable Solutions and Thriving Communities Cohort. ZEST empowers community-based organizations to tackle health inequities by providing education and capacity-building support to reform local land-use policies and strengthen community health. Through this program we will continue to explore ideas to codify environmental justice into zoning codes regionally – learn more here.

Members of the Buffalo United Coalition are holding a rally on August 16 at 4pm at Beaver Island State Park on Grand Island for the International Day of Friendship for crossborder solidarity against fascism and authoritarianism. Learn more by clicking here or by visiting the Facebook event.

Folks are encouraged to speak out against the STAMP project by signing these two petitions –

Protect Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s drinking water! No Trench Cutting at STAMP

Uphold Tonawanda Seneca Nation sovereignty and the CLCPA! No new NYS funds or permits to WNY STAMP.

Our congratulations to our friend Denise Abbott, who just became the first woman President of The Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation!

A few headlines of note from Labor Notes from this month –

Fight for Immigrant Workers.
Build the Union.

Environmental Protection Agency Workers Investigated for Defending Its Mission

Confront or Cave? Federal Pressure Splits the Building Trades

Organizers across New York State are celebrating the finalization of rules for implementing the All Electric Buildings Act – learn more about this legislation on the NYS Assembly’s webpage.

Organizers just across the border in Toronto are celebrating two big public transit and active mobility wins – the City Council voted to approve dedicated transit lanes on  Bathurst and Dufferin streets, and Canadian courts ruled against the Ontario government’s attempt to remove bike lanes in Toronto. 

Globally, the UN’s top court ruled that failing to protect planet from climate change could violate international law, a major win that environmental and climate justice organizers around the world can build off of.

Bill McKibben this month published a column in The New Yorker which runs through a few statistics about the renewable energy revolution, and how even amid the Trump administration’s attacks, solar and wind are continuing to dominate.

Here’s one highlight passage- “It took from the invention of the photovoltaic solar cell, in 1954, until 2022 for the world to install a terawatt of solar power; the second terawatt came just two years later, and the third will arrive either later this year or early next.”
Click here to read more.

Brownfield Project Updates

Buffalo – North Aud Block Site Cleanup Proposed for Brownfield Site Contamination, comments due August 9

Buffalo – 1318 Niagara Street Notice of Availability: Explanation of Significant Difference, comments due August 9

Buffalo – 47 East Amherst Cleanup Proposed for Brownfield Site Contamination, comments due August 15

Buffalo – Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) application for Central Terminal Restoration Corp, comments due August 29

Tonawanda – Huntley Interim Remedial Measure to Begin

Environmental Permit Updates

Tonawanda – Dupont SPDES permit modification and renewal, comments due August 8

Niagara Falls – Durez hazardous waste management permit renewal, comments due September 8

NYSERDA – Low-to Moderate- Income (LMI) Energy Efficiency and Building Electrification Stakeholder Conferences

News from DC on rollbacks of public health, workplace safety, and environmental regulations continues.

Here’s a round up of a few headlines from just this month alone –

EPA Eliminating the “Endangerment” Finding

• Why the EPA’s Endangerment Finding Matters
• Trump’s EPA is attacking its own power to fight climate change

This EPA research office safeguarded Americans’ health. Trump just eliminated it.

White House exempts chemical plants from Clean Air Act rules

Trump’s environmental policies are reshaping everyday life. Here’s how.

They lost their jobs and funding under Trump. What did communities lose?

Antonia Juhasz, Rolling Stone – Every Dirty Gift Trump’s Big Bill Gives the Fossil Fuel Industry

Damian Carrington, The Guardian – ‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse

Colin Kinniburgh, NYS Focus – The Race to Build Solar and Wind Before Trump’s Tax Credit Deadline

Yessenia Funes, Atmos and Heated – Fossil Fuel Billionaires Are Bankrolling the Anti-Trans Movement

Inside Climate News

• Audrey Gray – Out in the Storm: LGBTQ+ Americans are organizing disaster protection for each other as political weather worsens
• Lee Hedgepeth and Lanier Isom – Fact-Checking Claims About a Proposed Hyperscale Data Center
• Kiley Bense – As Trump Shrinks FEMA, State and Local Emergency Managers Say They’re Barely Getting By

The Buffalo News

• Mackenzie Shuman – Federal government cuts key funding to extreme weather preparedness work in NY
• Mackenzie Shuman – Major demolition at West Valley complete, with many years and $3 billion to go

The Energy Mix

• Seth Borenstein – Oil and Gas ‘Running Out of Road’ as Renewables Cover 92.5% of New Power Demand
• Kelly Geraldine Malone – NOT SATIRE: U.S. Politicians Say Wildfire Smoke is Ruining Americans’ Summers, Demand Canada Stop It

Grist Magazine

• Ayurella Horn-Muller – The USDA announced the cancellation of $148M in ‘woke’ grants. Then it went dark.
• Miacel Spotted Elk – Data centers, drought, and dispossession: The real nightmares in Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’

CACWNY Events

• August 16 – Buffalo United Day of International Friendship

• August 27 – New Member Orientation

• September 1 – Buffalo Labor Day Parade

• September 4 – Tonawanda Community Meeting

• September 10 – Niagara Falls Workshop

• September 21 – Sun Day Buffalo Action, more info  at https://www.sunday.earth/

• September 24 – Clean Air General Meeting, more info TBA

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 – 

• August 14 – From Brownfield to Bright Future: Telling Your Success Story
• August 21 – Built By Us: How Nonprofits Can Lead the Charge in Local Development
• August 25 – 26 – Peoples Action Institute Fundamentals of Organizing 

Community and Coalition Events

• August 29 – Queen City Clean Waters Fair
• September 19 – 20 – Igniting Hope Conference
• September 23 – SURJ Buffalo Mass Meeting

Public Comment Deadlines and Hearings

• August 19 – NFTA Metro Rail DGEIS Hearing
• September 3 – State Energy Plan Buffalo Hearing
• September 25 – Comments due on Cryptocurrency Mining DGEIS,
  • Submit a comment now using Clean Air’s digital action!
• October 6 – Comments due on State Energy Plan

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?