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We have a lot of exciting campaign news to share, but before we get into all of that, we want to welcome our summer Empire State Service Corps member, Stella Chan, and our new staff organizer, Milo Lister! Stella will be joining us later in June and lending us a hand with our summer outreach and engagement efforts. Milo is starting today, and will be coordinating our coalition organizing work. Please take a second to send Milo a warm welcome for their first day!

We also want to highlight our New Member Orientation next Wednesday June 10 – if you are new to Clean Air or just want a brush up on our membership model, please click here to register.

With Bread and Roses,

Bridge, Chris, Cindy, Milo, and Stella

Wow – we had 140 participants at our campaign kick-off this month! If you missed it or want to watch the presentation again, we have the recording now posted on our campaign landing page. We also have some photos from the picket we held a few days later outside of Governor Hochul’s fundraiser here in Buffalo with our friends from Allies of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, PUSH Buffalo, and Sierra Club.

We have a few immediate actions we are asking folks to take right now, starting with a focus on getting the proposed statewide moratorium S9144A/A10141A to a floor vote by this Thursday, when the session is scheduled to end.

Please take a moment to contact your representative in Albany TODAY and tell them to cosponsor or publicly support S9144A/A10141A – you can find your Senator by clicking here, and your Assemblymember by clicking here.
Unfortunately, of the WNY representatives, only Senator Baskin and Assemblymember McMahon have spoken out in favor of this bill so far – all of our other representatives NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU, and, with just a few days left, by phone!

NY Renews and Food and Water Watch are also coordinating Phone Banks- click here to sign up for a slot with the NY Renews one during the day today, and here for the Food and Water Watch phone banks tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday.

If the moratorium does pass, that will change some of our future strategy and tactics, but regardless, we plan to be at Town of Tonawanda Town Board, Planning Board, and SEQR Committee meetings this month and indefinitely moving forward – click here for the schedule. The first of these is the Planning Board meeting this Wednesday at 7pm at 2919 Delaware Avenue, and the Town Board meetings on Monday the 8th and 22nd, also at 7pm at 2919 Delaware Avenue, is where we want to see BIG turnout.
We urge Town residents and stakeholders to attend these meetings, even just to sit in, listen, and report out what you heard. At this time, we urge asking that the final phase of the remediation be split from the first phase of the data center project, that the data center project receive a Positive Declaration and require a full Environmental Impact Statement study, and that the Town begin reconvening the Tonawanda Community Working Group at least quarterly, and make this oversight body permanent.

If you are one of our Niagara Falls members, we urge you to stay in town this Wednesday and attend the Niagara Falls Common Council meeting – there will be a discussion and possible vote on a settlement with Niagara Falls Redevelopment, which seeks to build a data center downtown, and your participation in that meeting as well as sharing with us what was said is invaluable.
We have a couple events you can join us at this week to help us build community opposition to the data center build out and to drive turnout to the Tonawanda Town Board meetings – first, join us Saturday June 6 in the evening between 5:30pm-8:30pm at the AKG for informational flyering outside of the “Rockin at the AKG with DEVO” concert – Ontario Specialty Contracting, the main corporation developing the data center at the former Tonawanda Coke, is the lead sponsor of the concert. We will also be sharing information on AKG Workers United’s recent win. RSVP not needed, but you can sign up for a reminder here.
Next, join us Sunday June 7 in the morning to march with us in the Buffalo Pride Parade! We will be drawing attention to the links between tech billionaires, fossil fuels, the rise in bigoted, fascist, transphobic and white nationalist content on social media, and the push to build data centers. Please register so we can make sure we have enough tee shirts and supplies for the day.

We will also be at the office from 4:30-6pm this Thursday making signs and art for these two events – email Bridge or just swing by!
Also save the date – we will tentatively be holding a joint training for the Energy Democracy Alliance with PUSH Buffalo on July 2 or July 7 from 6-8pm on the NYS energy system and how it’s being impacted by the data center build out. More info will be shared later this month.

Lawn signs are also now available for pick-up and delivery! Click here to request one.

Finally, check out and share this great short PBS documentary on the environmental impacts of the power generation required for hyperscale data centers, and the lack of regulatory action by state and federal governments to protect fenceline communities.
At this time, the OSC/RITC data center proposal for the former Tonawanda Coke site does *NOT* include on-site power generation, but the power from the grid comes from somewhere – that constant 300MW, plus all the other grid power draws, means that somewhere an inefficient fossil fuel power plant is staying online past it’s retirement date.

Our Tonawanda members continue to resist mass deportation and raise public awareness of the role that the Customs and Border Protection facility at 600 Colvin Woods plays locally to support this policy.
The next planned vigil will be Wednesday June 17, 4:30pm-6pm at the northeast corner of Kenney Park, at the corner of Colvin and Colvin Woods Parkway in the Town of Tonawanda – please join us!
We also urge emailing the leadership of Government Investment Partners to tell them you oppose the renewal of this lease in August – click here to send a letter now.

We further urge joining the Evict ICE rallies every Tuesday at 4:30pm at 250 Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo.

Finally, in a bit of good news, we’re happy to share that Dolores Bustamante-Romero, a migrant farmworker’s rights advocate, was released from ICE custody last week after ICE attempted to have her deported – read more from The Investigative Post.

We’re starting off our summer festival season – sign up to march, canvass, or table with us, or just come say hi! We will be at Buffalo Pride, Buffalo Juneteenth, the Allentown Art Festival, and Coop Fest. Want to volunteer for a shift? Please register to march with us for Buffalo Pride by clicking here. For Buffalo Juneteenth, please email Cindy. For Allentown Art Festival or Coop Fest, please email Chris.

We’re happy to share that EarthJustice just won the appeal on our behalf of the sale of the Fortistar power plant to Digihost/DigiPowerX in the New York State Appellate Division, Third Department! The judges ruled that the Public Service Commission was incorrect when it rubber stamped this sale, and that the PSC must consider climate impacts in their decisions, reinforcing an earlier decision that DigiPowerX was trying to overturn.
Read more in this press release!

Back in February, Jennifer Wybieracki, a Reporting Fellow for the Pulitzer Center, wrote a story about how pollution and environmental injustices impact mental health in Niagara Falls, and about two young people organizing in response. Bridge was among the people interviewed for the story, and they will be speaking on a webinar panel alongside Brian Archie (who, among his many, many, many roles, is a Clean Air member) and Christen E. Civiletto, a lawyer representing residents in Niagara Falls on environmental issues. Click here to register.

Our next General Meeting will be Wednesday July 22 from 5:30-7pm –  more info and the registration page coming soon.

Clean Air will be participating in the Buffalo Day of Solidarity Rally on Saturday June 20 at Freedom Park to protest the Trump administration’s proposed trade deal with Canada and Mexico – this is part of a series of rallies in all these nations to demand that governments prioritize the needs of people and communities ahead of the power and profits of greedy corporations; reject attempts to pit working people in the U.S., Mexico and Canada against one another in an ongoing race-to-the-bottom; and demonstrate that communities across North America have shared interests, including good-paying jobs, a healthy environment, sovereignty and more. Learn more at https://daysofsolidarity.org/, and RSVP here.

The Town of Tonawanda is developing their updated Comprehensive Plan. They will be holding workshops and conducting outreach at events all this summer; Clean Air is discussing co-convening a couple workshops later this summer or early fall on topics related to our campaigns. In the meantime, we strongly urge Tonawanda residents and stakeholders to fill out this survey on what you want to see in the next 20 years of development in the Town!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NCYFZLL

Don’t forget to vote this month in the Primary Elections!
You will need to register with a party to vote in a primary election, and have until June 13 to do so by registering to vote and checking a party affiliation on the form. Early voting starts June 13 and continues until June 21, and Election Day is June 23. Click here for resources from the Erie County Board of Elections, and here for resources from the Niagara County BOE.

At long last, the state budget was finalized last week. While state legislators did push back on the Governor’s attempt to destroy the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act through the budget process, she did unfortunately win many concessions towards that goal. Click here to read a response from NYRenews and here to read coverage by City and State Magazine. You can also click here to read a wider round up of the budget from NYSFocus.

Last week, Clean Air was among the groups that participated in the marathon hearing pushing back on the Trump administration’s attempt to roll back coal ash clean-up standards. Read the proposed rule change here – you can submit a comment by clicking here.

In related news, check out this story from New York Times about how the Trump administration has attacked independent science at the EPA.

Shout out to the organizers at AKG Workers United – they just won a major victory, with the National Labor Relations Board finding in their favor!

Our friends at the New York Immigration Coalition sadly lost a peer and good friend earlier this month, Wennie Chin. Read the statement from NYIC by clicking here, and donate to her GoFundMe by clicking here.

As rough as the budget session was, it wasn’t all bad news out of Albany – of note, $100 million is included in the budget for NYPA build public renewable energy projects! Also, shortly after the budget process wrapped, the state Senate and Assembly also moved quickly to pass the SUNNY Act, which makes balcony/plug-in solar panels safe and legal in NY – read more about this exciting technology, and please reach out to the Governor to urge her to sign this bill.

Wired Magazine, Daniel Boguslaw – US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows

The Guardian, Astra Taylor and Saul Levin – The fight against AI datacenters isn’t just about tech – it’s about democracy

The Guardian, Tom Perkins – US garbage incinerators are failing to eliminate ‘forever chemical’ air pollution, experts warn

Inside Climate News, Claire Barber – California’s Battery Array Is as Powerful as 12 Nuclear Power Plants. Here’s What’s on the Horizon.

Convergence Magazine, Stephen Smith – There are Nine Kinds of Great Organizers. You Don’t Have to Be Them All.

Karl Bode – Jeff Bezos Is Afraid Of What Comes Next

Grist Magazine, Vivian La – A simple — yet expensive — way to climate-proof the grid: Bury the power lines