Join us at our Fall Happy Hour on October 15! Please register to help us plan – the event is free and one free drink is included.

We are also hosting a training on October 20 with WEACT on the recently-passed Cumulative Impacts industrial siting law – click here for details and to register.

Please also be sure to scroll down and click “read more” on this email to see all the other activities and resources for this month!

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

Clean Air is a member of the Buffalo United Coalition and one of the groups organizing Buffalo’s No Kings Rally on Saturday October 18 at Niagara Square from 11am-1pm!

We want to be loud and visible in the crowd – please reach out to Bridge if you would like to join fellow Clean Air members and supporters with your tee shirt size, and they will send you meet-up details for the morning of.

Registration is NOT required to attend, but if you would like an email reminder, you can sign up here.

We are immensely thrilled to share that we are bringing the Midwest Academy to Buffalo January 20 – 24, 2026!

Midwest will lead a cohort of 30 WNY organizers and member-leaders in the professional certification course January 20-23, and the cohort will then lead the general public in a one-day training on Saturday January 24.

Seats are limited for the full course, so it will be application-based and each organization will be initially limited to three participants. Applications are due October 31.
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/midwest-academy-buffalo-hub-training-application/

This certification course, which ordinarily costs $660-1570 plus housing and travel, will not only be FREE for participants, but we also have budgeted for stipends for grassroots volunteer organizers who will need to take time off their regular job to attend.

We strongly encourage Clean Air members who are interested in full-time organizing as a career to submit an application!

Regardless of whether you would like to join us for the full course, please pencil in Saturday January 24, 2026, as we aim for ~100 attendees for the one-day class. We anticipate publishing the registration page for Saturday the 24th in early December after the cohort is selected.

On a related note, we also urge Clean Air members and supporters to check out Beyond Plastic’s free virtual grassroots advocacy classes, available October 25, 28 or 30.

THANK YOU to the over 300 people who used our digital comment tool to submit their thoughts on the DEC’s cryptocurrency mining DGEIS – next we expect the DEC to publish the finalized report, and that the state legislature will then use the findings of the report to develop regulations.

Please also note, TODAY Monday October 6 is the deadline for comments on the State Energy Plan – you can either email nysenergyplan@nyserda.ny.gov with “Comment” in the subject line or use one of the digital comment tools below – 

NY Renews – We Demand a Clean, Just, and Affordable Energy Future

The Tonawanda Seneca and Tuscarora Nations Call for Environmental Justice in State Energy Plan

Public Power NY – Plan Public Renewables, NOT Pipelines

Environmental Advocates of NY are also urging NY residents to send a letter to NYS DEC opposing the NESE Pipeline – this pipeline has previously been rejected for numerous reasons, but the Trump administration has pressured Governor Hochul to again consider it. Send a letter today by clicking here.

Clean Air is supporting VOICE Buffalo and other community partners urging the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting in Erie County and the City of Buffalo – take a moment to sign the related petitions!

Support Ranked Choice Voting in Erie County Elections

Support Ranked Choice Voting in the City of Buffalo Elections

Our congratulations to Allies of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation who had a big win this month with the news that the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC), the developers of the STAMP industrial campus,  have retracted their approvals for Stream Data Centers’ “Project Double Reed” proposed project!

While this is a huge win, the fight continues – take a moment to support ATSN by signing their letters below!

Protect Our Way of Life and Your Bottom Line: No STAMP Data Center

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

It’s been a busy month for our friends in labor organizing – first, we want to congratulate our friend Denise Abbott on her new title as President of the WNY ALF!

We also want to congratulate organizers with CWA on their tentative agreement with Catholic Health, and also encourage all our members and supporters to use CWA’s digital toolkit to send a letter to Governor Hochul urging her to keep area healthcare centers open.

We also urge signing up for updates on the new May Day 2028 website, and also check out this article from Labor Notes on how members of the  Federal Unionists Network are reacting and organizing amid the ongoing federal government shut down.

Finally, Starbucks Workers United locally held practice pickets last week – be sure to sign the No Contract, No Coffee pledge to stay abreast of potential upcoming actions as the fight for a contract heats up!

Join members of the Buffalo and Erie County Lead Safe Task Force (LSTF) and the UB Lead Research Group on Saturday, October 25th from 9 am to 1 pm at Hayes Hall at 3435 Main St. for the Task Force’s annual meeting and mini-conference!

They will be highlighting our work over the past year and outlining new initiatives moving forward to reduce the incidence of childhood lead poisoning in our region – click here to register.

The Buffalo Common Council has announced a series of Winter Emergency Preparedness events – click here for details.

Similarly, the NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services has announced several dates in Erie County in October and November for their Citizen Preparedness Training series – click here to see all the dates and to sign up.

Erie County DOH has announced a series of COVID vaccination clinics on October 8, 13, and 16. Click here to sign up for your annual vaccination!

There are several current comment periods on Brownfield Clean-ups in the Buffalo Area –

• October 24 deadline – 4774 and 4780 Sheridan Drive (Former Gleason’s Nursery)
• October 25 – 145 Ganson Street, Buffalo
• November 1 – 619 Exchange Street, Buffalo

Additionally, DEC has also published a Notice of Availability explaining changes in the PCB contamination clean-up plan for 1318 Niagara Street in Buffalo.

The DEC has also increased the level of drought notices across the state – outside of the NYC metro area, all parts of the state are currently under “Watch” or “Warning” drought levels. Hold off on those end of season bonfires this year!

The DEC, Attorney General, and Buffalo Sewer have also come to an agreement around the delayed implementation of the 2014 Long-Term Control Plan, which is being replaced with the Queen City Clean Waters Initiative.

Finally, at the EPA trouble continues – of note, as this article by two environmental history academics published in The Conversation covers, the Trump administration is on track to cut 1 in 3 EPA staffers by the end of 2025, decreasing the EPA’s ability to regulate polluters, and, as the article also notes, this is also part of a long term trend, with ~4000 fewer staff members in 2024 versus 1999.

Al Gore’s Climate TRACE emission tracking network recently added Particulate Matter tracing! Check out the website by clicking here. Of note, this program uses Artificial Intelligence to process the massive data sets – a good example to point to for lawmakers of positive public benefit research uses for AI to contrast with poorer uses of the technology that are causing public harm.

Project Drawdown also recently launched a new tool, the Drawdown Explorer, which helps highlight solutions at both the individual as well as societal level for reducing, eliminating and even removing greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. Check it out here!

Huge congratulations to organizers in Niagara County who after 20 years of advocacy are celebrating the decision by the NYS DEC’s Hazardous Waste Landfill Siting Board to deny certification for CWM Chemical Service’s proposal to build a 43.5-acre hazardous waste landfill in the Town of Porter. We particularly want to shout out the years of work of local resident Amy Witryol in opposing this proposal!

We also want to shout out Abigail Friedman, Charlotte Schultz and all the youth organizers who organized and held a Right to Read rally in Amherst yesterday in opposition to book bans!

As part of a $1 billion climate action investment plan, Governor Hochul announced this month that NYS is making a $200 million investment to expand thermal energy networks at SUNY campuses, including at the University at Buffalo – while we feel this investment plan can go further, $1 billion is hardly anything to sneeze at, and expanding TENs, particularly at SUNY campuses, will yield immense benefits both in the short term and in the future.

Finally, we want to shout out all of the work of residents everywhere resisting the authoritarian invasions of US cities.
Here in Buffalo, residents have launched the Buffalo Immigrant & Refugee Defense (BIRD) hotline, a rapid response hotline for reporting ICE raids – 716-222-2190

 We also wanted to share this action by residents of Portland, who plan protest the presence of ICE and other military branches in a very Portland way – by organizing an Emergency Naked Bike Ride!

The great Jane Goodall left us last week – in March, she was interviewed for the “Famous Last Words” documentary series. Check out the words of wisdom she shared and the message she hoped future generations would impart from her lifetime’s work.

Naveena Sadasivam, Grist Magazine – How low oil prices turned Trump’s call to ‘drill, baby, drill’ into a pipe dream

Colin Kinniburgh, New York State Focus – Why Your Energy Bills Are Going Up — Again

Josh Saul et. al., Bloomberg Magazine – AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring

Jody MacPherson, The Energy Mix

• Alberta’s Gas-Centric Strategy Could Kill Its AI Data Centre Ambitions, Lovins Warns
• As AI Investments Balloon, Experts See a Bubble

Brad Reed, Common Dreams – ‘Red Flag’: Analysts Sound Major Alarms As AI Bubble Now ‘Bigger’ Than Subprime

Tina Nguyen, The Verge – Silicon Valley’s latest argument against regulating AI: that would literally be the Antichrist

Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Mother Jones Magazine – RFK Jr. Promised to Take On Plastic. Now He’s Part of an Administration Embracing It

Vu Le, Nonprofit AF – Let’s try to be nicer to ourselves and one another while we fight against fascism

CACWNY Events

• October 15 – Happy Hour
• October 18 – No Kings Rally
• October 20 – Cumulative Impacts Training
• October 31 – deadline for applications for the Midwest Academy class series, to be held January 20-23, 2026
• November 19 – Next Clean Air General Meeting
• January 24, 2026 – Midwest Academy One-Day Class

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 – 

• October 9 – Harnessing Community Power: From Brownfields to Vibrant Spaces, Environmental Protection Network and NJIT TAB
• October 28, 28 or 30 – Beyond Plastics Virtual Advocacy Training

Public Comment Deadlines and Hearings

• October 24 deadline – 4774 and 4780 Sheridan Drive (Former Gleason’s Nursery)
• October 25 – 145 Ganson Street, Buffalo
• November 1 – 619 Exchange Street, Buffalo

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

Interested in connecting with CACWNY generally as an organization, have an emerging campaign or issue you’d like CACWNY to consider?
Interested in supporting Clean Air’s grassroots fundraising efforts, know of a grant opportunity that might support our work, or want to join our events or membership committee, including our Rapid Response Team?

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?

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?