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We can’t wait to see you and all our members and supporters tomorrow evening at our Annual Meeting!

Click here to register and join us either in person at 371 Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo or online on Zoom.

Be sure to renew your membership for 2023 by making a donation of any amount at cacwny.org/donate.

Be sure to scroll down and check out all the other events coming up this month, and read the news from today’s court hearing about our Seneca-Babcock campaign!

With Bread and Roses,

Chris, Bridge and Phil

Join us on Wednesday April 12 at 6pm either in-person at the Delavan-Grider Community Center at 877 E Delavan Ave in Buffalo or online via Zoom for the next American Axle Community Advisory Group meeting!

Click here to register and bring your questions for representatives from the DEC, Ontario Specialty Contracting, and others managing the ongoing clean-up process.

Do you have questions for NYS DEC generally about air quality and monitoring? Join us online TOMORROW, March 29 at 6pm for a virtual community meeting about DEC’s Community Air Monitoring Initiative. Click here to register with us, or simply hop on at 6pm tomorrow by visiting https://meetny.webex.com/meetny/j.php?MTID=m5dc78ca7bc4c89a67613801fd0552eab. 

Learn more by reading the NYS DEC press release or by visiting their main Community Air Monitoring Initiative webpage.

Our video “A Tonawanda for Tomorrow” has been selected for screening at the Environmental Film Festival at Yale! It will be virtually screened on Friday March 31, 2023 at 11am, and will feature several Clean Air members who participated in the filming on a panel. Those who wish to attend in either format can RSVP at https://yaleconnect.yale.edu/EFFY/rsvp_boot?id=2066409.

More info about the whole festival can be found at http://effy.yale.edu/2023, and the film can also be watched on our website anytime at cacwny.org/campaigns/tonawanda/ 

The state budget will soon be completed, and with it could come some much needed legislation to support an equitable and just

transition off of fossil fuels! Please use NYRenews’ one-click toolkit to ask your legislators to support Senate’s version of the budget, which includes much of the Climate, Jobs, and Justice Package, including the full version of the Build Public Renewables Act which features much stronger labor standards than the version in the Governor’s budget.

We also encourage our members to register for an upcoming Q&A session on Thursday April 13 on Zoom that we are hosting with Sameer Ranade. Sameer is the Climate Justice Advisor for NYSERDA and a CLCPA Climate Action Council Member. WNY is currently being inundated with troubling disinformation about the CLCPA by the fossil fuel industry – bring your questions directly to Sameer to learn more!

The strongest campaign work is built on strong personal

relationships and a strong community – join us on Thursday April 20 from 4:30 – 6pm at Community Beer Works, 520 7th Street in Buffalo, for the first of our Power Building Movement Mixers! All are invited, and more information is available on our Facebook event and our Events page.

Also save the date moving forward- we plan to host these mixers every other month except December, same time and same place, for the foreseeable future!

Mutual Aid and Emergency Prep April 15

Climate Cafe

April 25

Progressive Book Club
April 17

The EPA is proposing stronger  Particulate Matter regulations – COMMENTS DUE MARCH 28!

This is big news – the last revision was in 2012, and the new regulations as currently written would strengthen the PM2.5 standard from a level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to a level between 9 and 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

However, while the new regulations would be a step above the current rules, this still would fall short of recommendations from the World Health Organization, and even the EPA’s own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.

Take action today to tell the EPA that we need them to go further with the new proposed regulation – click here to send a letter using the Mom’s Clean Air Taskforce toolkit, or click here to send a comment directly. TOMORROW March 28, 2023 is the deadline for comments.

Erie County Climate Action Plan Available Now for Comment

Erie County has officially unveiled the draft Climate Action Plan! Visit their website today to review the draft and to submit your comments on what could be improved and what you like about the current version. Comments are due on May 18!

New York State AFL-CIO is asking for support for S.625A/A.2958A, which is federal legislation that would bolster local and small pressrooms, which are often unionized workplaces. Send a letter to your legislator in favor of this bill by clicking here.

NYS AFL-CIO is also asking for support for a Fair Minimum Wage in the NYS 2023 budget. Click here to send a letter of support.

Stand in Solidarity with the Tonawanda Seneca Nation – Oppose the Alabama Swamp Take Permit (Comments due THIS FRIDAY March 31)

The Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) has applied for a sitewide Article 11 Part 182 permit (“Take Permit”) to take overwintering habitat used by the State-Listed Endangered short eared owl and the State-Listed Threatened northern harrier for the new STAMP site (Western New York Science & Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park) being developed by GCEDC in Genesee County, located west of State Route 77/63, south of State Route 77, and north of Judge Road in the Town of Alabama.

We encourage our members to stand in solidarity with the Tonawanda Seneca Nation in opposition to this permit – submit a letter to the DEC by March 31 requesting a denial of this permit, a public hearing, and a full Environmental Impact Statement.

Comments should be emailed by THIS FRIDAY March 31 to Thomas Haley, Regional Permit Administrator, DEC Region 8, at thomas.haley@dec.ny.gov.

You can also use this one-click toolkit sponsored by Catskill Mountainkeeper to submit a comment.

For more information, visit dec.ny.gov/enb/20230301_reg8.html 

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice are hosting a training call tomorrow, Tuesday March 28 at 12pm, about the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986. This act guarantees citizens the right to know what chemicals are in their area and what is being planned to be brought in or travel through their neighborhoods. Click here to register.

Indoor Air Quality Webinar with WEACT and the JustSolutions Collective

Join WEACT and the JustSolutions collective on Wednesday March 29 at 2pm for a webinar which will examine the process of implementing the “Out of Gas” study, the results of the pilot, and the lessons learned. They will discuss opportunities for policy change and review potential avenues to explore how indoor air pollution impacts communities. Lastly, they will explore how communities can understand this topic in the context of federal funding opportunities. Click here to register.

climate change, recently released its latest report. As usual, the news is grim – but there are concrete steps laid out that we can take now to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. Read the report yourself by clicking here, or check out coverage from Grist.org or Earther.

Jobs with the EPA and NYSDEC
Are you currently job hunting, or know anyone who is? The Environmental Protection Agency and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation are currently seeking applicants for career positions throughout both respective agencies, including for jobs here in WNY, and other jobs statewide and nationally are also open for remote flexibility! Positions range from entry level through advanced program director roles.

We especially encourage our supporters to check out these posted positions in the EPA Region 2  Office of Environmental Justice –

• https://www.usajobs.gov/job/713892300 (permanent)
• https://www.usajobs.gov/job/713893400 (term)

NYS DEC is regularly updating their list of current openings. They also have a number of positions which they recruit for continuously, and are currently very actively recruiting for engineering positions. Learn more at dec.ny.gov/about/jobs.html

CACWNY Events

• March 28 – Clean Air Annual Meeting
• April 12 – American Axle Community Advisory Group Meeting
• April 13 – Webinar and Q&A with Sameer Ranade, Climate Justice Advisor NYSERDA, CLCPA Climate Action Council Member.
  • Bring your questions about the CLCPA and the logistics about the systemic transition off of fossil fuels!
• April 15 – Mutual Aid and Emergency Preparedness Training
  • This is a repeat of the training we held in February, featuring a training by Erie County Department of Health on Hands-only CPR and Stop the Bleed.
• April 17 –  a discussion about A Paradise Built in Hell with the Progressive Book Club
• April 18 – first Clean Air Power Building Mixer, a chance to meet with other members and folks in WNY movement justice work
• April 22 – Earth Day, contact Bridge if you are interested in participating in the Town of Tonawanda clean-up with other Clean Air members
• April 25 – Climate Cafe with Jennifer Fendya
  • Join Clean Air members at Trinity Church, 371 Delaware Ave in Buffalo, for a Climate Cafe where we will discuss how climate change is affecting us.

Community and Coalition Events

• March 29 – WEACT & JustSolutions Lessons from Out of Gas Study
• March 28 – CHEJ EPCRA Training
• April 20 – Advocacy Institute How a Bill Becomes Law in NYS

Public Comment Deadlines and Hearings

• March 28 – deadline on public comment on proposed EPA regulatory changes to Particulate Matter rules
• March 31- Alabama Swamp Take Permit comments due
• March 31 – 750 East Ferry Brownfield Clean-up Program Application comments due
• April 1 – 24 Laborer’s Way NYS DEC Brownfield Contamination Remedy comments due
• April 21 – 22 Fillmore Ave City of Tonawanda Brownfield Clean-up Program Application comments due
• May 18 – public comments due on Erie County Climate Action Plan

also see list at bit.ly/CleanAirEvents

Be sure to check out the Buffalo Mutual Aid Network Facebook group, where mutual aid services and calls for donations and donations are being posted on an ongoing basis. 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.

Interested in joining our Tonawanda Tomorrow or River Road campaigns, Proof of Work campaign, or supporting NYRenews/climate justice?

Interested in joining our Peabody Street, TESLA campaigns, Energy Democracy Alliance, or other Just Transition campaign work?

Interested in joining our
American Axle campaign?

Interested in joining our events committee, mutual aid team, or want to connect with CACWNY about an emerging campaign or issue?