New Speakers Announced for Just Transition Conference!
Join Clean Air: Organizing for Health and Justice for the Just Transition: Good Jobs and Health Communities Conference on June 7th! The jam packed day will feature some of the nation’s leading experts in movement building, coal finance, just transition, renewable energy, and sustainable and democratic community development. Presenters include:
Les Leopold is the director of the Labor Institute, strategic consultant to the Blue-Green Alliance, and author of author of How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour: Why Financial Elites get away with siphoning off America’s Wealth. His workshop 99 Percent Economics: What We Need to Know About the Economy to Protect Our Jobs, Health and the Environment will discuss the ways in which Wall Street has revolutionized the economy and how it impacts the shop floor, the community and the natural environment.
Jean Pogge is the CEO of Delta Institute that is leading the Fisk and Crawford Ruse Task Force, a committee that will work to solicit community input and economic development and job creation alternatives for the land on which the Fisk and Crawford power plant used to be.
Sean Sweeney is the Director and founder of the Global Labor Institute, a program of the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations and works with Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. In 2007 Sweeney and the Global Labor Institute team worked with the Steelworkers and other unions to organize the North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis, the first major conference on unions and climate change. Sweeney and GLI then worked with the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to build U.S. labor’s presence at the UN’s climate talks in Bali for COP 13, and he serves on the International Trade Union Confederation’s climate working group.
Participation is free, but registration is required and space is limited. Register today at www.justtransition.com. The conference kicks off at 10, will conclude with a happy hour at 5:30 and will be hosted at the NYSUT offices at 270 Essjay in Amherst.
After the release of the recent report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) that painted a dim future for the Huntley coal plant , Clean Air held a series of community assemblies in the city and town of Tonawanda, Grand Island, and Riverside to vision a “just” transition in case of the plant’s closure. Nearly 100 impacted residents, workers, and climate change activists came together to vision a resilient future for our region if the NRG Huntley coal plant were to retire. The conference will build on the ideas and relationships that were generated at the assemblies.
Together, we can ensure that if the plant retires workers are protected, new revenue is secured for our schools and local governments, and the property is redeveloped to meet our community’s needs. Questions? Call Clean Air at 716-852-3813.