Dear John,

On Tuesday evening, Typhoon Mawar slammed into Guam and the island of Rota with 140 mph winds, leaving 98% of residents without power. As of Wednesday afternoon, battering winds were slowly subsiding as the center of the storm slowly pulled away from Guam. Though the worst of conditions will lighten, Guam and Rota residents may be without power and water for days, possibly even months. It is unknown how much damage has been done but the people of the Mariana Islands will need significant support as they begin to recover from Super Typhoon Mawar. 

To directly support frontline communities in the Mariana Islands such as CJA member Micronesia Climate Change Alliance (MCCA), and others like the Guahan Sustainable Culture, you can visit here and find out more about their work here.

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and others in the environmental justice movement of Chicago worked tirelessly this year to influence the issuing of an Environmental Justice Executive Order by the City of Chicago! 

The new Executive Order will advance environmental justice in a few ways. First, it will ensure the completion of a citywide Cumulative Impact Assessment that will provide data on how environmental burdens and other stressors vary across Chicago. It will also establish a community advisory body and inter-agency working group to carry forward environmental justice actions and require the City to develop and implement community engagement standards, as well as to create a new coordinator role within the Office of Climate & Environmental Equity. City reforms to zoning, transportation planning, permitting and enforcement policies to address cumulative impacts will also be advanced.  

Congratulations to the communities of Chicago on this critical win in advancing climate justice in their city!

Just Transition Northwest Indiana (JTNWI) and allies such as Earthjustice continued organizing this month to impact EPA rules that have the potential to ensure legacy coal ash pollution is dealt with in meaningful ways. The draft Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule has the potential to close loopholes for toxic industry and begin to address the national coal ash crisis. Read more about their efforts and what’s at stake here.

Last week, CJA members organized a collective response to the behind closed doors permitting deals that we heard were underway to support Biden in making a dirty deal. Without open debate, we are hearing it could gut bedrock environmental laws (National Environmental Protection Act) and protections for communities, threaten funding for environmental justice communities, and lock in even more fossil fuel projects that harm frontline neighborhoods. We need a clean debt ceiling deal that is not at the expense of our communities health and well-being for decades to come. 

Toward that end, earlier this month we joined together with close to 300 groups to urge Congress and Democrats to accelerate renewable energy and deprioritize fossil fuels through our vision of positive permitting reform. 

“Recognizing the fossil fuel industry’s huge structural advantages, the letter and a supporting policy brief outline a menu of positive actions that Congress could take. The groups call on Congress to reject proposals by Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin that provide meager benefits to renewable energy and huge windfalls to fossil fuels.” Read our full statement here.

This month, we also issued a statement warning of the danger of a new EPA rule announced by the Biden Administration that intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by 90%. Unfortunately, it will actually unleash more harmful projects that will keep polluting frontline communities. This rule will “allow fossil fuel corporations to maintain or expand other fossil fuel powered plants to “capture” greenhouse gas emissions and store it underground – a technology that is not economically feasible, safe for communities, or even proven to work at the rate needed to address the problem. This ruling from the EPA will also encourage a boom in hydrogen development, which is energy intensive to produce, can produce health damaging air pollution when combusted, and is a play by the fossil fuel industry to extend its viability and profits.” Read our full statement and learn what some CJA members are saying here.