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Vote Early Through Nov. 3rd
or Vote on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5th
Early voting runs through Sunday, Nov. 3rd. Vote now to avoid the lines on Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 5th. Click here to find your early voting polling location, as it may differ from where you vote on Election Day. And you can see a list of the candidates on the ballot as well as the ballot proposals on the back (be sure to flip your ballot over) by clicking here.
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Calling All Educators: Come to Our Environmental Education Open House
Are you a teacher, professor, or just passionate about environmental education? Then come to our virtual Educators Open House to learn about WE ACT’s environmental justice education initiatives and talk about the tools and resources you feel would help elevate environmental education in the classroom. Join us on Zoom from 7:00-8:00 PM on Nov. 6th.
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Briana Carbajal to Discuss Solar Energy for All at SOMOS
Briana Carbajal will be a panelist at New York State Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera’s Solar Energy for All: Ensuring Energy Justice for Vulnerable Communities in Puerto Rico and New York panel at SOMOS 2024, the annual gathering of Latinx thought leaders and organizations and the New York State Assembly/Senate Puerto Rican & Hispanic Task Force to discuss public policy. The Biden-Harris administration has allocated funds to provide energy resiliency to low-income and disadvantaged communities in New York and Puerto Rico, including Solar for All funds that will provide homeowners and renters direct grants and financing options for solar projects that reduce energy costs. This panel will discuss how these programs will be implemented, and how energy justice will be integrated. With Rivera moderating, the other panelists will include Lisa Garcia, Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2; Marisol Bonnet, Secretary’s Advisor on Puerto Rico at the U.S. Department of Energy; Francisco Rullán Caparrós, Energy Affairs Officer at the Puerto Rico Public Housing Administration; Mario Nuñez Mercado, Executive Director of Corporación del Proyecto ENLACE del Caño Martín Peña; Jonathan Castillo Polanco, Director of Green Energy, Puerto Rico Office, at the Hispanic Federation. The discussion will take place on Nov. 7th from 1:45 – 3:00 PM at the Caribe Hilton’s Tropical AB(C) room in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Learn more here.
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Charles Callaway to Discuss Diversifying the Workforce at the New York Solar Summit
Charles Callaway will be a panelist at the New York Solar Energy Industries Association’s (NYSEIA) annual New York Solar Summit on Nov. 7th at the Albany Capital Center, located at 55 Eagle Street in Albany, NY. The two-day event begins on Nov. 6th and will bring together clean energy leaders from the private and public sectors to discuss accelerating New York’s rooftop and community solar markets, the expanding role of energy storage, and ensuring low-income New Yorkers benefit from clean energy investments. The panel, Energizing the Workforce: Labor and Diversity in the Solar Industry, will be at 11:45 AM in Meeting Room 2A, and the discussion will focus on the growing role of organized labor in the solar industry and the opportunity to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. Moderated by NYSEIA Policy Director Jonathan Cohen, the other panelists will include Laborers' International Union of North America’s Director of Research Harrison Watkins, Montante Solar’s Senior Project Manager Jess Fuchs, and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26's Business Development Representative Dan Dudley. More information and registration are available here.
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Join Our Right to Cooling Rally & Hearing at City Hall on Nov. 12th
The temperature may have cooled, but our advocacy to address extreme heat is heating up. We encourage you to join us at City Hall on Nov. 12th to support Intro 994, Tenant’s Right to Cooling, which would require landlords to provide and maintain cooling devices to keep homes no hotter than 78°F in the summer. This bill is part of the New York City Right to Cooling bills package. There will be a rally on the steps of City Hall at 9:00 AM followed by a New York City Council hearing inside City Hall at 10:00 AM, for which you can sign up to offer testimony in support of these bills here. Let’s bring the heat and get this legislation passed before more lives are put at risk next summer!
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Learn About the DOE’s Programs and Funding Opportunities
First in WE ACT TCTAC’s DOE Series for NJ & NY CBOs
Are you interested in learning more about the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) programs and funding opportunities? This WE ACT TCTAC webinar is the first in a series designed to introduce communities in New Jersey and New York to the tools and resources available at the DOE. DOE experts will discuss the different program offices working to bring clean energy to disadvantaged and energy-burdened communities, and the DOE funding opportunities that these communities can apply for to help them transition to cleaner, safer, and cost-efficient clean energy solutions. Participants will leave with a deeper knowledge of how to navigate DOE processes and program offices, and understand how to take advantage of DOE’s community-focused programming and resources. Join us online from 5:00-6:30 PM on Nov. 14th. Register here.
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November Membership Meeting: Come See What We'll Focus on Next Year
Join us for our November Membership Meeting on Saturday, Nov. 16th from 10:00 AM-1:00 PM. This will be our big year-end meeting during which we will walk you through our 2025 Policy Agenda. Come learn what we are planning to fight for next year, and how you can get involved. We'll provide the exact location soon, but mark your calendar and RSVP today!
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Our 2024 Gala Was a Smashing Success
We’d like to thank everyone who supported us at our 2024 annual Gala on Oct. 18th. Nearly 400 people turned out to celebrate our accomplishments. We also had the privilege of honoring four amazing leaders, and below you can hear from our 2024 Gala Honorees:
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Arturo Garcia-Costas, the Program Officer for the Local, National, and International Environment at the New York Community Trust
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Michelle Roos, the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Network
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Tonio Burgos, Founder and CEO of Tonio Burgos and Associates
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Barbara Brown, Chairperson of Eastern Queens Alliance
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Our 2024 Gala Honorees (left to right): Tonio Burgos, Founder and CEO of Tonio Burgos and Associates; Barbara Brown, Chairperson of Eastern Queens Alliance; Peggy Shepard; Michelle Roos, the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Network; and Arturo Garcia-Costas, the Program Officer for the Local, National, and International Environment at the New York Community Trust.
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Our 2024 Gala Panelists (left to right): Moderator Crystal Romeo Upperman, PhD, Senior Manager, Deloitte; Michelle Roos, the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Network; Tonio Burgos, Founder and CEO of Tonio Burgos and Associates; and Arturo Garcia-Costas, the Program Officer for the Local, National, and International Environment at the New York Community Trust.
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Watch the Replay: Dirty Hydrogen & Carbon Capture Webinar
The unprecedented investments in the clean energy transition from the Biden administration are promising, but some of those vital funds are being funneled into what are known as “false solution” technologies. Our webinar explored two of these technologies, hydrogen and carbon capture & sequestration, examining the harms they cause and how communities like ours can advocate against their adoption and siting. The panel featured Manuel Salgado, Federal Research Manager, WE ACT for Environmental Justice; Brooke Helmick, Director of Policy, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance; Jane Patton, US Fossil Economy Campaign Manager, Center for International Environmental Law; Martha Dina Argüello, Executive Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility; and Monique Hardin, Director of Law & Policy and Community Engagement Program Manager, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. It was moderated by Yosef Robele, Federal Policy Manager, WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Watch the Replay
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The Community Land Act Town Hall was a tremendous success, with so many great speakers and a packed house. Annie Carforo (above) was one of the speakers (along with Cameron Clarke), and she is pictured above speaking with an attendee interested in learning more about our work. Stay tuned for more on the Community Land Act.
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Marileidy Pimentel Paniagua (center) attended Para la Naturaleza’s panel on the state of energy and environmental conservation in Puerto Rico, where she met up with Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor at Princeton University Ramón Cruz (left) and Tonio Burgos & Associates Founder & CEO Tonio Burgos (right).
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Marileidy Pimentel Paniagua ran into her City College professor John Krinsky (second from left) at Community in Disguise: A Masquerade Gala by the East Harlem El Barrio Community Land Trust (EHEBCLT), where she also connected with EHEBCLT VP Rosa Custodio (far right).
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Our staff got into the Halloween spirit this week, with some very creative costumes! Click here to watch our Instagram reel to see what our staff thinks are the spookiest environmental issues.
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Lead Dust Report in Harlem World
Early this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new standards for lead dust made headlines, so we are happy to report that Harlem World did an in-depth story on the release of Left In The Dust: The Failure To Protect New York City Tenants From Lead Dust Hazards During Residential Construction (PDF), a new report released during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by Lead Dust Free NYC, TakeRoot Justice, and the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning, which we are a part of. This report focuses on lead dust legislation here in New York City and its failure to protect tenants during construction.
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Uptown Chats Podcast: Wrong Direction Mini-Series Wrap-Up
In the conclusion of our U.S. Energy Policy Wrong Direction Mini-Series, which looked at eight false solutions that our government is wasting money pursuing at the expense of the health and well-being of environmental justice communities, Jaron and Lonnie reflect on the important themes and lessons learned about how and why our energy policy is headed in the wrong direction. Listen Today
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