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Dear John,

As anyone who’s been following CJA recently knows, we were in a struggle to secure a $60 million dollar pass-thru grant from the EPA. We applied for the grant after considering how the program would contribute to our mission to actualize a Just Transition. After conversations that included the communities that make up our membership and key partners, we decided it was worthwhile, and could support our work in building resilient communities.

We applied to be a national grant maker, essentially meaning that we'd support all the other regional grantmakers, and fill any gaps so communities had another opportunity to receive funding. The program was designed to guarantee tens of millions of dollars would go to people doing things like air monitoring and toxic clean-ups, disaster resilience and weatherization. Things that feel even more poignant as Los Angeles continues to reel from wildfires, the majority of people in the country have faced damaging cold over the last month, and people in Appalachia continue their efforts to rebuild after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Ironically, we’ve faced a coordinated attack from the Trump Administration which has painted us as radical leftists stealing tax-payer dollars to destabilize the very fabric of our society. In reality, our grant program was designed to return tax-payer dollars to working-class communities to mitigate the impact of climate change and forge healthier and greener solutions to it. It might also come as a surprise to find out that the work we do is all about righting the wrongs from the failures of the federal government (and state and local governments) to protect people. Despite our feelings about the government we made an assessment and decided it was a worthwhile endeavor to reclaim our tax dollars to support people.

This was simply money to help people who are working to make things better. Which is ultimately what CJA is: People building solutions to the problems they face. People working together. People standing up to bad things that don't need to be happening. People dreaming together about a future where people can live well without living at the expense of others.

As we've seen over the past year, unfortunately, these things are seen as a threat. Not just to the new administration, but the previous one as well. CJA's ancestry is made up of people who have worked to make things better for themselves, their families, and those around them for centuries.

In January, after much advocacy and education from many of you (thank you for raising your voice in support of sensible climate action!), we made the difficult decision to sunset the UNITE-EJ project after not receiving the promised funds (sorry Zeldin, you can’t cancel money we decided not to take in the first place). This meant real people, losing real jobs, and tens of millions of dollars not making it to projects that make things a little better for all of us. The program would have supported things like air and water quality monitoring, resiliency hubs, and heating and cooling centers for communities in urban and rural areas, spanning both red and blue states.

We don't know what the next four years will look like, or at this rate even the next month. But we can tell you one thing is certain: this alliance and the amazing people all across the country who make it up are going to continue working to be good neighbors and ancestors by making our communities safe, healthy, clean, and affordable.

CJA's Leadership Gathers to Forge the Path Ahead

The first week of February we hosted an unprecedented event: the heads of more than half of our alliance members came together for the first time since our inception. During a powerful week in New Mexico, executive directors and organizational leadership grounded in the past while focusing on what comes next. We discussed our orientation to climate justice work in the current political context; local, state and federal strategies; international climate negotiations; shared best practices, and more. This was an important step in our strategic planning process that will continue over the coming months and help us lay out a vision for the decade ahead.

New Legislative Director joins Briefing in Congress

Mar Zepeda has joined CJA as our Legislative Director and we’re so excited to have her! Previous to CJA, Mar worked in the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Natural Resources and brings close to a decade of congressional experience, as well as skills from her time as a caseworker, language interpreter, and on-the-ground immigration advocacy. In the House Natural Resources Committee, she helped lead work on the A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice For All Act, was a part of reforming the 1872 mining law bill through the Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act, and helped establish government-to-government relationships with Tribal Governments in order to work on policies that uplifted Tribal sovereignty.

At the end of February, Mar participated in a briefing in the U.S. Capitol, held by WE ACT, which brought critical voices from environmental justice and climate action together to engage with Members of Congress and their staff. Although CJA continues to be a target for the principled positions we take and the on the ground work of our members creating community solutions to the climate crisis, our presence in Congress is not going anywhere. On the panel, she joined other environmental justice (EJ) leaders and local voices from Washington, D.C. In particular, Mar discussed the importance of community engagement and the numerous failures of many policies of the past towards EJ communities. She offered clear examples of what congressional
staff and elected officials can do in this new political climate to act more boldly to safeguard us all, as well as why learning about EJ history is key in preventing a repeat of harmful practices.

$170,000 in Grants Awarded to Black-Led Organizations

Last week, Climate Justice Alliance’s Black Caucus announced the recipients of its regranting program. A total of $170,000 will be regranted to 11 organizations spanning 9 states to make a meaningful impact within Black communities. Each organization has the flexibility to allocate the funds as they see fit, provided they are used to benefit Black members of the organization or the surrounding Black community.

Despite the barrage of negative news and policy moves aimed to stun and immobilize us, environmental justice communities continue to find a way, through no way. These funds will ensure that Black communities and the critical work being carried out to combat environmental racism continue, as we build just solutions that protect and safeguard our people and community members.

[Read what the Black Caucus and CJA leadership had to say about the grants here]([link removed]).

Members on the Ground Respond to Recent Disasters

As we enter the new year, communities have already experienced too many climate emergencies to count, these span from wildfires in California to floods in Kentucky to energy insecurity in times of extreme cold or heat in many regions, among others. As our members rebuild and support their local ecosystems grounded in community, we will continue to [amplify their important work]([link removed]) in the media and with key stakeholders, while also distributing rapid response funds as best we can.

In the News

National / International

- [Can Labor Save Higher Education as a Public Good?]([link removed])
- [Campaigners celebrate as firm making first-ever GMO fish ceases operations]([link removed])
- [A step-by-step plan to remove lead pipes and protect residents from lead in drinking water]([link removed])

Midwest

- [A Detroit nonprofit leads the way to building sustainable food systems]([link removed])

Southeast

- [KVH Offers Comprehensive Flood Recovery Information Summary]([link removed])
- [Alabama Power’s $622M deal to buy Tenaska power plant faces challenge at FERC]([link removed])

West

- [It isn’t lack of water or DEI Making LA’s Wildfires Worse, Experts Say it’s Climate Change]([link removed])
- [Rheem Creek Restoration Project to Decrease Flooding in Rollingwood Neighborhood Completed. Residents Already Experiencing Benefits]([link removed])

Northeast

- [A new solar project in Brooklyn could offer a model for climate justice]([link removed])

Pacific

- [Free composting systems available through “Composting in Every Village” program]([link removed])

[Support CJA]([link removed])

Climate Justice Alliance

1960A University Ave
Berkeley, CA, 94704
United States


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