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For Immediate Release Feb. 22, 2021

CONTACTS: DIANA LOPEZ, 210-535-7060, [email protected] 
                                             
301-613-4767, [email protected]  

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CLIMATE JUSTICE ALLIANCE DEMANDS ENERGY DEMOCRACY & JUST RECOVERY FOR
MILLIONS ABANDONED WITHOUT POWER & WATER

In the midst of a raging global pandemic, a slew of winter storms
exacerbated by extreme cold painfully highlights the need to truly
acknowledge water, power, housing and access to medical care as basic human
rights. The lack of community control and governance of our infrastructure
has created one of the most extractive systems in our society and the
result, in this case over the past week, is millions of people without
power, without access to water or safe drinking water, without food, and
exposed to the elements and possibly COVID-19, as many crowd into warmer
spaces.

After 40+ states were hit from Texas to Oregon by an extreme weather event,
Climate Justice Alliance members and their communities continue reeling
from COVID-19, job loss, and evictions, among other challenges. Far too
many people have died and hundreds more have been hospitalized, as
Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian and other frontline communities once again
remain the hardest hit._ _

_“__OUR NEIGHBORS ARE BURNING FURNITURE TO STAY WARM AMIDST WIDESPREAD
POWER OUTAGES IN THIS ARCTIC WEATHER EVENT, FUELED BY THE CLIMATE CRISIS.
THE TEXAS POWER GRID RELIES ON DIRTY ENERGY AND HAS FAILED THE PEOPLE,_”_
says Diana Lopez, Executive Director of __Southwest Workers Union_ [3]_._ 

_“WE NEED TO PRIORITIZE A JUST RECOVERY AND TRANSITION TO A MODERN,
REGENERATIVE, AND RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEM, ONE THAT IS CLEAN AND SAFE FOR
US ALL, THAT PRIORITIZES COMMUNITY NEEDS AND EQUITY RATHER THAN PROFITING
OFF CLIMATE CHAOS. OUR COMMUNITIES ARE READY TO LEAD THAT SHIFT.”_

The blackouts and water cut-offs are a result of extreme privatization and
deregulation of our energy system, extreme weather events supercharged by
climate change, environmental racism, and the dominance of fossil fuel
companies within politics and government. We need to hold the perpetrators
accountable not look to them for more of the same.

Lies about renewable energy [4] run by right wing activists and fossil fuel
fanatics are distracting us from the real perpetrators: the fossil fuel
industry, privatization, and big corporations who have no reservations
about dodging regulations and sacrificing our communities. We need to make
an accurate assessment of what went wrong and who is responsible, hold them
accountable, and ensure systemic changes to prevent this from happening
again. Local San Antonio communities are calling for an audit of CPS
Energy’s response as a starting point. [5]

Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities most impacted need to be
centered in the Just Recovery to shift from dirty energy - natural gas,
oil, coal, and nuclear being the culprits in Texas - to clean, renewable
energy sources.

_“LIVING IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST, OUR HOUSTON COMMUNITIES HAVE
DOCUMENTED THE DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACTS SUFFERED FROM THE POLLUTION OF
LOCAL REFINERIES AND SEEN FIRSTHAND HOW THE PROFITS OF FOSSIL FUEL
INDUSTRIES ARE PLACED OVER THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE. THE PRIVATIZATION OF
THE TEXAS ENERGY GRID AND THE DISASTER WE ARE FACING NOW IS AN EXTENSION OF
AND FURTHER EVIDENCE OF THAT ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM. WE MUST HOLD THEM
ACCOUNTABLE, SUPPORT A JUST RECOVERY FOR OUR COMMUNITIES MOST IMPACTED, AND
ENSURE A JUST TRANSITION TO CLEAN, RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES FOR ALL.”
__Juan Parras, Executive Director of __t.e.j.a.s_ [6]_._

Solutions like the THRIVE [7] agenda, Build Back Fossil Free [8], and A
People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy [9]spell out a path toward
Just Recovery, a Just Transition to local, living economies, and job
creation. We know that community-governed and local renewable energy
systems and projects are better able to meet demands and stay resilient in
the face of increasing climate disasters. OFFICIALS, ESPECIALLY AT THE
LOCAL AND STATE LEVELS, MUST:

* Prioritize and center Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific
Islander, and other frontline communities in decisions on energy supply and
distribution.
* Eliminate gas, water, and electric cutoffs as policy for nonpayment for
those in crisis due to impacts from the pandemic and in times of climate
disasters, and permanently for those at or below 200 percent of federal
poverty guidelines.
* Create and invest in decentralized, regenerative energy micro-grids for
emergencies that can be counted on to provide critical needs during times
of disaster.
* Make the grid a Public Utility by creating mechanisms for local
governance of energy systems integrated into a public grid, without
privatization.
* Build out resiliency within grid models through modernization and
efficiency through community-governed microgrids; research new technology
to modernize the grid to prioritize decentralized renewables and support
resilient systems that include storage, conservation, and efficiency.
* Ensure energy systems prioritize low-income communities for decreased
energy bills and deep energy efficiency retrofits as well as green building
standards that minimize energy use and support passive housing designs.
* Recognize energy as a public good by publicly taking over investor-owned
utilities that fail to commit to transition from fossil fuels, fail to
address the climate crisis adequately, or seek bailouts and enact
rate-hikes. Give workers and communities oversight of public takeovers, and
call for liquidation of assets that can be utilized to invest in renewable
energy.
* Extend an eviction moratorium through these multiple crises of pandemic
and climate disaster, and focus on the rehousing of houseless and
vulnerable populations.
* Implement fair housing recovery that fixes discriminatory inequities in
disaster housing assistance and long-term housing recovery. Codify
enforceable federal standards, rules, and procedures for prioritizing
low-income homeowners, renters, and unhoused people in the allocation of
housing aid and recovery resources, with a particular focus on long-term
housing recovery programs.

INVESTMENTS NEED TO BE MADE DIRECTLY TO THE GRASSROOTS AND COMMUNITY-RUN
INITIATIVES, not to market-based solutions, big greens, or silver-bullet
techno-fixes.

We call on philanthropy to:

* Invest in grassroots organizations [10] and mutual aid networks directly
(like these in Texas [11]), prioritizing those led by and supporting Black,
Indigenous, and people of color communities.
* Hold billionaires and corporate energy companies accountable and prevent
bailouts using taxpayer dollars.
* Create local funds to support weatherizing homes, fixing residential
water pipes, and updating home electrical systems to support extreme
weather.
* Establish local ongoing emergency short term and immediate funding
vehicles for workers who have suffered loss of wages due to transportation
issues, closures, as well as for other unanticipated costs in times of
disaster and crises.
* Support just and equitable recovery funding by increasing funding and
resources to support community-driven recovery and mid- to long-term
rebuilding and implementation projects with improvements that further
equitable mechanisms for adaptation, recovery, and rebuilding.
* Invite grassroots leaders to engage in a long-term evaluative process to
integrate an equity lens into institutional grantmaking practices.
* Use tools like the People’s Solutions Lens [12] to better understand
where you are investing - not all “solutions” are inherently equitable
or just.

As frontline communities work to rebuild and repair, we don’t need
billionaires, white-led big greens, and philanthropic institutions swooping
in to “save” our communities by funneling hundreds of millions into
outdated, ineffective, top-down strategies that erase the frontlines, waste
money, and don’t address the root causes of the climate crisis. In order
to break this ineffective, status-quo, self-serving, extractive
“charitable” cycle and ensure systemic change led by those most
impacted, we must invest in and follow the lead of grassroots, frontline
communities.

                                                        
###

_THE CLIMATE JUSTICE ALLIANCE IS A GROWING MEMBER ALLIANCE OF 74 URBAN AND
RURAL FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES, ORGANIZATIONS AND SUPPORTING NETWORKS IN THE
CLIMATE JUSTICE MOVEMENT. CJA IS DEDICATED TO BUILDING JUST TRANSITION AWAY
FROM EXTRACTIVE SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION AND POLITICAL
OPPRESSION, AND TOWARDS RESILIENT, REGENERATIVE AND EQUITABLE ECONOMIES._

Climate Justice Alliance

PO BOX 10202
Berkeley, CA 94709
United States


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