"Frontline communities that have endured historical trauma have been further destabilized by the disparate health impacts of COVID-19 and economic instability," said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director, UPROSE; and co-chair, Climate Justice Alliance. "These contemporary challenges demand visionary leadership grounded in community priorities with the ability to operationalize the just transition our communities deserve. Lindsay Greene's appointment as CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard is cause for celebration for all of us!"
Eco Anxiety, Climate Change, And BIPOC Mental Health
Colonialism’s goal of limitless enrichment exploited both human and ecological life. Environmental activist Elizabeth Yeampierre points to the simultaneous exploitation and destruction of natural resources, enslaved Black people, and Indigenous people under colonial rule. “With the arrival of slavery comes a repurposing of the land, chopping down of trees, disrupting water systems and other ecological systems that comes with supporting the effort to build a capitalist society and to provide resources for the privileged,” she says.
The Climate Investment New York Needs to Make Now
One of the most exciting components of the $15 billion climate, jobs, and justice fund is that it will provide grants to local organizations in frontline communities for programs that improve resiliency, increase energy efficiency, and decrease fossil fuel pollution. Frontline communities are already leading the way in creating climate solutions, but we need the Governor and Legislature to make sure we get the funding we need.
Some amazing projects already exist: in Sunset Park, UPROSE started Sunset Park Solar, a cooperatively-owned solar installation that will make cheap, green electricity available for low-income tenants in the neighborhood. They’ve also developed a community-wide plan to create green jobs and improve resiliency along the industrial waterfront — a plan that helped attract North America’s largest off-shore wind assembly hub to the Sunset Park waterfront.
You Can Call Me “Animal Heart”
This theme of solidarity follows Yeampierre throughout her career, which saw her as an attorney and the dean of Puerto Rican Student Affairs at Yale. Today, she serves as the executive director of UPROSE, an intergenerational, primarily BIPOC female-led organization working at the intersection of racial justice and climate change. Despite UPROSE’s unique environmental angle, Yeampierre always brings her mission — and story — back to “cultural brilliance as a solution.” “This build[ing] of relationships across ethnicities and across languages,” she said.
New York environmental justice leaders propose new definition for ‘disadvantaged communities’
“This is really great news,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, the executive director of the New York City-based organization UPROSE and one of the members of the working group, during the meeting. The phrase “benefits of investments” had been a major source of frustration and skepticism for environmental justice advocates because it opened the door for the state to employ all kinds of creative accounting to meet the 35 to 40 percent mandate. “This is rockstar stuff,” Yeampierre said.
BROOKLYN ELECTEDS, COMMUNITY LEADERS ASK STATE GOV OFFICIALS TO RECONSIDER REDISTRICTING MAPS
“A few days ago I was at a press conference with Schumer, with Antonio Reynoso, with Jumaane (Williams) and a number of other elected officials where there was an announcement being made about a $25 million investment in infrastructure for offshore wind,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director of the Sunset Park-based climate justice organization UPROSE. “And I went home, and I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is probably the first time in our history where we have the political muscle to move solutions that are going to be able to address the threat of climate change, bring jobs, address health disparities, strengthen social cohesion, this is a real blessing.'”
Black neighborhoods at risk as climate change accelerates flooding
Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of Uprose, a grassroots environmental justice group, said that the study released Monday was “not surprising, but it is alarming”.
“We often feel that the way that decisions are made is very dated and really uses front-line communities as part of their rhetoric but not by honoring and respecting the solutions our communities are pushing,” she said.
Yeampierre used the example of Hurricane Katrina, in which New Orleans’ Black population fell as many residents couldn’t afford to move back to ruined neighborhoods, of how not to manage the threat of flooding and its aftermath.
Estudio DC Ep84 - Elizabeth Yeampierre habla sobre el cambio climático
Schumer secures $25M for wind technology hub at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Charles Schumer secured a $25 million federal grant to facilitate offshore wind development at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal 35th Street Pier Expansion Project.
The announcement was made at the terminal, along with U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE, a Sunset Park-based grassroots community-based organization working on climate change.
State Legislators and NY Renews Coalition Call for $15 Billion Investment in Climate, Jobs, and Justice
New York State legislators and leaders of the NY Renews coalition held a virtual press conference today, advocating for a $15 billion investment in climate and environmental justice in response to Governor Kathy Hochul’s Executive Budget. Speakers included Senator Samra Brouk; Assemblymembers Kenny Burgos, Anna Kelles, Jessica González-Rojas, and Jo Anne Simon; and the directors of ALIGN NY, PUSH Buffalo, and UPROSE. Video of the press conference is available here and here.
Biden Environmental Justice Advisers Air Frustrations
The White House says it is reviewing the agency plans and is facing a February deadline to provide a status update. But time is running short: Funds from the infrastructure law are already going out the door.
“We need to get assurances that the administration has promised,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance in New York. “We continued to have concerns about the lack of transparency. Our communities have to be more than poster children to an agenda. They need to be literally at the table.”
A Mayor and the Challenge of Making the City Safer
The community in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, has been a huge supporter of this. They have been pushing for two decades to revitalize maritime industry. They want the community to have industrial jobs, so they’re excited about having these industries come. Uprose, a longstanding community group in Sunset Park, has been at the forefront.
One of the concerns is Sunset Park is what’s known as an environmental-justice community, disproportionately affected by environmental problems over the decades — smokestacks from factories and then the B.Q.E. and all the stuff that gets dumped in a working-class area. Sunset Park wants to see that when the ships come to service the turbines that the ships themselves will be green and not bringing diesel fumes to the area.
Meet the Green Agitators Who Planted Seeds for Brooklyn’s Coming Wind Turbine Assembly Hub
Sunset Park environmental justice advocates had pressed for more than two decades to revive a declining industrial waterfront while sowing the seeds for projects that would serve their largely Latino and immigrant community as well as the environment.
“The possibility of bringing good paying jobs to our community and to also address climate change, for us, that’s everything,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of the local group UPROSE. “That’s what we fight for. We fight for our people, for our abuelas, for our tias, every single day.”
Yeampierre says the environmental benefits and jobs more than justify the project.
“If we are going to envision a green re-industrialization or a waterfront that can serve a community’s Green New Deal needs, this is the project for that,” she said.
Yeampierre called the plant an essential piece of GRID — the Green Resilient Industrial District, a larger vision for the waterfront her group and others presented as an alternative to the recently scrapped proposal to expand Industry City, the nearby shopping, food and artisanal manufacturing complex.
And she touted the wind turbine project as a coup not just for Brooklyn and New York, but for struggling neighborhoods across the country looking to their futures.
“It shows to other cities what an industrial waterfront community can do to rectify the history, the legacy of environmental injustice, and to address the issue of climate change,” Yeampierre said.
Yeampierre said her group has already asked Equinor lots of tough questions, including how it’ll operate in a way that’s carbon neutral and what its supply chain looks like.
“We didn’t want the climate solution to become an environmental justice problem,” she said.
When it was clear the project would stimulate the local economy, have a regional impact and help the community, UPROSE decided to back it, she said. But Yeampierre still wants Equinor to prove itself to Sunset Park.
“At the end of the day, Equinor is still a corporation and so they have to show that they are a real community partner and that they are incorporating community concerns,” she said.
Governor Hochul Announces Key Offshore Wind Milestone as Contracts for Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind Projects are Finalized
Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director, UPROSE, said, "New York now is poised to be a true national leader in offshore wind as the result of years of frontline environmental justice leadership and our role in getting the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act passed. The CLCPA codifies equity, economy-wide emission reductions, and mandates a minimum of 40% investments to Disadvantaged Communities like Sunset Park, Brooklyn- the same communities that have suffered a legacy and generations of pollution and health disparities. Sunset Park's two-decade struggle for environmental justice and the "green re-industrialization" of NYC's largest industrial waterfront is a model of co-governance for creating an equitable offshore wind industry. The struggle now is for a just transition, ensuring from day one our people are both at the table and working in this industry in every stage of development. UPROSE is excited to see the largest offshore wind solicitation in U.S. history continue to progress in partnership with frontline community leadership and State support."
New York City says goodbye to gas, establishing a blueprint for other communities
The replacement project was challenged by the PEAK Coalition (New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, UPROSE, THE POINT CDC, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and Clean Energy Group), along with Earthjustice, Sierra Club and Chhaya CDC. The organizations submitted joint comments to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in opposition to NRG’s draft air permit application and environmental impact statement. The comments detail the many ways in which the proposed gas plant is inconsistent with CLCPA emissions mandates and highlight disproportionate harm the project would have on disadvantaged and overburdened communities, again in violation of the CLCPA.
How our Grassroots Energy Projects are Taking Back Power From Utility Companies
Working at the intersection of climate change and environmental justice in the heart of New York City is the Latino community-based nonprofit UPROSE. Founded in 1966, and based in the city’s largest maritime industrial district, the nonprofit organizes sustainable development projects and advocates for policies in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sunset Park and throughout all five boroughs. Their Sunset Park Solar project, which “will be New York City’s first community solar project owned and operated by a cooperative for the benefit of local residents and businesses,” will save its participants about 15 percent on their monthly electric bill, once the solar system has been installed and is operational.
The road to the project’s completion has been long and challenging due to the slow-moving gears of the existing governmental processes, according to Summer Sandoval, energy democracy coordinator at UPROSE.
“Sunset Park Solar is about more than just putting panels on rooftops; it’s about creating a scalable and replicable community-led model for the development of solar projects that build long-term community wealth and exhibit a Just Transition,” Sandoval says. “This project builds on the traditional community solar model but is vastly different from anything that’s been done before, and it’s challenging to navigate our way through processes, financial models and incentive programs that weren’t built for projects like this.”
Sunset Park Solar would allow for about 200 subscribers to utilize renewable energy and would not require any of them to install solar panels on their homes or pay any upfront costs, as UPROSE and its partners in the project have already done the heavy lifting. The panels for this project will be installed on the Brooklyn Army Terminal rooftop and will provide 685 kilowatts of clean electricity. In addition to the tangible cost-saving benefits to residents, the project has shown that community-led clean energy projects are possible.
“Even before construction, this project has demonstrated that the climate solutions are coming from the people on the front lines, and hopefully decision-makers see that as well and invest their resources directly into those front-line communities,” says Sandoval.
A New Piece of Legislation Could Make New York a Leader in Sustainable Fashion
Today, New York is taking a big step in that direction with The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act. Introduced by The New Standard Institute and sponsored by senator Alessandra Biaggi and assembly member Dr. Anna Kelles, the bill proposes that any apparel or footwear brand selling in New York with a global revenue of at least $100 million should be required to set and achieve Science Based Targets; to provide clear, transparent reporting on its energy, greenhouse gas emissions, water, plastic, and chemical management; and to perform mandatory due diligence to avoid labor abuses. Should the bill be passed, failure to meet these requirements would result in a fine of 2% of a brand’s annual revenue, with the funds being directed to environmental justice organizations like UPROSE.
Climate Action Though Centering Communities
“With this in mind, my fellowship with UPROSE was so fulfilling. The difference of working with a true grassroots organization that is intergenerational, multi-racial, and led by women of color was palpable. I spent my summer working on a solar project that will be built on the Brooklyn Army Terminal rooftop and will be New York’s first solar project owned and operated by the community for the benefit of local residents and businesses. It’s a great example of a paradigm shift in energy infrastructure on the local scale; we’re showing that we really can move away from these heavily polluting peaker plants that are so often located in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods, in favor of sustainable solar power and supporting community energy sovereignty."
NYC’s Waterfront Plan Maps Out Next Decade for City’s Coastlines
“A Just Transition relies on acknowledging past harms and traumas and creating new power relationships to facilitate a society-wide shift to a regenerative economy,” the report says.
It discusses community land trusts and a community-owned solar project as examples of how city agencies can enable New Yorkers disproportionately affected by the impact of climate change to benefit from a transition to renewable energy. It also highlights a collaboration with community leaders, including UPROSE, a nonprofit in Sunset Park.
“These projects aim to shift power and resources to environmental justice communities that have endured the lasting effects of urban renewal and fossil fuel-driven industrial pollution,” the report says. “Many of these same communities face growing threats from flooding and heat due to climate change.”
US Offshore Wind Energy: A New Era of Equity Is Blowing In
John Rogers, a Union of Concerned Scientists senior energy analyst, points to UPROSE, an environmental justice community group in Brooklyn, N.Y., which is engaging offshore wind developers to push the long-term goal of ensuring that 40% of jobs and investment in the state benefit women, minorities and affected communities.