100 Days of Defending Each Other, the World We Need, and the Future We Deserve

100 Days of holding the line and finding ways to grow: Acting together works.

In 100 days, there are 100 different ways to create opportunities, support growth, and better the lives of millions of people and the health of our planet. As the current administration aims instead to tear down progress and put polluters over people, reinforcing environmental injustices and putting our lives at risk, we’re holding the line and continuing to grow. Through the unity of our values, we are standing up against prejudiced systems that continue to overwhelmingly poison the air, water, and soil of people of color and those who earn less. We’re fighting to protect the most vulnerable from the real-time deadly impacts of the climate crisis, and finding powerful solutions to improve well-being, grow jobs, invest in innovation, and clean up our environments. Together, we’re strengthening our collective power to create the future we deserve. 

Standing Strong for Environmental Justice

Environmental justice didn’t start at the federal level; it started in the communities who are committed to protecting their health, families, and environments. In spite of decades of challenges, opposition, and underinvestment, the movement keeps pushing onwards. In the face of an unprecedented barrage of Trump executive orders, which drove the undoing of over 80 important legacy executive orders – including two foundational orders focused on environmental justice – we rang the alarm on why these actions are discriminatory and harmful. As the work to achieve fairness for all people under the law is core to our mission, we uplifted the history of why environmental justice is essential and highlighted the progress we’ve made. To support communities at the local level, we provided justice tools – with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University – for people to stand up for their rights in their cities and states, right now. 

Building Community and Sharing Insights

Not only is environmental justice a human right, but it also benefits the majority of people across the United States. To reinforce this message and build community, we organized an environmental justice information session, featuring the latest voter polling data showing majority support for environmental justice, and communications guidance to make sure we continue to respond to the moment with clarity and courage. WE ACT’s co-founder and executive director Peggy Shepard, and fellow co-founder Vernice Miller-Travis, current EVP at Metropolitan Group, were featured on a panel alongside Marilyn Zepeda Salazar, Legislative Director at Climate Justice Alliance, Parisa Norouzi, Executive Director at Empower DC and Rep. Summer Lee (PA-12). The session also included remarks by Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-2) and Rep. Maxine Dexter, M.D. (OR-3), and WE ACT’s Chief Federal Officer Leslie G. Fields. It was followed by a joyful reception attended by partners and staff, alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12).

We continued this momentum with another event for Earth Month titled, “Our Earth is for Everyone,” to build partnership and fortify our community. At Johns Hopkins University’s first Healing Our Planet 2025 (HOP25) event, WE ACT staff shared why grassroots organizing will lead the way, how the legal landscape must continue to evolve to protect the most vulnerable, as well as data and mapping to advance sound policies.

Defending Environmental Justice Funding, Policies, and Departments

Despite the unveiled effort to target and tear down environmental justice, conflating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) with environmental justice to advance prejudiced and unconstitutional attacks, we have continued to center the truth and the stories of the people impacted. With illegal funding freezes, mass staff firings, and departments being dismantled, we spoke out, pushed back, and stood up. As the advocacy choir gets louder, there have been multiple legal actions to successfully restore some of these funds, policies, and functions. Rep. Summer Lee (PA-12), moved by our information session, advanced a vital letter – signed by over 100 House Democrats – urging the reinstatement of environmental justice offices at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Keeping the EPA Accountable to Protect Human Health & Our Environments

A core aspect of this administration’s efforts has been actively undermining the mission of the EPA “to protect human health and the environment” by fulfilling the exact opposite, giving polluters free reign to harm the public. When Trump’s EPA administrator Lee Zeldin shared that they were rolling back over 30 necessary environmental and health protections, including those cleaning our air from toxins like mercury and hazards like smog, we said “absolutely not.” With the 2025 American Lung Association report showing that 46 percent of Americans live in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or smog pollution, and 78 million people of color live in counties that received at least one failing grade, these actions are clearly not what the public wants, and they violate the EPA’s legal responsibility to protect our health. We also continue to show why environmental justice policies like clean, accessible, fair transportation systems are hugely important to carry forward in Op-Eds and sign-ons. 

All In for Climate Justice

As the administration will recklessly hurt people by taking us back to an era of rivers on fire and air choked with noxious particles, they are opening the floodgates to worsen the climate crisis. As the administration attempts to remove the ability of the EPA to protect people from the pollution driving the climate crisis, we made it clear – along with Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and partners – that millions of people, especially people of color and low-income communities, will not be sacrificed for polluting industries. While they also challenge state climate laws, we remain strong and unwavering in our dedication to our responsibility to lead on local climate policy.

The everyday felt effects of the climate crisis are worsening, with extreme heat being the most deadly of all, especially for Black communities. Instead of addressing this critical issue, the administration took aim at the widely popular, bipartisan, and severely underfunded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) which helps cover rising energy bills and saves lives. As they fired the entire LIHEAP staff at Health and Human Services (HHS), we outlined why this is extremely dangerous and specifically hurts environmental justice communities. With our recent report with NRDC showcasing reasons the program requires greater investment, not less, and our endorsement of the Heating and Cooling Relief Act to advance these improvements, we continue our work to create healthy homes for all, protecting LIHEAP and the people who urgently need this program. 

Saving Our Democracy

The threats to our democracy are many, and in response, so are our efforts to safeguard and expand our rights and freedoms. With the SAFE Act passing in the House, which would disenfranchise millions from voting, we remain solid in our grounding to endorse civil rights bills like the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

The foundational democratic law that is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has been chipped away at by Trump and his allies since his first administration, and now they mean to go even further and bypass it entirely. As “the people’s environmental law” makes sure the government looks at how federal projects (like highways and pipelines) affect the environment and communities before they’re approved, the administration seeks to remove the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) ability to carry NEPA forward, undoing 50 years of protections. This undermines the fundamental democratic right of giving people a say in issues that impact them. In partnership with Climate Justice Alliance and Green Latinos, we spoke up and we submitted comments alongside almost 200 organizations to oppose this unjust action. As they likewise aim to illegally bypass NEPA entirely through the Department of the Interior, we will not surrender our rights. We deserve and need a government that creates a permitting process that involves the public meaningfully; protects our environments; moves us to zero-polluting, affordable energy sources; and benefits everyone, without hurting the most vulnerable.

We envision environmental justice for all – In 100 days we could:

Make Environmental Justice for All Act Law

The A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice For All Act must be passed into law to make sure that partisan attacks on environmental justice cannot stand. The EJ4ALL Act, which was created through grassroots community input from across the country, would restore protections under the Civil Rights Act, and would also direct agencies to follow requirements concerning environmental justice, including environmental review under NEPA. It would create advisory bodies to issue environmental justice strategies at the federal level, and establish labeling and regulations against toxic products. It would also create a variety of funding programs to enhance access to park and recreational opportunities in urban areas.

Grow Investments, Opportunities, and Green Jobs

We need to build on federal investments in climate change, clean energy, clean transportation, affordable housing, water infrastructure, workforce development, and pollution remediation for disadvantaged communities. The work to create programs like Justice40 for this purpose took decades of organizing, and with the beginnings of the program rolling out over the last several years, we would improve upon and grow the effort to invest in the communities that need it most. Justice40 2.0 would overcome challenges for applications and implementation, and make the investments work for communities most impacted.

Clean Up Our Air, Water, and Soil

Across the U.S., communities of color and low-income live with the greatest exposure to polluting facilities, waste sites, and other environmental hazards. We’d reinvest and expedite the work to clean superfund and dump sites. We would also build on our collaborative work through coalitions like Clean Air for the Long Haul to protect and improve clean air standards at the EPA, including those regulating deadly pollution from power plants and transportation.  

Make Our Transportation Clean, Inexpensive, and Accessible

Traffic, industrial activity, and other sources create Particulate Matter 2.5 (soot) pollution. In New York City, soot contributes to 2,000 deaths and 5,150 emergency visits and hospitalizations for respiratory and heart disease each year. For people of color, this risk is greater as they are 2.3 times more likely than white people to live with failing air quality grades. The electrification of vehicles, the expansion of mass transit, and other strategies can expand affordable transportation options, reduce air pollution, and save lives.

Remove Toxics from Products

Personal care products – everything from cosmetics to soaps and shampoos to hair straighteners – are largely unregulated, with far too many containing toxic ingredients that have been linked to cancer, infertility, miscarriage, poor infant and maternal health outcomes, obesity, asthma, and many other serious health concerns. We would work to appropriately regulate and label these products, advancing laws to ban the most dangerous toxic chemicals in our everyday products.

Scale Up Affordable, Clean Energy

We must advance a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels, and move toward an energy future that provides direct benefits to those most hurt by decades of destruction. This work would also end government hand-outs for false solution technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS), liquefied natural gas (LNG), and dirty hydrogen driven by polluting companies that perpetuate fossil fuel racism. With a clear vision for the future of our energy systems, we would further policies driving investments for key technologies like wind and solar, as well as job training and placement. We would also work to improve project permitting processes, ensuring government accountability and public participation in decision-making.

Nurture Science and Make Research More Accessible

Over the last several years, extraordinary advancements and investments in data, dashboards, and tools created by federal agencies helped paint a more accurate picture of the lived experiences of pollution, lack of investments, hazards, and opportunities for growth in environmental justice communities. These tools and data need to be restored, expanded with public data and access, and acknowledge race as a main indicator associated with exposure to environmental health harms. 

Tackle Cumulative Impacts

Addressing the cumulative impacts of exposure to pollution, toxic chemicals, and other environmental harms would finally help to overcome decades of multiplying harm caused by the many hazards environmental justice communities face in their own backyards. We supported moving legislation forward in New York, and created a series of cumulative impacts and environmental justice model bills.  These bills could be passed across the country, and we advocate for cumulative impacts analyses to be centered in federal agencies, such as at the EPA.

Grow Climate Justice 

We would further our groundbreaking work to ensure local, state, and federal climate, energy, and environmental funding equitably improves environmental and climate health outcomes on-the-ground for those most vulnerable. As a leading organization driving climate justice policy in New York, we would make sure these bills are implemented and build on these efforts with partners and allies nationwide. 

Make Homes Healthy for All

Everyone deserves a safe, healthy home—but too many communities are left behind. Low-income households and people of color in public and affordable housing face the worst indoor health hazards and extreme weather, all while struggling to access clean, affordable energy. Our national Healthy Homes First campaign amplifies lived experiences, drives policy reforms, and whole-of-home improvements to advance clean, affordable energy upgrades, and remedy health hazards.

Protect Democracy and Civil Rights

We’re steadfast in the work to preserve communities’ ability to speak for themselves by encouraging civic engagement and securing robust voter rights and protections. We would also work collaboratively to restore full protections and effectiveness of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as the appropriate environmental justice and cumulative impact considerations for this bedrock environmental law.

Environmental Justice is the Right Way Forward

As WE ACT’s Chief Federal Officer Leslie Fields shared at the beginning of this administration’s term, 

“We will continue to push for comprehensive laws to codify necessary policies people across the country need and want. We will lead and collaborate on the local level in New York and beyond to advance these efforts. We will not let these attacks remove the rights our communities have to a safe and healthy life and future.”