FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2025
Contact: Ashley Sullivan, ashley.sullivan@weact.org
WASHINGTON – WE ACT for Environmental Justice remains strong and unwavering in our dedication to our work to ensure the safety, health, dignity, and well-being of our communities in New York, and environmental justice communities across the U.S. The administration’s recent actions – including an Executive Order challenging state climate laws, and an Executive Order to expand mining and use of coal – are two more destructive and unconstitutional efforts which endanger our health, increase energy costs, cut living wage jobs, and undermine state authority to take necessary action in reducing emissions that are making communities sick and driving the climate crisis. This action, in combination with other dangerous Executive Orders, the rollback of over 30 essential protections and the “sunsetting” of vital regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), mass firing of federal employees, and illegal funding freezes, shows how dedicated the Trump administration is to harm. These moves are not “unleashing American energy,” but are instead unleashing chaos on people across the country by skyrocketing costs, increasing health risks, while also acting as a full-throated targeting of low-income people across race and ethnicity, and people of color – the people most vulnerable to unnatural disasters, deadly pollution, and negative health impacts.
“You have to ask, who are these Trump Executive Orders helping? Across the board, the answer will be not you, me, or likely anyone you know. They are anti-democratic, target people already dealing with greater health and environmental burdens, including communities of color and lower income people – across race and ethnicity – and only benefit industries that gain at the expense of our health and well-being. Opening up coal production, for example, while also removing EPA protections against emissions of mercury and hazardous air pollutants from these power plants, will lead to thousands of children suffering with reduced neurological function for the rest of their lives. At the same time, the climate crisis is here and it is a real and present threat. Extreme heat is the deadliest climate impact and it disproportionately harms people of color and low-income.
“People in environmental justice communities in every state have fought hard for progress for too long to protect their health, families, and future. We need to transition away from fossil fuels, not double down on fossil fuel racism. We will keep fighting, not just in resistance but also for a joyful, abundant future in which our communities are not defined by suffering, but instead by comfort and happiness.” – Leslie Fields, Chief Federal Officer at WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
“WE ACT stands firmly with the people, with justice, and with our democracy. As a state, New York has both the authority and the responsibility to lead on climate policy — to cut emissions, protect public health, and expand opportunity. It is blatant hypocrisy for an administration whose party has long championed states’ rights to now undermine those rights in order to advance a regressive, anti-environment, anti-public health agenda.
“We refuse to let this corrupt agenda strip us of our right to breathe clean air and drink safe water. New Yorkers know what is at stake — and we have made our voices heard. Over the past two decades, New York’s bold environmental leadership has significantly reduced air pollution, particularly for communities of color and low-income, and has helped curb the emissions fueling the climate crisis.
“We will not back down. We will continue to fight for the policies that have cleaned our air, improved our health, lowered energy costs, driven economic growth, and protected our communities from the worsening impacts of climate change. The people of New York have led this progress — and we will defend it.” – Lonnie Portis, Acting Director of Policy and Legislative Affair at WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
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WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan membership-based organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter/X, and Instagram.