St. Paul, MN – The Climate Justice Committee and allies held a press conference at Metro State University to hold the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) accountable as they start the three year rulemaking process for a new cumulative impacts law passed in Minnesota in 2023. This cumulative impacts law would not just take into account air pollution from one business at a particular site but would look at the cumulative impacts of pollution in the area and make permitting decisions based on historic pollution and how the community in the area has already been impacted.
The MPCA is responsible for permitting all businesses that have an impact of soil, water and air pollution and was responsible for the permitting of Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline.
At this event, the CJC showed up to hold MPCA accountable for its current and future actions around the issue of air pollution.
“Why is the MPCA not working harder to outreach to the communities they say they want to protect, like East Phillips. I am a student at Metro State, and I wouldn’t have known this event was happening if the CJC hadn’t done this event. We see this as another time when communities like East Phillips in Minneapolis will be let down by legislation that could benefit them. It’s time to end half-measures and leniency for people who poison us!” said Mordecai Mika of the Climate Justice Committee.
Mair Allen from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy stated, “I’ve lived in East Phillips for 13 years, and I think about my 11-year-old neighbor who died in his house of an asthma attack. And I think about the people who can leave their windows open and can walk around their neighborhoods without coughing; everyone benefits from the environment, but those benefits are uneven. There is no such thing as a ‘community benefit’, it’s not possible to benefit from not having pollution. We shouldn’t have to fight for clean air.” Mair was referring to one part of the legislation that includes making “community benefit” agreements with businesses that would be legally binding.
Climate Justice Committee members and supporters then went into the MPCA meeting to ask questions. The MPCA had intended to only take written comments, but CJC members and other community members forced the MPCA representatives to listen to comments. Several audience members talked about the current lack of community outreach and in particular the lack of indigenous input. Others pointed out the distrust of the MPCA because of its history permitting Line 3. MPCA now knows that the community is watching and will be there to force them to do the right thing and get polluters out of our neighborhoods.
Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday, August 30, the Climate Justice Committee held a rally outside the corporate offices of Wells Fargo in downtown Minneapolis to call attention to the key role that big banks and their government allies play in funding fossil fuel projects and manufacturing the conditions for what is now the planet’s hottest summer in recorded history.
Madison, WI – On August 19, more than 60 people rallied and marched during the weekly Dane County Farmers Market to demand that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) put an end to Line 5. The DNR holds the authority to approve or deny the permit that Enbridge, the Canada-based corporation that owns the pipeline, needs in order to continue its operations in the state. The actions were organized by students and youth with Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) and drew support from many organizations and community members.
Tacoma, WA – On Sunday August 20, several dozen community members, organizers, labor leaders and activists gathered in Tacoma’s South Park to protest the mega warehouse complex slated to be constructed just a few blocks away. Gemini Gnull, coordinating director of the Climate Alliance of the South Sound led the crowd, chanting “People power!” and “No to the warehouse!”
Minneapolis, MN – On July 9, 40 activists, organizers and community members gathered to rally for environmental justice. The Climate Justice Committee (CJC) organized this rally as a kickoff event for their new campaign to force two heavy polluters, Bituminous Roadways and Smith Foundry, out of the East Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Minneapolis, MN – On June 18, 40 activists, organizers and community members gathered to rally and march in celebration of the recent Roof Depot victory in the East Phillips community of Minneapolis. The march was initiated by the Climate Justice Committee (CJC).
Minneapolis, MN – On Saturday, April 22, 200 people marched with the MN Climate Justice Committee and the many organizations that have been fighting the Hiawatha Expansion. The Earth Day march began and ended at the Roof Depot site.
Milwaukee, WI – The Milwaukee Anti-War Committee (MAC) hosted an anti-war rally and march on April 22 to commemorate Earth Day. The rally highlighted the need to fight back against the sources of environmental destruction: namely, the capitalist war machine and the corporations that put profit over people and planet.
Minneapolis, MN – Minneapolis’ Mayor Frey and seven Minneapolis city council members are talking about how they feel personally threatened after the Roof Depot struggle has become national news – after years of ignoring the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, the group that has been spearheading the push to buy the building with the goal of creating a neighborhood space. As the neighborhood is mobilized and righteously angry about the pollution, Frey and his cronies in the Minneapolis city council try to demonize the neighborhood, attempting to paint activists, particularly indigenous activists, as violent.
Minneapolis, MN – On Sunday, March 5, residents of the south Minneapolis neighborhood of East Phillips and supporters marched to celebrate community and fight against an environmentally racist project.
Minneapolis, MN – This week has been eventful in the East Phillips fight to stop the demolition of the arsenic-contaminated site of the Roof Depot building in south Minneapolis.
Minneapolis, MN – At dawn on Tuesday, February 21, a coalition of East Phillips residents and allies, spearheaded by indigenous elders and American Indian Movement (AIM) members from the Little Earth community, began a new phase in their defense of the abandoned Roof Depot building site by directly occupying the area. In a matter of hours, the neighborhood-led group established Camp Nenoocaasi, setting up more than a dozen tents and a supply distribution area. Throughout the day the camp continued to grow.
Minneapolis, MN – At dawn on Tuesday, February 21, a coalition of East Phillips residents and allies, spearheaded by indigenous elders and American Indian Movement (AIM) members from the Little Earth community, began a new phase in their defense of the abandoned Roof Depot building site by directly occupying the area. In a matter of hours, the neighborhood-led group established Camp Nenookaasi, setting up more than a dozen tents and a supply distribution area. Throughout the day the camp continued to grow.
Minneapolis MN – On February 19, around 100 protesters and community members gathered at the Roof Depot site in the East Phillips neighborhood to protest the impending demolition of the building. The Climate Justice Committee organized the protest as part of the week of action for the Defend the Atlanta Forest, connecting the struggles against environmental racism and police terror in Atlanta to the local struggle against the pollution of oppressed nationality and working-class communities like East Phillips. The Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar also joined the protest, demanding justice for Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Teran, a forest defender murdered by Atlanta police.
Minneapolis, MN – On January 29, 70 activists, community members and supporters held a rally and healing circle in response to the Minneapolis city council’s recent vote in favor of continuing their legacy of environmental racism in the city of Minneapolis. The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute and the Climate Justice Committee organized the rally.
Minneapolis, MN – Over 100 protesters rallied at a Minneapolis City Council meeting on Thursday, January 26, where the city council members voted 7 to 6 to demolish the Roof Depot building. Protesters, called to action by East Phillips Neighborhood Institute and Climate Justice Committee, demanded a “no” vote on the demolition of the building, as it is currently trapping an arsenic plume underground, keeping it out of the air of the East Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Minneapolis, MN – Roughly 100 East Phillips residents and supporters rallied at the Hennepin County courthouse, December 15, protest the city’s East Phillips demolition plan and long legacy of systemic racism.
To no one’s surprise, the COP27 conference has left the world much in the same place that COP26 did the year before, and COP25 before it, and so on. This November, world leaders convened in Egypt to discuss and debate what an international response to climate action could look like (or so they would like you to believe).
Minneapolis, MN – On October 27, around 50 activists gathered outside Mayor Jacob Frey's apartment building in Northeast Minneapolis to demand that he take action to stop the demolition of the old Roof Depot building in the East Phillips neighborhood.
