February Partner Highlight: Just Transition Northwest Indiana
We kicked off the new year with big announcements in our February newsletter. Read our monthly Partner Highlight on Just Transition Northwest Indiana below!
Just Transition Northwest Indiana (JTNWI) was founded in 2020 after years of local organizing to clean up coal ash and other legacy waste that threaten community health in Northwest Indiana.
JTNWI is committed to educating and organizing Northwest Indiana communities and workers, giving voice to shared stories, and supporting a just transition to a regenerative economy that protects the environment, climate, and future generations.
In the last four years, JTNWI has built a pathway towards an empowered Northwest Indiana, where people live in clean, healthy, and united communities. They have been working towards this vision by advocating for clean closures of coal ash waste sites in Indiana, demanding federal accountability for proper cleanup of the NIPSCO Michigan City Generation Station on Lake Michigan, and rejecting false solutions to climate change that continue fossil fuel dependence. As a result of a historic lawsuit with Earthjustice, in the spring of 2023, JTNWI won a watershed commitment from the EPA to begin closing dangerous gaps in the federal coal ash rule that exempts at least half a billion tons of coal ash across communities nationwide from federal monitoring and cleanup protections. In the summer, with the support of MWEJN and other partners, JTNWI led a national mobilization of hundreds of people from coast to coast to the EPA public hearing in Chicago to testify in support of strengthening the new proposed federal regulations. The final rule is now expected in April 2024.
This past month, JTNWI partnered with Just Solutions to draft a first-of-its-kind report on hydrogen as a clean energy technology from an environmental justice framework. As many policymakers champion hydrogen production hubs as green solutions, these projects may create more harmful emissions than they take away, and the environmental impacts are often borne by communities who have been hit the hardest by pollution. In response, JTNWI is launching a petition to stop the construction of hydrogen hubs in the Midwest like MachH2.
As we come into the new year, their work continues with the fight against BP’s proposed carbon sequestration pipeline from its Whiting tar sands oil refinery, in addition to engaging in community education through a Deep Canvassing Program and a Just Transition Visioning Project to inspire communities to dream that another region, another world is possible.
Their intentional relationship-building in the region is reflected in the interviews, writings, and poems from community leaders highlighted each month on their digital platforms. And this is only the beginning!
To stay in touch and hear the latest in the fight for a just future in Northwest Indiana, follow them on social media, donate to power their work into the future, and sign up for their newsletter below.