March Partner Highlight: Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition
As winter thaws and the first signs of spring start to show, the Midwest EJ Network has some new projects network-wide! Read more in our March newsletter, and checkout our monthly partner highlight below.
Volunteers at a recent ratepayer clinic hosted by MEJC. Over one hundred residents came to the clinic in January to answer utility questions.
The Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition (MEJC) works to achieve a clean, just, healthy environment for Michigan residents who are most impacted by environmental injustice. Started in 2011 as an effort to implement then-governor Granholm’s Environmental Justice Plan, the MEJC works at the intersection of grassroots community organizing and policy advocacy with local, state, and federal organizations to create systemic change.
Since the coalition’s inception, community needs have grown, and so has MEJC. Now representing more than a dozen environmental justice groups across the state, the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition has increased their education and outreach over the last ten years. This has included hosting a bi-annual Environmental Justice Summit, organizing initiatives like the Movement School, which builds leadership capacity and organizing among BIPOC, low-income and working class communities across the state, and the Clean Air Youth Council.
Their organizing efforts also include ratepayer clinics to help community members, and a know-your-rights toolkit for DTE customers. The most recent ratepayer clinic, held in January, brought together over 100 metro Detroit residents to navigate utility affordability and outage issues, and stop twenty shut-offs.
MEJC has based their work and relationships in the core belief of achieving justice for those of us who are at the margins, and most impacted by intersecting mechanisms of oppression, in the fight against the climate crisis.
“ We believe that all of us, no matter where we live or what we look like, deserve access to clean air, safe drinking water and reliable, affordable, and renewable energy. Together, we’re building a movement to take on corporate polluters like DTE Energy who seek to profit while Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor communities are left with polluted air, high energy rates and frequent power outages. We’re working towards a world where healthy, thriving environments are not just a privilege for the few, but a right for all!”