MUUSJN has received a request from The People’s Water Board Coalition (of which MUUSJN is a member)
The PWBC Legal-Legislative Committee is asking that in recognition of Dr. King, Jr’s work for racial and economic justice, peace, and human rights, that members call upon Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate to lead support for the water affordability legislation.
We have three asks:
Here is the full bill info https://peopleswaterboard.org/2023/12/12/michigan-water-affordability-bill-summaries/
Let’s help the PWBC fill Speaker Tate’s office with at least 200 requests for legislative help from residents across the state!
MUUSJN advocates for environmental justice in our congregations, communities and beyond. We educate, mobilize and connect our congregations to resources.
Current work includes:
Water, the lifeblood of the planet, should be held by governments as a public trust. For the United Nations, access to clean potable water is counted as a human right. Census estimates indicate that 92.2% of Detroit residents are people of color and over 39% of Detroit residents live below the poverty level. Since 2015, thousands of new water shut off notices have been sent to Detroit residents. People, including children, the elderly and infirm, wake up every morning to find themselves unable to drink, cook, wash or flush toilets. This is a gross violation of our Unitarian Universalist (UU) principle that all persons have worth and must be treated with dignity.
People of faith have an important part to play in shining a light on this moral crisis. We must work to address this injustice. The Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network (MUUSJN), which coordinates with all Michigan UU congregations, continues to work with other people of faith and other organizations to make sure that all persons can afford water they need to sustain their lives. In partnership with our allies, we call for a moratorium on water shutoffs, t restore water to homes who have had their water shutoff and the establishment of a Water Affordability Plan that offers make water available to people based on their ability to pay.
Letters Signed Onto By MUUSJN
Along with the UUA, MUUSJN has signed onto a letter to President Joe Biden.
“The signatories oppose legislation that will permanently weaken two bedrock environmental protections, the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Both laws ensure thorough evaluation and review of the environmental impacts of major projects and the timely notification of the public with opportunities to comment. Manchin’s bill would severely erode community input, advance inadequate environmental analysis, and eliminate judicial recourse for those most harmed by subpar processes.
Instead, signatories urge President Biden and Democratic Leadership to support the Environmental Justice for All Act (H.R. 2021/S.872) (EJ4All), a comprehensive bill to reduce environmental inequities, including provisions to protect and strengthen public participation and tribal consultation. EJ4All also includes provisions to ensure the consideration of cumulative impacts in the permitting process and the consideration of alternatives. Signatories urged Biden to require the Jemez principles of democratic organizing, this framework used in the creation of the EJ4All, to be applied to future environmental and climate justice initiatives that come out of his Administration or garner his support.”
Please read the press release and letter to learn more, and share with others!
Letter to the White House https://www.weact.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/WhiteHouse_-PermitReform-1.pdf
Contact Jenny if you are able to get more directly involved with MUUSJN’s Environmental Justice work with Frontline communities. jennifer.a.teed@gmail.com
