NAACP: Starting an Energy Cooperative

In building this movement, climate justice activists are guided by an overriding principle: communities most affected by climate change should be at the forefront of the struggle. This report, Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People, demonstrates both the urgency and opportunity for community action with respect to coal fired power plants—an issue at the intersection between climate justice and environmental justice.

The rapid depletion of Earth’s non-renewable resources coincides with increased energy consumption in the United States. With a growing understanding of the harmful impact of fossil fuel-based energy production on communities of color and low income communities, it is more important now than ever before that our communities take a stand to move our country to an energy efficient and clean energy future. Our intention in creating this compendium is that it will serve as a resource and will spur states to make sure their energy policies protect communities from harmful energy production processes while simultaneously providing equitable access to economic opportunities in energy efficiency and clean energy

For over 70 years, the US nuclear power and weapons industry has consistently targeted Indigenous communities for contamination and environmental sacrifice. The radioactive scars of nuclear colonialism affect Indigenous peoples throughout the lands of Turtle Island (also called North America) and the Pacific Islands occupied by the United States of America.