Water, Energy and Land

Too often, communities are treated as afterthoughts or brought in once a public policy or piece of legislation has already been negotiated. We work with communities to assess what’s at stake and identify what is needed to develop just pathways forward, building on work advanced by the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy,

This work involves bringing a frontline lens to legal analysis, participatory research, and policy strategies, informed and shaped by those who have the most at risk.

Our teach-ins have examined the impacts of a state climate policy on coastal workers and ensuring that frontline voices are included in public comment periods on federal policies.

Our approach is to offer an unapologetic, Southern perspective to the climate crisis that can inform policy and legal solutions across the nation and the globe.

Core efforts to move towards collective stewardship include:

  • Advancing Race-Conscious policymaking in Climate Justice.
    With the
    Just Transition Lawyering Network, we will convene lawyers and organizers to address how race-conscious policymaking helps inform how investments move to communities, how domestic and global climate reparations are created and how climate policies are shaped. All of our analysis is through the lens of racial justice and democratic participation.
  • Community governance of Water, Energy, and Land
    Our participatory policy and research includes :
      • Ocean Justice and Water Equity
      • Energy Democracy and expansion of justly created off-shore wind