Ep. 8 - (Solar) Power to the People
The path to climate justice is local.
In this episode of A People’s Climate, host Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Elizabeth Yeampierre, veteran organizer and executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization, to explore how frontline communities are taking climate action into their own hands.
In a capitalist world that prioritizes bigger, faster, and more, Elizabeth’s work takes a different path. Small, hyper-local solutions like a community-owned solar grid have huge impacts. Residents of Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, where UPROSE focuses its work, are seeing lower energy costs, good green jobs, and local ownership. All while creating a blueprint for other communities to follow.
Elizabeth also takes us beyond the buzzwords of “green economy" and “clean energy” to show what a Just Transition really looks like. Mainstream environmental efforts often focus on the end goal: shifting to renewable energy. But they fail to ask “at what cost and to whom?” Elizabeth’s work ensures community members aren’t left behind.
This episode is a masterclass in how grassroots power can transition us to a just future.
Key Topics
A Just Transition: Shifting to renewable energy while protecting workers and communities historically harmed by pollution
The community-led renewable energy Grid Project
Resisting extractive economies and reclaiming industrial spaces without displacement or gentrification.
The importance of building an intergenerational movement
How Trump-era policies have dismantled climate protections and undermined renewable energy incentives
How disaster capitalism exploits crises and how community-led responses offer real solutions
Resources to Explore
Credits
Presented by Counterstream Media and The Nation
Powered by Wildseeds Fund
Host: Shilpi Chhotray
Executive Producer: Mindy Ramaker
Engineer: Francisco Núñez Capriles
Project Manager: Marianella Núñez
Additional Research: Sarah Morgan
Elizabeth Yeampierre
Elizabeth Yeampierre is an internationally recognized Puerto Rican climate justice leader of Black and Indigenous ancestry, born and raised in NYC. Elizabeth is co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance, a national frontline led organization and Executive Director of UPROSE, Brooklyn's oldest Latino community-based organization.
Elizabeth was the 1st Latina Chair of the USEPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and opening speaker for the 1st White House Council on Environmental Quality Forum on Environmental Justice under Obama. Elizabeth was featured in the NY Times as a visionary paving the path to Climate Justice, named by Apolitical as Climate 100: The World’s Most Influential People in Climate Policy, featured in Vogue as one of 13 international Climate Warriors, Oprah’s list of Future Rising- more recently a 2025 TIME Magazine Closer and People Magazine in Español Climate Change leader. She has spoken at Oxford, the Hague and the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
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(Solar) Power To The People with Elizabeth Yeampierre
Shilpi Chhotray [00:00:00] This is A People's Climate powered by Wildseeds Fund from Counterstream Media and The Nation. I'm your host, Shilpi Chhotray.
CLIP [00:00:10] Right now, around 135 million of us in the United States are breathing unhealthy air. That's according to a new report from the American Lung Association.
CLIP [00:00:19] And new research finds deadly air pollutants are disproportionately and systemically harming Black, Latino, and Asian Americans.
CLIP [00:00:27] Whatever the hell happens, this climate change, it's the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion.
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:00:34] I don't engage climate deniers, I think it slows us down and wastes our time. I engage people who are at the margins and I try to inspire and provide information to those people so that they know that their lives are at risk and the future of their children is at risk.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:00:51] Hey everyone, welcome back. What if the path to a livable future isn't only about sacrifice, but about imagination, about building something entirely new from the ground up? That's where Elizabeth Yeampierre comes in. She's a veteran organizer of 30 years and the visionary leader at UPROSE. Elizabeth doesn't just talk about resisting pollution or shutting down fossil fuels. She's charting what comes next. In this episode, she takes us beyond the buzzwords of green jobs and clean energy into the deeper meaning of a just transition. This is a conversation about power, possibility and creating a world where justice isn't an afterthought. It's the very foundation. Elizabeth, welcome to A People's Climate. I'm so excited to have this conversation with you. We're honored to have you this season.
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:01:46] Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be in conversation with you. This is a moment to be having these conversations.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:01:53] Wanted to start off with the why. You are a proud Puerto Rican with Afro-Indigenous ancestry, born and raised in an environmental justice community. And what I would love for our listeners to hear is actually explain what that means and how it shaped your early years.
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:02:10] We often say that what we do is not a job, that it's a calling. And many of us, those of us who are in the environmental and climate justice movement, are people who come from communities that have been burdened with a lot of environmental problems through power plants, waste transfer stations, highways. And so the toxic exposure literally lives in our bloodstream. Our families suffer from health problems and so does our community. And when I was little, I literally had to walk through brown fields to get to school. And we are also the descendants of extraction or the descendants of colonialism with the descendants of enslavement. And so there is a long legacy of our communities, not only living in the most environmentally burdened places, but having the worst food, having the worse healthcare. This fight for environmental justice for climate justice is very personal for us. I can't imagine doing anything but this, especially at this time what we're seeing. Extreme weather events, we're seeing the climate disruption. This is really a calling to all of us that come from these places to stand up and to start making sure that we're working so that the seven generations from now are able to breathe clean air.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:03:25] Are there any specific stories you could share on that environmental health correlation from your communities?
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:03:32] Came to up-rose in 1996, and young people mentioned that they were about to expand the Gowanus Expressway and that they couldn't breathe. And I remember a woman in the neighborhood who told me she would get up at night to see if her children were still breathing. She had three asthmatic children. And then, and I had not even made the connection between what they were sharing and how it was impacting my family, because my father died of an asthma attack when he was like 52 years old. And so being born, raised, going to school, working, and living in a community that is surrounded by power plants, by highways, and by the extractive economy that is dropping tons of PM2.5 and knocks and socks into our lungs, well, that has a direct impact on our health, on our ability to thrive in school, on our bitterly function in the workplace. It really affects every aspect of our lives.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:04:29] The environmental justice movement has deep roots in the civil rights movement as well. But you've actually connected this back much further to slavery and colonialism. And I would love to hear from you directly on that important connection.
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:04:44] The environmental justice movement, the movement as it is known, starts like in the 70s I think or the 80s, but it starts much earlier than that. It starts in the slave quarter when you've got enslaved people who are given what's left over of the food, so they're given the land that you can't grow things on. They're not given health care. It's so multi-dimensional. People think it's intersectional, but it's multi-dimensional on so many different levels. And so you rob people out of Africa, you literally colonize nations, you bring in other kinds of seeds and other kinds things that you're growing, other animals that are not part of those ecosystems, and you start literally destroying the ecosystem. You start building in places where you need to keep natural. You start engaging in deforestation like you see in the Amazon. All of this is extraction, all of this is colonialism, and all of this comes out of the labor of our people. And people don't really make those connections. And I think some people don't want to.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:05:53] It really starts there. Another piece of this that I think is important to kind of couple together is honoring ancestors. How does honoring your ancestors influence your work today, especially when the stakes are so high?
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:06:09] Well, I think that's a beautiful question, because I think that the global South has a tradition that they share in common with Black and Indigenous people, historically marginalized communities in this country, that we honor our elders. I mean, we share very similar traditions, regardless of where we are. And so our communities, our power, the way that we create a culture of practice is meaningfully intergenerational. This is a country that pits generations against each other, that is patriarchal, that is extractive, that is capitalism. One generation wants to run to the front and push the older generation out. The older generation wants to hold down to power. But those traditions of our ancestral knowledge tell us that community doesn't look like that, that we literally have power collectively, that the solutions are at the table with all of us together. If there's ever a time for us to lean in, on what we have in common and celebrate difference so that we can strengthen social cohesion so that can collectively survive and thrive in the face of climate change. This is it. This is that time for us to share that knowledge.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:07:26] I want to shift a little bit now and talk about the idea of a just transition. So we've named a lot of the challenges the communities are facing. And when we think about just transition, for many, it's a buzzword, but for you, it is foundational to the fight for climate justice and for a lot the organizations we work with. For our listeners, I wanna name that a just-transition isn't simply about shifting to clean energy. It's about ensuring that the workers and the communities who've been most harmed by environmental and economic injustices aren't left behind. So what does a just transition really mean for the communities you serve?
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:08:06] So the green economy, all it really is is a capitalist economy with a green patina on it. And it's really easy for corporations and folks that are still engaged in various levels of extraction to say, oh, what we need to do to solve the climate problem is create a green widgets. So let's create a million green widgets, but just transition says, do we need a green widgets. Or is that just because we want to do more constantly, more, more and more of everything? Is that what we need or do we need to look at the process? Are we following principles that make sure that we're not harming people along the way? What is the life, the shelf life of something? How are workers being treated? Are we moving from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy? Are we looking at different economies of scale? Or does everything have to be big? The solutions really have to be hyper local. And so this idea of more and more, bigger, more and, more, more that capitalist way of thinking, it's killing. Not only is it killing the planet, but it's preventing us from creating space for the kinds of things that we are doing on the ground here.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:09:18] I mean, these are things that are providing good jobs, decent jobs, and making the planet more livable for all of us in a very specific way that is specific to the community's needs. And I think that's really important. It's not a one-size-fits-all approach. And I wanna shout out to our listeners who might be hearing this concept of just transition for the first time. Don't worry, you're not alone. The mainstream environmental movement often focuses on the end result, so carbon neutrality. Clean energy, reduced emissions, but a just transition asks, as Elizabeth poignantly painted for us, at what cost and to whom? So simply put, it's not just about the destination, but also how we get there.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:10:06] You mentioned Brownfields earlier. For our listeners who might not be familiar, can you explain what they are?
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:10:13] Brownfields are land that is either contaminated or perceived as contaminated, and the toxic exposure can be really serious. I know that in Sunset Park, there are chemicals that exist in the industrial waterfront that have been there since before there was an EPA. So that means that if there's an extreme weather event, they can become dislodged and some of them are carcinogens upon contact. Just to give you an example of the threat of brownfields, there was a plan to put a great school. In the industrial sector, in the midst of brownfields. And the adjacent lots will be kicking up dirt. So every single day while they're in class, where they're going and leaving, while they are playing in the schoolyard, they are breathing in contaminants, including chemicals that could be dislodged by extreme weather events. But those brownfield exist literally all over the country. Usually there are tracts of land, lots that where there was an industrial uses. Or it could be even on your block. In our neighborhood, we've got auto salvaging shops. And those auto salvage shops, they would spill antifreeze. They would put their garbage in adjacent lots. And so some environmentalists wanted to shut them down. And what we learned when we approached them was that they didn't know that the chemicals that they were using were carcinogens and that they we're affecting them, their families, their workers. Uh, one of the workers even cried. He was like, I had no idea. And he. And he didn't have any safety gear on. So we created a project to provide them with about 100 safe practices. The idea is not to shut them down because you come for privilege and you're going to shut them. Down. The idea. Is to provide. Them with the resources necessary so that they can retrofit their business and continue to thrive economically. And so our perspective was a justice perspective, whereas the other organization that was an environmental perspective, which was thinking about, oh, don't be putting pollution out there. We were like, we need to keep our people working.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:12:15] And this goes directly to a just transition. This is exactly what we're talking about. This is a just transition. Yes. All right. We got to talk about Trump. So I do want to I don't want to talk about it, but we kind of need to, is how political decisions, especially under this administration, is setting us back in some ways.
CLIP [00:12:39] Trump's one big beautiful bill passed, bringing sweeping changes. And it's a big deal for clean energy. Cutting back on tax credit for solar panels, electric batteries, and other renewable energy.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:12:51] The first Trump era was marked by rollbacks on climate regulations, undermining renewable energy incentives, and pushing forward fossil fuel agendas. We've seen now the environmental justice office completely dismantled, complete dissolving of FEMA. What are you seeing now under this current administration and its impact on the pursuit of a just transition and all the important work that you're naming?
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:13:17] This administration is really undoing a legacy of reforms that were designed to really honor the human rights of people in this country, and is investing in fossil fuel extraction, is contributing to accelerating climate change, and then it is also making it difficult for us to be able to come up with our own solutions, like removing the tax credit so that people can initiatives like the community on solar that we're building. My mom had the saying in Spanish, I have to say it in Spanish. No come y no deja comer, which is someone who doesn't eat and doesn't allow you to eat either. It isn't just that this administration is making it more challenging. It's that it is trying to shackle us from operationalizing solutions that we want to manifest. We're working and moving forward as if the federal government doesn't exist. We're dealing with political disruption and climate disruption. And so the work that we have to do right now needs to honor that reality because for us to stop instead of really honoring the moment that we're in right now, it really is dangerous.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:14:26] One of the reasons I wanted you on this show, Elizabeth, is because despite the administration, you've said it very articulately, you're going on as if the administration doesn't exist because we are seeing a lot of success in projects like The Grid Project and Sunset Park. How did it come about and how does it challenge the extractive economy in favor of a renewable community-owned economy? I think that's the key here. It can't separate people and planet. That these are one in the same.
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:14:56] There are industrial waterfronts in the Bay, in Boston, everywhere, where people have had to deal with toxic exposure. In Sunset Park, the industrial water front kept it a working-class, walk-to-work community. And so it was really important to retain the nature of our community and to keep it a work-class community. How UPROSE was able to bring together that body of work happens at a time when Jamestown comes to Sunset Park. And looks at the industrial waterfront and starts a plan to turn industry city into the new Williamsburg, a destination location that will provide tech jobs and office jobs. And that would have stolen tons of land and opportunity from us to build for climate adaptation, mitigation and resiliency. And Williamsburg is a community in Brooklyn where within 10 years, they lost 40% of its Latino community within 10 year. And then the community is contacting us and said, this is going to displace us. And they weren't wrong. And so the alternative became the grid. So this here, amidst this insanity that we are in, is the innovation. Path to climate justice is local. Renewable energy is what we need at this moment.
CLIP [00:16:15] It's community driven, so it feels rewarding that way. Sunset Park Solo is part of a larger vision because it's showing to our community what is possible. This project will provide solar and reduced energy bills to 200 households. That's more than a million dollars of savings over the life of the project. That's going into a Community Resiliency Fund.
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:16:35] With the goal that the community then allocate those funds for other climate interventions.
CLIP [00:16:41] The project demonstrates what is possible.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:16:46] After major climate disasters, we often see what's called disaster capitalism, which of course is the term coined by Naomi Klein in her book, The Shock Doctrine. And essentially this refers to how crises are exploited to push through policies that benefit the wealthy and often at the expense of the most vulnerable. We've seen this time and time again. We talked about this on our last chat, but Bloomberg's analysis recently reported that we're now spending one trillion on climate disasters. Now, this is after the disaster takes place. This is about 3% of our GDP. But of course, much of the money is not reaching the communities that need it the most. How have you seen this phenomenon play out in your own community?
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:17:28] We've seen this phenomenon play itself out in the Gulf South after Katrina. There are still people living in Houston that were pushed out of historical black communities and now investments there are for people that are moving in. And if you go down to the Lower Ninth Ward, you're going to see economic devastation, no stores, no grocery stores. You're going see a level of poverty that is going to blow your mind. But then if you go to the next neighborhood over, which is a privileged neighborhood. You'll see that they benefit it from a lot of those amenities. And so places where people get pushed out, where FEMA has played the role of pushing us out, then all of a sudden the resource that exists for transit, for other kinds of amenities that communities that have had to endure, environmental racism for generations never had access to.
CLIP [00:18:22] New Orleans ranked fifth in the country's 20 most gentrified cities. For many, the cost of living has surpassed the rate of pay, and the disparities and disadvantages were made even worse after Hurricane Katrina.
CLIP [00:18:33] That's the coverage that we don't hear about. How people actively use the disaster and the misfortune of others to benefit. That's been an ongoing story when it comes to New Orleans that we have a great underclass that people benefit from.
CLIP [00:18:48] It's hard to look at profit numbers after Sandy, when tens of thousands of people believed they were underpaid by the insurance companies, and see that the insurance companies walked away with $400 million in profit.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:19:04] How do you explain that? You just heard Wendell Pierce on Big Think and Laura Sullivan from the front line documentary, Business of Disaster. Elizabeth, have you seen this dynamic of disaster capitalism show up in any other ways?
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:19:20] Capitalism is also people telling our story and coming into our communities. And we saw that during Superstorm Sandy, particularly Hurricane Maria, where college students and universities got the funding to send their students down so that they could observe and take notes. Instead of giving the money to the university of Puerto Rico so that the students in Puerto Rico could then help their families and, and could use their expertise to help their communities. It looks like a lot of different things and it's ugly. So I wanted to say that in response to that, the climate justice Alliance came up what's called a just recovery, a people to people, just recovery in a model of how we move money to the front line and how we ask, what do you need from us and show up and provide what they need at their request and then leave because we're not there to supplant. We're not there. We saw a lot of nonprofits raise money and plant themselves in Puerto Rico when people in Puerto Rican had the solutions and only needed access to the resources. So, the model really is to move away from how you deal with disaster, and how you deal with this idea of coming in as saviors or contemporary missionaries, and show up as real allies at the request of people and say, what do you need? How can we serve? How can we help you? And that's what we're going to need to do with each other when we're dealing with extreme weather events, and the plan is beautiful, and you should check it out.
CLIP [00:20:50] Organizers of this rally calls for people to flood Brooklyn for Gaza, and that's exactly what they did.
CLIP [00:20:55] Thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters are marching through the streets of Brooklyn to call for an end to the bombing and ground invasion of Gaza.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:21:06] I've been really inspired by your personal solidarity with Palestine, kind of connecting to your Puerto Rican roots. Is there anything you want to share about how these connections influence your activism? I want to say that there is the...
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:21:20] This way of people showing up into movement work, which is about the moment and, uh, where they're challenging people and calling each other out. But solidarity is a lifetime. Solidarity is a, is a culture of practice. Solidarity as how you make decisions, who you take money from, who, you don't take money from how you stand up as a people over time. It's not a moment. It is a lifetime of how we do this. And I think that if that solidarity had existed early on and consistently, we probably would not be in this moment right now. When the Israeli tanks roll over olive trees in Palestine, they are creating a brownfield. All of a sudden, you will have contaminated soil, which means that the things that you grow are contaminated and you're going to see a rise in health disparities and cancer in Palestine. So I think I would urge people to also remember that there is genocide happening there, but there's genocide happening here too. There has been genocide in this country and it looks like a lot of different things. And so we need to make sure that we're real clear about, we unpack that word. Because once we're talking about dropping bombs, that's the most extreme, right? That's the most visible. But there are children being starved here. There are people who are being sold poison. There're people that are being put into and maintained in the prison industrial complex. There indigenous nations that live downwind of radioactive waste. That's genocide. They sterilize one third of the women in Puerto Rico in their reproductive years. That was genocide, what happened in Puerto Rico. They did the same thing to black women in the South. And so as the tolerance for those things grows over time and media makes you tolerate those levels of human rights abuses, we end up in a place like we are right now where they're starving children and they're not letting people have access to the things that support their humanity because we have created a tolerance for genocide and a tolerance for human rights abuses. Over time in this country.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:23:34] The biggest takeaway I have from what you say that this isn't just the moment, it's a much longer and bigger struggle that we all need to be aware of and educated and informed on. It's super timely and it really means a lot. So thank you.
Elizabeth Yeampierre [00:23:52] Thank you so much for the opportunity. I do think that every opportunity to speak is an opportunity to engage in transformation and so I hope this is transformative for people that are listening.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:24:07] This conversation with Elizabeth is a reminder. A just transition is already taking shape, not in boardrooms or the C-suite, but in city halls, in the streets, and in communities like Sunset Park. The climate crisis isn't only a story of what we stand against, but of what were capable of building together. If this conversation moved you, let it be more than a story. Let it be a catalyst. Share this episode, talk about it, and get involved in local activism. That is shaping what comes next. Thank you to Wildseeds Fund for making this podcast possible. This episode of A People's Climate is executive produced by Mindy Ramaker, with engineering and sound design by Francisco Núñez Capriles, theme music by Kaffrey J, and additional research by Sarah Morgan, recorded at Studio 132 in Oakland. From Counterstream Media and The Nation, I'm your host, Shilpi Chhotray. Until next time.