By CEED, Oct 3, 2025
Press statement from the Equitable & Just National Climate Platform (EJNCP), a coalition of EJ groups and national environmental organizations from across the country united around a shared commitment to climate & environmental justice. Center for Earth, Energy & Democracy (CEED) serves as member and convener of the coalition.
October 2, 2025, Washington DC | As our communities across the country face the disastrous impacts of the government shutdown, the Equitable & Just National Climate Platform (EJNCP) calls on lawmakers to pass a bipartisan funding bill that prioritizes people, not polluters.
The Trump administration is seeking to exploit the shutdown crisis to further dismantle environmental protections. The Trump administration is using the shutdown as a pretext to intensify its campaign of mass firings and systemic understaffing of critical agencies that provide essential and lifesaving services to the American people, effectively stripping vulnerable communities of power, protection and resources.
Under the shutdown contingency plan, the EPA will halt oversight and review of permits to protect our air and water. The shutdown will also halt most critical EPA inspections that ensure clean water in communities all over the country. Communities everywhere could be exposed to contaminated water with no way to know until the health and environmental damage has been done, and it’s too late.
The shutdown has resulted in the Department of Energy canceling over $7.5 billion in clean energy investments. The targeted elimination of hundreds of clean energy projects will cost our communities thousands of good jobs and drive up energy costs in states across the country.
Additionally, as hurricane season threatens our coastal communities, the shutdown will stymie disaster response efforts at a time when families need them most. Many Americans’ flood insurance coverage would be jeopardized, leaving vulnerable communities with inadequate protection against catastrophic storms.
The government shutdown would push already understaffed and underfunded agencies to the breaking point. Staffing shortages at critical agencies including the National Weather Service will undermine our ability to track hurricanes, floods, and wildfires — putting lives at risk in real time.
Environmental justice communities, already facing the brunt of pollution, flooding, and health disparities, are being sacrificed in service of a corporate agenda that prioritizes polluters’ profits over people.
We deserve a government that makes everyday costs like energy and healthcare affordable rather than increasing costs for families and enriching billionaires and corporations. We urge lawmakers to return to the negotiating table and initiate a good-faith process toward a funding bill that prioritizes environmental justice and climate-impacted communities, protects environmental programs, and lowers costs for working families.
The Equitable & Just National Climate Platform (EJNCP)is a coalition of EJ groups and national environmental organizations from across the country united around a shared commitment to ending the environmental racism that has left economically disadvantaged communities, Indigenous communities, Black communities, and communities of color exposed to disproportionate levels of toxic pollution and bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. Our coalition has stood strong for over seven years around our shared vision for a just climate future— and our platform has grown to include over 300 co-signer organizations from all over the country.
