Northwest Indiana has long been one of the most industrialized corridors in the country. The cities of East Chicago, Hammond, and Whiting, situated on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, are dominated by oil refineries, steel mills, and chemical plants. The BP Whiting Refinery, one of the largest in the U.S., anchors the area—bringing jobs, but also frequent accidents, flaring events, and generations of toxic pollution. These communities are known as “sacrifice zones”—bearing disproportionate burdens of fossil fuel pollution and health risks. Blue hydrogen is made from natural gas, with carbon emissions captured and stored underground instead of being released. It requires pipelines to transport both the hydrogen to users and the captured carbon dioxide to storage sites. JTNWI recognized the urgent need for door-to-door education and organizing to counter corporate narratives and ensure residents’ voices were heard. Launched in June 2023, the canvass aimed to educate residents, capture community concerns, and build local leadership around the MachH2 project.

Since 2018, the Climate Advocacy Lab has distributed Climate Justice Microgrants to 25 environmental justice and climate justice organizations around the United States who are doing powerful work to protect and improve their communities.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including a new international sustainability poll from POLITICO and Morning Consult, findings about the public’s reactions to different terms for methane gas, and state-level polls in Indiana, Maryland, and Wisconsin._­

Bipartisan majorities of Indiana voters support net metering and expanding renewable energy use in the state. 75% of Indiana voters support net metering, including 74% of Republicans and 72% of Trump voters. 74% of Indiana voters support expanding the use of renewable energy in Indiana, including 63% of Republicans.

Different parts of the country see various kinds of extreme weather as most concerning, perceptions which are largely in line with actual major disasters that have occurred in those regions. This report provides concern profiles for the 18 largest states, drawing on survey data from 2018 and 2019. Over half of Americans see such extreme weather events posting a high or moderate risk to their community in the coming decade, and two thirds see a climate link to US weather (though only a third think climate affects our weather "a lot").