Green Amendments Are Demonstrating Their Progress & Power in
- Michigan
- New York
- Connecticut
- Pennsylvania
- Taking on data centers &
- Challenging the threats ICE poses to communities & our environment.
In this issue … be inspired, take action, learn more & engage.
(And don’t forget to join our Action Platform and your state’s community, to always be first in the know.)
If you can, please support all this great work with a donation.
Our work would not be possible without the generous support of members like you. Please consider donating today, perhaps for your own legacy, in honor of someone else, or in celebration of a wonderful Earth Month. Every dollar makes a difference, allowing our movement to reach more people across the nation and empower them with the achievable reality of Green Amendments.
Spotlight Stories
Michigan Green Amendment Proposed in Celebration of Earth Day!
On Earth Day 2026, Representative Donavan McKinney, Senator Sue Shink, & Representative Phil Skeggs, joined by Green Amendments Founder Maya van Rossum, took to the press podium and announced the proposal of the Michigan Green Amendment. Representative Natalie Price, a core of youth activists, as well as Michigan Green Amendment Coalition leaders all joined in support.
In less than a week, 40 legislators signed on as cosponsors of the newly announced Michigan Green Amendment; that means 36% (a full one-third) of the entire Michigan legislature have signed on as co-sponsors!
If you are from Michigan, be sure to join the Action platform community to stay fully aware of next steps and ways to engage – and learn behind the scenes insights about what is going on.
Rather than characterize the energy of the day, we will let the press conference video speak for itself. Check out the video here.
BONUS: We also got some exclusive interviews with a few of our legislative champions, Rep. Donavan McKinney and Sen. Sue Shink, where they make the case for a Michigan Green Amendment!
& … Earth Day In PA!
Green Amendments For The Generations was also present in Union County, PA, on Earth Day, where Green Amendment Advocacy Coordinator Shaelyn Parker and Staff Attorney Devon Guyer gave a presentation on the power of the Pennsylvania Green Amendment for securing transformational environmental protections! Thank you so much to the Sierra Club North Central Pennsylvania Group, Climate Reality Project’s Susquehanna Valley PA Chapter, and the Bucknell University Center for Sustainability & the Environment for hosting us for an engaging, earth-honoring event! Read more about that talk here.
GAFTG Files To Defend Communities, Environment & Environmental Rights from proposed ICE Detention Centers
On April 17, Green Amendments For The Generations filed a legal petition to intervene in an administrative appeal filed by the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that challenges Orders issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
GAFTG’s filing seeks intervention in order to ensure communities and the environment secure full legal and constitutional protection from ICE’s plans to transform a warehouse in Schuylkill County, PA into a detention facility for 7,500 detainees.
“Given the known lack of water and sewage infrastructure needed to properly serve the high numbers being proposed for the warehouses, it is very foreseeable that these facilities could result in dangerous and inhumane conditions for the detainees, while at the same time harming the surrounding communities.”
Maya van Rossum, Founder of Green Amendments For The Generations.
The legal filing was paralleled by sister organization Delaware Riverkeeper Network, seeking to intervene in the same appeal concerning another warehouse-to-detention plan in Berks County, PA.
While the PA Department of Environmental Protection issued Administrative Orders regarding drinking water, wastewater, environmental, health and safety legal mandates the facilities would have to comply with before their operations could be considered, DHS has appealed those Orders to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board.
If our petition is granted, GAFTG will become a full party to the case.
Read the full press release here.
Are you from PA and want to take action to help defend our environment and communities from ICE plans to transform warehouses to detention centers?
Sign on to our letter to Gov. Shapiro and the PA DEP, encouraging them to stand strong on the firm mandates within the Administrative Orders.
Connecticut Alliance Sends Powerful Letter to State Attorney General
The Connecticut Environmental Rights Amendment (CTERA) Alliance led an effort to send a letter to Attorney General William Tong, urging him to support the values and benefits of the CTERA (Connecticut’s version of a Green Amendment). 35 organizations signed onto the letter, which was also sent to members of the Government Administration and Elections Committee (where the Amendment passed by a majority committee vote) and co-sponsors of the CTERA. The letter makes the case about how Green Amendments elsewhere have benefited communities and how Connecticut has the opportunity to be the first state in the nation to recognize, within its constitution, the right of the people to a safe climate system.
Read the full letter from organizations.
Read the press release on the letter.
Action Opportunities
New York Action Opportunity!
NEW YORKERS: WE NEED YOU TO RAISE YOUR VOICE IN DEFENSE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS YOU FOUGHT SO HARD FOR!
Sign on to the letter to the New York State Attorney General now, asking that she embrace the Green Amendment as an opportunity to:
- better protect the people of New York,
- prevent and address environmental racism,
- position New York as a leader in addressing the climate crisis,
- create a legacy that protects both present and future generations, and
- ensure that all New Yorkers have a recognized and honored seat at the decisionmaking table – through the power of our constitutional Bill of Rights.
Don’t let the dream of the New York Green Amendment fade away!Sign on today at https://bit.ly/ProtectMyNYRights.
New Resources
We are excited to announce several new Green Amendments resources now available on our website!
The Pennsylvania Green Amendment – Both Opportunity & Obligation
A Guide for Pennsylvania Municipalities
This new guide is written for Pennsylvania municipal officials and advocates alike, to guide readers in their understanding of the opportunities and obligations the PA Green Amendment creates for municipal government. Learn about:
- local government’s duty to respect the environmental rights of the people and to act as trustee of the state’s natural resources,
- what this means in action for government’s day-to-day decision-making,
- and examples of how governments have relied on the PA Green Amendment to protect our environment & environmental rights for present and future generations.
Download your copy of the guide.
Fact Sheet: How Can Green Amendments Help Communities Threatened by Data Centers?
Ever wondered how Green Amendments can be part and parcel with your advocacy efforts regarding data centers? This quick fact sheet runs through how the mechanics of a Green Amendment can help to defend communities against these environmental threats, even in the absence of local legislation, regulation, and ordinances.
The Pennsylvania Green Amendment & Data Centers
How To Exercise Your Constitutional Environmental Rights
When it comes to the rapid proliferation of hyperscale data centers, there is a lack of laws, regulations, ordinances and/or zoning protections—at the local, state and federal levels—that provide the protections communities need. That’s where the Pennsylvania Green Amendment comes in. Every time a data center needs a special approval, change, or exception to zoning, it is an opportunity to raise your concerns and your constitutionally protected environmental rights. This guide walks through how you can do just that, and provides some advocacy tools to craft your data center comments.
Download your copy of the toolkit at: https://bit.ly/GADataCenterGuidePA
Upcoming Events
PA Virtual Town Hall on Data Centers
The Better Path Coalition and No False Climate Solutions PA are hosting a statewide virtual town hall on data centers from 7 – 9 p.m. on May 13.
You can register to attend the Town Hall and sign on to the official engraved invitation to Governor Shapiro through the links on our website.
If you can, please support all this great work with a donation.
Our work would not be possible without the generous support of members like you. Please consider donating today, perhaps for your own legacy, in honor of someone else, or in celebration of a wonderful Earth Month. Every dollar makes a difference, allowing our movement to reach more people across the nation and empower them with the achievable reality of Green Amendments.
