10.20.26 Action Center Update

Written By Side With Love

Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we’ll share:

  • A brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment

  • Immediate actions you can take

  • Resources to deepen knowledge and strengthen our collective work to side with love

Nothing is inevitable. Justice movements are built by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and nurture a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together, we can create a just and thriving future.

Movements are strongest when we act together. Organize with your teams and networks, and take these actions in community. For practical tools, see our Organizing School and Trainings & Webinars.

Climate Justice

Core Principle: A just and loving world is also a flourishing one. A fossil-free future is possible, where clean energy is a human right and all beings thrive. To get there, we must create new systems, norms, and practices.

The Update:

This week’s Climate Justice update connects the fight to Stop Line 5 with opposition to the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), a deregulation bill in permitting reform clothing.  It threatens Tribal Sovereignty and strikes at the foundations of the environmental laws that keep our communities safe from corporations more concerned with profit than people and planet.  We again encourage you to tell you Senators that you strongly disagree with BAAJA.  We need permitting reform but not by gutting environmental laws and attacking Tribal Sovereignty.  The Take Action section below includes a script for calling your Senators, videos from climate/environmental justice organizations opposing BAAJA, and more.

Line 5 is a 73 year old fossil fuel pipeline that carries up to 23 million gallons of crude oil and fossil gas liquids 645 miles, threatening one of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystems. It has spilled at least 1.1 million gallons in the last 50 years. Crossing through the Straits of Mackinac, 400 rivers, streams, and wetlands, Enbridge’s Line 5 is in the worst possible place for an oil spill in the Great Lakes.  In August, Enbridge breached a fresh water aquifer, releasing more than 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquid in the largest reported oil and gas spill in Wisconsin.  This is not the first time either - Enbridge also breached an aquifer while building the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota.  

If this is what happens when our land, water, and communities are protected by federal policies like the National Environmental Protection Act and Clean Water Act.  What would our world be like without those policies?

Also in August, a Federal Appeals Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Enbridge has been trespassing on the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe’s reservation but ordered a federal judge to revisit the $5.15 million in restitution to the Tribe and shortened the previous timeline from three years to a “reasonable opportunity” to complete the reroute.  Earthjustice Senior Attorney Stefanie Tsosie, who represents the Bad River Tribe, said “Each day, Enbridge operates Line 5 in illegal trespass and makes more than a million dollars in profit.”  

Last week, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources accused Enbridge of numerous violations during Line 5 construction and issued the fossil fuel company a Notice of Violation that details Enbridge’s “persistent pattern of non-compliance” with Wisconsin’s laws that protect our air, water, and wildlife.  According to Clean Wisconsin, “This project should never have been permitted by the DNR in the first place. We are now seeing in real time the risk our state bears so Enbridge can use our Northwoods as a pass through for its pipeline.”

Citing violations of treaty rights and environmental hazards, the Bad River Band has taken legal action to remove Line 5 from their land. In the clear call from Stop Line 5,

The fight against Line 5 is emblematic of broader struggles for Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, and the protection of water resources for future generations.

Shutting down Line 5 is not just an environmental necessity—it is a call to honor treaties, respect Indigenous sovereignty, and safeguard one of the world’s most vital freshwater systems. 

This isn’t just about one community—it’s about our environment and respecting Indigenous sovereignty.  When corporations and governments ignore treaty rights, they put ecosystems and generations at risk.

Can you imagine how much more egregious Enbridge’s violations would be if the well-contested permitting process was streamlined and environmental protection laws were deregulated?  Corporations like Enbridge have proven themselves untrustworthy to place people and planet over profit. 

In last week’s Action Center, we raised many concerns with the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA).  To be clear, it weakens bedrock environmental laws and attacks tribal sovereignty.  We are aligned with the leadership of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), and the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers in their opposition to BAAJA, which would rewrite Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act:

For tribes, the stakes are high. Section 106 provides a framework for consultation that respects tribal sovereignty and their rights to protect historical and cultural sites. Any changes that could weaken these protections threaten the very core of tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction.

Since 1967, Unitarian Universalists have aligned with Tribal nations against continued encroachment on their lands for resources, including renewable energy.  Our opposition to BAAJA, on Indigenous Sovereignty grounds, is aligned with at least 59 years of UU precedent. 

Furthermore, many Unitarian Universalists honor the U.S. constitution as a sacred moral framework.  We take great pride that our free and responsible search for truth and meaning so well compliments our nation’s First Amendment freedom of religion, and that our UU commitment to democracy reflects our nation’s founding documents.  In the wisdom of Klee Benally (Diné), “The hypocrisy of the ‘US’ constitutional foundation of ‘religious freedom’ is most apparent in the struggle to protect Indigenous sacred places. Today, Indigenous Peoples have no guaranteed legal protections for threatened sacred places, which are largely located on so-called ‘public lands.’”  As Unitarian Universalists, the strength of our faith is in our principled living of our professed values.  Rooted in our powerful religious history of both just action and faithful dissent, Unitarian Universalists today stake our faith tradition on the urgent call to act for liberation in this country.  What does it mean for our nation to have such a glaring inconsistency?  As persistent defenders of freedom of religion, as Americans of faith and conscience, we must protect the already-limited legal protections of Native sacred sites.  If we believe in liberty and justice for all, if we honor the inherent worth and dignity of every person, we must not make exceptions for Native life and land.  We must be accomplices with the sacred.

For those of us who believe that the United States can be more than its white supremacist origins of genocide and enslavement, who believe in a country that could actually practice its professed values, we must know that actually honoring our treaties with sovereign Indigenous Peoples is a necessary step. 

Sacred Roots: Indigenous Rights, Resistance and Reclamation (2014)

It is contrary to our values that treaty rights of Indigenous peoples have been too long denied and their voices silenced,

The histories and current experiences of Indigenous peoples have been suppressed by colonialism and western capitalist ideology,

We, as people who have inherited a culture of colonialism, have been ignorant of our interconnectedness with Indigenous peoples and the planet, resulting in human rights abuses and an environmental crisis,

The need to take action in the promotion of all rights of Indigenous peoples is imperative to the future of humankind.

The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) represents a "Legislative Assault on the Sovereignty of Tribal Nations."  As Unitarian Universalists, we must not sacrifice Native communities in our country’s pursuit of energy infrastructure.  We must not sacrifice protective climate legislation in the pursuit of permit reform.  Our faith, rooted in loving justice, demands that we do not settle for so-called progress that further harms frontline and Indigenous communities.  In our free faith, we are ultimately responsible for our values.  When we take a serious look at our professed values of Justice and Interdependence, how must we faithfully approach this legislation?

Unitarian Universalists respect the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part.  Our futures are entwined with Indigenous Peoples.  When Tribes oppose both Line 5 and the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), as Unitarian Universalists committed to climate justice, we must follow frontline leadership and advance their priorities as we organize for collective liberation.

A truly livable future for all is possible.  Let us courageously advance climate justice. 

Take Action: 

  • Call your members of Congress to OPPOSE the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA):

  • Find their phone number here. Leaving a message counts too!

  • Sample script: 

    • Hi, my name is [NAME] and I live in [CITY, or "your district"]. I am calling to ask [REP NAME] to reject the so-called "permitting reform" bill, which would be the biggest rollback in environmental protections we have ever seen, and is a clear giveaway to data centers and the fossil fuel industry. Passing this reform would reward toxic and polluting industries while cutting the ability of vulnerable communities and tribes from opposing bad projects. Stand with the people and reject permitting reform.

  • Sign on to any of the following petitions opposing BAAJA:

  • Write to restore Solar for All. The Solar for All was a grant program under the Inflation Reduction Act that provided opportunities for low-income households, Tribes, and other disadvantaged communities with the funds to provide solar energy alternatives. In August 2025, the EPA under the Trump administration, terminated the grant program.  Lawsuits were filed by RI’s AFL-CIO and another filed by Harris County, Texas. The two federal courts have now ruled that termination unlawful, and the letter below asks your member of Congress to call on EPA to restore the program and release the $7 billion already committed to lowering energy bills nationwide.

Resources:

October 21, 2026 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM ET Online The Trump Administration has removed protections from more than 86 million acres of public lands, and millions more of our beloved landscapes and wildlife are in imminent danger of expanded mining, drilling, and timber harvests with limited consultation with Tribes and Nations and public comment. As our lands, waters, and habitats are under attack, UUs passed the 2026 AIW to Defend Against the Assault on Environmental Protections: Public Lands Rules and the Endangerment Finding. As part of our Standing Rock Anniversary events, join Deb Cruz from JUUstice WA, for a discussion about current issues and how we can protect public lands from the onslaught of logging, fossil fuel and other extractive industry projects.---Guided by UU values, the Green Sanctuary community nurtures resilient, thriving communities through climate actions that prioritize justice. All are invited to join our monthly community meetings to learn together, support each other, and celebrate progress.

Side With Love
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10.14.26 Action Center Update