policy and politics working group

The FCAC Politics and Policy working group works to identify opportunities to achieve real steps towards climate action institutionalized through legislation at the local and state level. This work involves considering key policies to advocate for, building relationships with legislators to suggest and move policies forward into reality, and keeping an eye on elections and political opportunities to raise the prominence and possibility of climate policy in our community.

Assembly votes unanimously against Climate Action and Adaptation PlaN

On Thursday evening, the Borough Assembly unanimously voted against the FNSB Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP), albeit for very different reasons. Assemblymembers Haney, Wilson, Cash, Lojewski, and Rotermund seemed to think the plan should have never been written, Cash even expressing the idea that nothing can or should be done about climate change. Meanwhile O’Neall, Kelly, Fletcher, and Guttenberg voted against it because they felt the version had been gutted to the point of being ineffective after the second committee got their hands on it. After over 60 people rallying and 3 hours of positive testimony, finally, at 1:00 am on June 8th, the Fairbanks Borough Climate Plan that had been in the works since 2019 was rejected.


But what we saw that night was a community that comes together for each other. We saw the deep love that our community members have for each other, and many of us left with a strong feeling of of determination to make sure that the public holds Lojewski, Haney, Cash, Wilson, and Rotermund accountable for their rejection of what this community needs. We also have so much gratitude to those Assembly members who did choose to listen to the people and stand up for the future we need.

Assemblymember Mindy O’Neall summed it up well, saying, “I thought tonight would be a lot different. I thought tonight would be a night of exhilaration, of hope. I thought tonight would be happy, proud, that we would be accountable, resilient, courageous. I was hoping that we would be leaders in our state… But instead… This is justice unserved by this committee… Respectfully, what this climate plan is, is an underwhelming, disrespectful, undermined, ignorant, blatant subversion, less hopeful version of what our community could be… This plan is fake… I cannot support it. Not like this. This is not what I envisioned. This is not what the community envisioned. This is not what we heard our community say they wanted.”

Click below to read our full statement.

Recent Press

KUAC - Climate Plan rejected after long hearing and rally

Fairbanks Daily Newsminer - Climate Action Plan draws public rally before Borough Assembly meeting

Fairbanks Daily Newsminer - Assembly votes down climate action plan

The original climate action plan

This summer, we collectively mourned as the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan we had worked so hard on as a community was butchered, and then ultimately killed. But it doesn’t have to be over. That plan we worked so hard on is still out there, and if we have Borough Assembly members that care about their constituents’ needs, we can get it passed. Click on the links below to read the original Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.

Our work:

  • Organizing in order to successfully help initiate the Fairbanks North Star Borough Climate Action & Adaptation Plan, first prompted via resolution in 2019 and then started in earnest via a contractor in 2022

  • Driving community engagement in the public feedback process for the Climate Action Plan, helping to ensure that the plan is ambitious and intersectional enough to truly represent a step forward for climate justice

  • Holding candidates accountable to climate action, particularly in low-turnout municipal elections

  • Developing a strong policy platform and working with elected officials to turn it into tangible policies

Climate Plan in the News

Since the FNSB Climate Action and Adaptation plan was gutted earlier this year, there has been an outpouring of outrage from our community. Read the letters to the editor that community members have written expressing their feelings on the state of the plan, and their ideas on what needs to be done.

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