Environmental & Climate Justice

Liberty Hill’s Power of Persistence report recounts the story of L.A.’s hard-fought victory for environmental justice. With more than 5,000 oil wells in the City of Los Angeles and over 22,000 in the County of Los Angeles, data shows that a significant portion of the oil activity in L.A. exists within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, and other public areas.

On our recent “From Port to River: Environmental Justice Bus Tour,” Liberty Hill community partners and donor activists embarked on a tour along the I-710 and I-110 corridors, meeting with frontline organizers to learn about the impacts of ports, refineries, and warehousing on local L.A. communities.

This past month, Liberty Hill’s Senior Director of Environmental & Climate Justice Angelo Logan— who is also a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council—joined a special event at The White House to witness President Biden’s signing of an Environmental Justice Executive Order which will expand the administration’s climate and environmental justice efforts nationwide.

In March, co-hosts Liberty Hill and Resources Legacy Fund convened environmental justice leaders, local government, and diverse community organizations to learn about new federal funding programs and Justice40 Initiative opportunities for L.A. based communities.

Don’t miss the social justice event of the year! Join the Liberty Hill community for the 40th Annual Upton Sinclair Celebration: Uniting Power & Purpose at the Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, April 19!

This past year’s election produced an historic crop of victories. The Los Angeles political landscape has seen changes big and small that will shape policy for years to come.

At a press conference hosted by Supervisor Holly Mitchell, whose district includes the largest urban oil field in the country and who championed the ordinance, she emphasized that, "We are here today because communities impacted by oil drilling fought relentlessly for justice for their communities."

Thanks to the tireless work of our dedicated frontline partners and the support of our growing community of donor activists, we can and will continue to drive progress toward a just and equal L.A. County for all. We can’t wait to continue building on this momentum together in the new year!

On Friday, December 2nd, our partners in the STAND-L.A. coalition achieved a milestone victory when the L.A. City Council voted unanimously (12-0) to adopt the final ordinance to prohibit new oil and gas drilling and phase out all existing drilling throughout the entire city!

"emPOWER," a groundbreaking local environmental justice program, is expanding beyond L.A. County to bring savings, upgrades, and clean energy to more low-income Southern California residents.

In case you missed any of the engaging episodes, you can check out the very first season of our Podcast Conversations From The Frontlines: Real Talk, Real Change with Shane Murphy Goldsmith here or on your favorite podcast platforms.

Liberty Hill honors the Latinx/e-led organizations that continue the fight for justice in their local communities and beyond. We are proud to partner with organizations and leaders who have dedicated their work and missions to improving systemic conditions and bringing community-led solutions to life.

Liberty Hill is proud to welcome EJ Leader Angelo Logan as the new Senior Director of Environmental Justice. Angelo has served as a leader in the environmental and climate justice fields for more than 22 years. He got his start as an organizer for Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) in 2000 when they successfully fought the location of a polluting power plant in Southeast LA.

One of the youngest organizers for ending oil drilling in Los Angeles, Nalleli Cobo, was honored with the Goldman Environmental Prize for North America last month, a distinguished honor which recognizes courageous environmental activists from around the world.

Get ready to dive into some challenging conversations about how to make the real change we are fighting for possible! Liberty Hill is launching a new podcast called "Conversations From The Frontlines: Real Talk, Real Change" hosted by Liberty Hill President and CEO Shane Murphy Goldsmith.

Liberty Hill helps grassroots leaders make lasting change! This Liberty Hill Flashback is from a recent visit by Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, who joined our partners from Stand L.A. on the frontlines to understand how neighborhood oil drilling affects disadvantaged communities.

This week—after years of patient and steadfast organizing by community organizations supported by Liberty Hill—the L.A. City Council put an end to the practice of poisoning our communities with toxic oil and gas drilling operations! They voted unanimously to draft an ordinance to prohibit all new oil and gas drilling and to phase-out existing drilling operations throughout all areas of the City of Los Angeles!

Thank you for helping Liberty Hill and our partners call attention to the urgent need to phase-out oil drilling in Los Angeles. Now, we have a chance to amplify that message statewide by telling Governor Newsom and state leaders to adopt strong public health and safety rules. Sign the petition to tell Governor Newsom to adopt the strongest possible statewide regulations.

This was truly a banner year for activism and progress! We have much work to do on the road ahead, but we couldn’t be prouder to take this journey with you—our Beloved Community.

Currently, California is the only oil-producing state in the country without a minimum distance requirement between oil wells and the people who live and work in the frontline communities in the immediate vicinity. But this past week, the state of California took bold action to increase environmental protections for vulnerable communities.

After years of activism and organizing including huge wins and painful setbacks—the Environmental Justice movement to end toxic neighborhood oil drilling in L.A. County secured a huge landmark victory yesterday!

The report looks at R2R’s strategies to transform the justice system and to reinvest in the health and well-being of historically excluded young people and their communities.

Affordable housing adjacent to a public transit hub. A public park that captures stormwater during the raining season and provides respite from summer heat.

Los Angeles is at the heart of a changing environmental future. Environmental justice and equity are at the center of this future: righting past wrongs and supporting communities committed to equal access to the benefits of a better environment.

This year brought challenges the likes of which the world hasn’t faced in a century—with a pandemic raging around the globe and ineffective leadership from the White House here at home–COVID-19 took an immeasurable toll on all of us.

The 2020 election was generation-defining in many respects—from the record-breaking turnout to the critical social justice issues on the ballot for millions of Americans—a coalition of diverse voters, led by Black and Brown organizers, showed up to flex their electoral power in major ways this year.

For years, Liberty Hill’s donor-activists have walked with the neighborhood activists of the STAND-LA coalition as they took on drilling in their neighborhoods. We’ve made sure their testimony of respiratory illnesses, dizzying headaches and foul smells was heard widely. We’ve made sure their efforts had the support they needed.

Last week, Culver City council members voted unanimously to phase out urban oil drilling in the city’s portion of the Inglewood Oil Field. This was the first and necessary step toward a just transition while protecting residents from a legacy of toxic emissions.

Low-income households in California face larger energy, transportation and water affordability burdens than other populations. emPOWER is a coordinated L.A. County-wide outreach program with a mission to overcome barriers to sustainable energy usage commonly experienced in low-income and working class communities of color.

Low-income households in California face larger energy, transportation and water affordability burdens than other populations in terms of the percentage of the household income spent on utilities.

This past year, the youth climate movement sprang into action in a major way. With coordinated climate protests across the globe and increased civic engagement here at home, today’s youth are leading the way toward the environmental justice victories of tomorrow.

Glen Dake seems to work on a vision of Los Angeles the way he works on a vision of a particular community garden or landscape—with lots of practical, hands-on effort. He supports nonprofit organizations, not only through Liberty Hill’s grantmaking, but also, with his sister Renee Dake Wilson and her husband Brian Wilson, through a donor advised fund housed at Liberty Hill. He has also served on Liberty Hill’s Environmental Justice Community Funding Board.

This past April, Liberty Hill hosted a bus tour that provided an opportunity for 40 funders with the Climate and Energy Funders Group (CEFG) to explore challenges and innovations around energy and the environment in Los Angeles.

In a tremendous win for our environmental justice agenda, officials recently announced the permanent closure of the Jefferson oil drilling site in South L.A.!

For Liberty Hill, environmental justice is a cornerstone of social justice. However, many residents in low-income and working class communities of color have traditionally been left behind by innovations in clean energy and solar power, which could mean a lack of access to readily available savings and important community health improvements.

This spring, Liberty Hill joined community-based environmental health and justice organizations to host five Sustainability Expos + Fairs with over 370 participants in order to solicit public input on the draft countywide Sustainability Plan that we and our partners helped to create.

In the fight to end neighborhood oil drilling across Los Angeles’ communities, every small victory is worth celebrating, and every campaign move is an opportunity to highlight the public health challenges that communities face.

Liberty Hill is pleased to announce that our 2018 Fund for Change grants will invest $975,800 in 39 grassroots organizations throughout Los Angeles County. Thanks to the generosity of our donor-activists and foundation partners, we have been able to increase our Fund for Change grantmaking by $256,800 since 2016.

Remember what it was like to be a kid? What would you have done, at 12 years old, if you couldn’t breathe because of the oil drilling site next door? What if, at 16 you were sent to jail for being late to school?

These days the news can be overwhelming. Stories of violence, injustice and oppression fill our feeds almost daily. Meanwhile, hateful ideas are being given an increasingly visible platform at the national level.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health validated today what hundreds of residents living near urban oil drilling sites have already known: proximity to oil drilling is hazardous to their health. Many active oil wells in Los Angeles are next to places where people live, work and play, causing nosebleeds, nausea, respiratory illness and dizziness.

"At Liberty Hill, environmental justice is a core value and one of our top priorities. Over the years we have powered landmark environmental campaigns, including today’s fight to end oil drilling near homes and schools in Los Angeles—the nation’s largest urban oil field.

Exciting environmental news from one of Liberty Hill’s long fought, diligently worked campaigns. On Thursday, June 22 the policy known as Clean Up Green Up was honored with the American Planning Association (APA LA) award for Excellence in Innovation in Green Community Planning at the 2017 L.A. Awards.

You can’t help but think in garden metaphors when talking to Glen Dake, a landscape architect,  prominent advocate for “green agenda” issues in Los Angeles, and one of Liberty Hill’s most active donor- activists.