ABOUT US
Empowering Leadership for the Environment, Public Health, and Climate Change
We are a network of over a thousand state and local elected officials from all 50 states committed to solving the climate crisis while protecting our communities, public health, and environment.
By empowering elected officials to protect public health, local economies, and communities, we are shifting the mainstream standard for climate leadership to action on the scale of the crisis our fossil fuel based economy has created.
We are laying the groundwork for national climate policy to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Fossil fuel production causes critical health conditions and devastate low income community. Our policies to protect our health and disadvantaged communities more than justifies the transition to a 100% clean energy economy.
We will help create a national clean energy economy that will generate thousands of good paying jobs.
Find out what we are doing on the national level HERE.
MISSION
WHY NOW
Imperative for Leadership
The federal government’s National Climate Assessment predicts economic losses will exceed the GDP of many states, and our military is responding to climate change as a key threat to national security.
According to the United Nations, we only have 11 and a half years left before extreme weather conditions become the norm. If nothing is done, millions will die across the globe. Mass migration will start conflicts. These wars will add to the starvation. We are at a tipping point.
We have to take action now. We need leadership.
With federal action stalled, state and local levels must lay groundwork for national climate policy. Yet very few state and local officials are prioritizing climate change; not enough elected officials are aware of the crisis’s severity, imperative action to solve it, and how their voices can turn the tide.
Our Signatories
Building Leadership
Since 2015, we have mobilized hundreds of state and local lawmakers from every state.
We started organizing our peer elected officials at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009. EOPA was originally started with seven current and former state representatives, mayors, and elected officials from California, Maine, New York, and North Carolina.
We held a press conference and participated in the historic Paris Climate Change Accord, highlighting our sign on letter demanding high climate change standards.
We’ve met with U.S. Senators and
Representatives on Capitol Hill to progress legislation that became law. We’ve met with White House officials. We’ve helped laws pass at the state level.
We have trained lawmakers in 45 state capitals and at national elected officials conferences, and organized 3,000 of our peers to create and enact policy.
OUR STORY
OUR WORK
Collective Leadership
From trainings to messaging solutions, we empower elected officials to create and advance strong policy solutions.
We connect and organize lawmakers to support policies that protect public health, the environment and grow clean energy jobs, while empowering courageous leadership on climate change.
Learn more about our ongoing work in states HERE.
Our Team
Alex Cornell du Houx, Co-Founder and President
Alex Cornell du Houx was elected to the Maine House of Representatives and quickly became one of its most active members. Sponsoring and co-sponsoring 155 bills his first term, and 136 his second term. In total sponsoring 14 successful pieces of legislation and co-sponsoring 98 successful bills. Cornell du Houx won the Reed Award for the best public affairs campaign in 2011 for co-founding and running Operation Free, a coalition of veterans working on energy and climate security. He participated and led State Department delegations to Southeast Asia, is a Kentucky Colonel, a board member and senior advisor to the Veterans Campaign, the Solon Center for Research and Publishing, Partner with the Truman National Security Project, and founded the Maine New Leaders Council.
Cornell du Houx is an instructor at the Veterans Campaign and the University of San Francisco for their Masters in Public Leadership. He is a certified trainer with the New Leaders Council, the Truman Project, and a leadership coach with ChoiceCenter Leadership University. He served in the Marine Corps infantry and has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Cornell du Houx is currently a Public Affairs Officer with the Navy Reserve.
Dominic Frongillo, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Former Caroline, New York Councilmember and Deputy Supervisor Dominic Frongillo in 2012 founded Elected Officials to Protect New York, a bipartisan initiative uniting and coordinating over nearly 1,000 local elected officials to successfully fight high-volume hydro-fracking and achieve New York’s renewable energy goal of 50 percent by 2030.
Frongillo is a five-time delegate to the United Nations climate negotiations. He is a Climate Reality Project Presenter trained by Al Gore and he trains elected officials nationally on climate for the Young Elected Officials Network and Local Progress.
Christian Brock, EOPA
Operations Director
Director of Operations, Christian Brock led EOPA California and EOPA Protecting Americas Lands programs, promoting California’s transition to a renewable energy based economy and the protection of U.S. National Parks, monuments, memorials and over 40,000 public lands.
He managed the Gabe Griess for California State Senate District-3 campaign. Christian is a retired Major, with over 20-years as a Logistics Readiness officer in the U.S. Air Force.
Anna Therese Day, EOPA Code Blue Director
Communications Senior Advisor Anna Therese Day is an award-winning independent reporter, social media researcher, regularly contributor to The New York Times, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Huffington Post, and AJ+. Recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of their 30 Under 30 in the Media Category for 2017.
Day is a Fulbright Fellow, U.N. Press Fellow, and was named one of Google Zeitgeist’s top 30 Great Young Minds of Our Time. The Shorty Awards for Social Media recognized her as one of the Top 10 Journalists of the Year. Day is currently reporting on how wildfires become more dangerous with climate change. In the Pacific, she has documented the life of climate refugees.
Rep. Paul Evans, Co-Chair EOPA Leadership Council
Paul Evans has served in the Oregon House of Representatives since 2015. At age 18, Paul was elected as a city councilor, and went on to become mayor of Monmouth from 1999 to 2002. Evans served in the Oregon Air National Guard and United States Air Force for 20 years before retiring in 2013. He participated in combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He worked with Governor Kulongoski as a senior advisor for Emergency Management, Military, and Veterans’ Affairs for over three years.
In the private sector he became Chief of the Protection and National Security Division for High Impact Technology. He earned a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, has taught at Western Oregon University and Oregon State University, and has volunteered as a senior firefighter with Polk County Fire District. Now, he continues to serve as a state representative and a Speech Communication Professor at Chemeketa Community College.
Rep. Debbie Sariñana,
Co-Chair EOPA Leadership Council
New Mexico State Representative Debbie Sariñana has served House District 21 in Albuquerque since 2016. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from New Mexico State University, and her Masters in Secondary Education-Mathematics from the University of New Mexico. Debbie currently serves on the Veteran Affairs Committee, the Energy, Natural Resources & Wildlife Committee and the Education Committee. Previously, she was a computer programmer at White Sands Missile Range, while serving in the U. S. Air Force. Debbie currently works as a Math Teacher at Manzano High School in Albuquerque.
Andy Katz, EOPA California Co-Founder
California Co-Founder, Legal Advisor, and California East Bay Municipal Utility District Director Andy Katz is an environmental and workers’ rights attorney, public health advocate, elected Director to the California East Bay Municipal Utility District in Berkeley, California, and former chair of Sierra Club California. At the United Nations Climate Conference, Andy has led negotiations for the Sierra Club and had an active role in the negotiations that led to the Paris Agreement. He is an environmental planner and air quality advocate for Breathe California.
Meghan Sahli-Wells, EOPA California Co-Founder and Co-Chair
California Co-Chair and Culver City, California Vice Mayor and former Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells has championed policies on climate change, active transportation, equity, clean water, government transparency, and urban oil drilling. A Board Director of the Westside Cities Council of Governments and the Southern California Association of Governments Energy and Environment Committee, Sahli-Wells is one of the founding Board Members of Local Progress, a national network of over 600 progressive municipal elected officials.