ABOUT ELECTED OFFICIALS TO PROTECT AMERICA

Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) is a network of current and former elected officials who care deeply about protecting our planet and people. EOPA is committed to solving the climate crisis, ensuring environmental justice, and protecting our lands and waters. We educate through value-based storytelling, training lawmakers, and connecting elected officials to inspire strong environmental leadership. 

Led by representatives from frontline communities and lawmakers who are veterans, EOPA has a consistent track record of successfully organizing elected officials to promote bold climate action. In New York, our network of more than a thousand lawmakers played a key role in banning fracking statewide and divesting the state from fossil fuels. In California, we organized more than 400 elected officials to help prompt Governor Newsom to declare an end to oil and announce 3,200-foot setbacks on oil and gas drilling. At our nation’s capital, we organized veterans who are lawmakers from 50 states to secure permanent funding for the U.S. Land and Water Conservation Fund. We organized hundreds of elected officials to advance the Green New Deal and phase out fossil fuels.

Extraordinary times require extraordinary leadership. With the accelerating climate emergency, environmental injustices, and ecological crises, the window of opportunity to protect our planet and people is shrinking. With President Biden elevating climate as a key national security priority, we are expanding our work to inspire public officials to leverage our collective power to protect our communities and nation.

Our work has been covered in hundreds of news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times,Politico, CNN, ABC News, and BBC News. Our video production arm, Code Blue, has exposed Saudi Arabia buying up American water, which was later covered in The Guardian.

Now, we are organizing thousands of state and local lawmakers, led by lawmakers who are veterans and represent frontline communities, to mobilize our nation to enact a federal Climate Emergency Plan to create a rapid, just transition away from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy, and take imperative action at state and local levels to protect our public health, communities, and ensure environmental justice.

Our Core Principles:

• Public Stewardship. Elected officials are publicly entrusted to steward our communities, democracy, and future. We believe it is the responsibility of our elected officials, who take a constitutional oath of office to protect the general welfare, to represent and act to secure the common, long-term interests of all who they represent, including marginalized peoples, children, future generations, and all life. 
• Courageous Leadership. Extraordinary challenges require extraordinary leadership. When a problem threatens our public welfare, it is the responsibility of our elected officials to step up and lead the solution. The consequences of failing to address the climate and ecological emergencies are so severe that it threatens our survival as a nation.
• Collective Power. We have the power to join together and collectively lead, no matter the challenge. When a problem crosses jurisdictional boundaries, our elected officials must come together to provide collective leadership to solve the problem. We must provide the collective leadership necessary to protect our people and communities and restore our environment and democracy.