New Year, New(ish) Workgroup
Rosa Hance, Sara Ramotnik, and Kristin Reilly discussing Land Use Workgroup rebrand.
Sitting back and reflecting on the work of the past year is not an easy task, and one that I’ve been avoiding for weeks. Beginning this year with the executive orders proclaiming America’s Energy Dominance does not exactly match the tone or tenor of the way I prefer to conduct business leading the Choose Clean Water Coalition’s Energy workgroup. My energy, and I suspect many of our members, was taking a hit despite the advance notice that tracking Project 2025 had given us.
Yet over the course of this year, the Coalition, its staff, steering committee, member organizations and its many unique and colorful characters have adapted, scrambled, planned, rallied, and found joy together in the endeavor. We reexamined our angles, thought about our strengths and how to use them. In the process we voted to change, expand and broaden our “Energy” Policy Priority to “Land Use” to better align the coalition’s priorities to the way that our members engage in issues– through local projects in front of local land use boards or state and federal permitting authorities.
As the landscape (pun intended) has changed throughout the past year, we find ourselves on uneven footing in navigating traditional land use decisions. Our goal however is straightforward: Protect water resources from the significant landscape level impacts of land use decisions and extractive practices to support climate resilient communities and restore ecological harmony across the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Julie Bolthouse of Piedmont Environmental Center speaking at the 2025 Choose Clean Water Conference Data Center Kickoff
While that might sound lofty, we like a challenge that allows us to aim high. After all, we’re still the team that assembled a conference kickoff that brought together over a hundred attendees in person in the epicenter of data center development in Virginia. We worked in partnership with our coalition members who are leaders in their own right and shared their experiences and expertise. We learned from academics, experts and policy makers and discussed the emerging issue of analyzing the true impacts to our most treasured natural resource: water.
Since then we’ve continued to convene and provide space for state coalition leaders to work in parallel and exchange ideas, resources and collaborate in ways that make sense for their spot in the movement ecology. (Shout out to Maria Russo from West Virginia Rivers for highlighting the use of that term and all of the creative strategies that organizations use in moving towards shared goals.)
It is fitting that at the last official meeting of the Energy Workgroup we still found a few things to harness our inner energy even as we battle colds or year end deadlines. It closed with no tearful goodbyes, rather “see you next year!” The Land Use Policy Priority is a natural evolution of our collective work and the Coalition is looking forward to the energy that transformation brings. We hope to have you join us in the next phase.
