This year, compassionate people like you have shown, time and again, tremendous commitment to protecting our communities and our most precious resources. 

And it’s been a challenging year. That’s why your dedication has been that much more remarkable. 

Grassroots organizations like Food & Water Watch can only live, breathe, and do good when a critical mass of like-minded people show up, take action, and stay energized to care for our environment and each other. 

In these trying times, we’ve not only seen people like you stick with the vital work we’re doing together. You’ve also invited your friends, neighbors, and community to join us. And our people power is moving the needle forward. 

Thank you for all you do to create a world where everyone has access to safe food, clean water, and a livable climate.

Featured victories from 2026 that you made possible:

Together, we’re stopping data centers coast to coast

Since Food & Water Watch became the first national organization to call for a moratorium on new AI data centers in October 2025, together we’ve passed over two dozen local measures protecting communities from data centers and counting!*

Your generosity and advocacy are key in making these incredible accomplishments possible, which include winning a one-year moratorium in New York State, the first state in the country to protect its communities in this way. In June, Monterey Park, California, became the first city in the country to vote to permanently ban data centers.

Each and every one of these victories was made possible by people — like you! — who stepped up to volunteer, attend events, make phone calls, sign petitions, and donate to the cause. 

On top of these state and local wins, together, we worked with lawmakers, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to introduce a national moratorium on data centers and with Rep. Rashida Tlaib to introduce a moratorium on building data centers on federal land.

We also launched the national Stop Data Center Coalition. Over 500 groups across the country signed on in support of a federal moratorium to stop the AI data center frenzy.

Big Tech wants us to believe that AI and its energy-hungry, water-guzzling, polluting data centers are inevitable. But together, we’re growing the movement against them and continuing to win victory after victory. 

*These stats are current as of September 24, 2026.

Won progress in closing air quality loopholes for Pennsylvania fracking

The Allegheny Board of Health in Pennsylvania unanimously voted to move forward with the Fracking Subcommittee’s recommendations, including closing the Article 21 loophole, which allows oil and gas companies to proceed without air quality permits or monitoring.

With this historic vote, Allegheny County is one step closer to requiring thousands of fracking operations to acquire standard air quality permits for the first time. 

Our Food & Water Watch Pennsylvania team lives in communities affected by some of the country’s worst air quality due to fracking. Powered by you, they work side by side with their neighbors to fight for protections. For families who have dealt with polluted air, poisoned water, and rare cancers, this is a monumental first step to address the harms of fracking and prioritize people over industry.

Celebrated the reversal of an approval for the NESE fracked gas pipeline 

In September, the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) grant of a water quality certification for the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project (NESE) pipeline project. The pipeline cannot proceed without this certification. 

This victory comes after Food & Water Watch and a coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit last November against the DEP for unjustifiably approving NESE’s certification, following the DEP’s initial 2019 rejection of the project for failing to demonstrate compliance with state water quality standards.

For years, Food & Water Watch and the people of New Jersey and New York opposed NESE. The state’s water quality standards exist to protect communities and the environment. They shouldn’t be pushed aside to clear the way for a dirty fracked gas pipeline. We’re pleased to see the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reverse DEP’s bad decision.

Stopped utility rate increases in Florida

In September, the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) voted 4-1 to save a utility cost-saving measure. The decision came after Food & Water Watch and allied organizations sent a letter to the PSC urging it to reject a proposed amendment that would have ended a tax break for ratepayers. This would have resulted in higher utility bills for millions of Floridian families who are already being squeezed by profit-hungry private utility corporations. 

Florida State Director Brooke Ward says, “Our years of advocacy fighting for affordable energy forged key relationships and built the public pressure we needed to respond rapidly to this threat. After uncovering that utility regulators were quietly trying to amend the rule that would have raised utility rates, we mobilized quickly and, with only one week’s notice, took effective action to protect a valuable program that benefits millions of people across the state.”

This victory curbed yet another corporate handout and ensured that the people of Florida aren’t forced to pay more simply to increase utility company profits.

Canceled the Angeles Link hydrogen pipeline project in California 

SoCalGas, the nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility, canceled the Angeles Link Project, a network of new pipelines that would have moved hydrogen across Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California. These pipelines would have posed severe safety threats. Hydrogen is highly flammable, can leak more easily than natural gas, and can explode when mixed with air.

Together with you, Food & Water Watch strongly opposed this project and SoCalGas’s terrible plan to pass $266 million in project-related costs onto ratepayers. That would have meant higher utility bills for communities in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties. 

Los Angeles Organizing Manager Andrea Vega says, “This is a massive victory for Angelenos who don’t want dangerous hydrogen pipelines in their communities. Instead of relying on false promises from the fossil fuel industry, we need to be investing in renewable clean energy.”

Pushed the EPA to identify microplastics for future drinking water regulation 

With you, Food & Water Watch has been pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for years to monitor microplastics in our drinking water to help jump-start the process to establish drinking water protections. 

In November 2025, after nearly a year of advocacy, we successfully urged seven governors to petition the EPA to add microplastics to the next Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR), which sets forth the emerging contaminants it will monitor in drinking water. 

Food & Water Watch had identified a little-known provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act that says if seven state governors file a petition for contaminant monitoring, the EPA must comply or identify other, more concerning contaminants that require monitoring instead.

Then, in April of this year, the EPA made a symbolic move toward regulating microplastics by putting them on its Sixth Contaminant Candidate List (CCL). While we celebrate this important progress, we continue to push the EPA to do more and include microplastics in its draft Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6).

In August, Food & Water Watch and 176 environmental, public health, religious, and community organizations submitted public comments calling on the EPA to correct its unlawful inaction. We need comprehensive monitoring as the first step to addressing the pervasive public health threat of microplastics in our drinking water.

Moved the USDA to pause funds for biogas digesters on factory farms

In February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would pause funding for systems that produce biogas from livestock manure. This announcement comes one week after Food & Water Watch and allied organizations filed a petition asking the USDA to deny loans and grants from the Rural Energy for America Program to factory farms seeking to set up anaerobic digesters. 

Factory farm biogas digesters produce energy at a steep environmental cost, increasing water and air pollution. They also incentivize larger factory farms, increasing the air, water, and land pollution that rural communities face.

Won guardrails in New Mexico’s Clean Transportation Fuel Program 

In January, we successfully urged New Mexico’s Environmental Improvement Board to include a provision in the state’s Clean Transportation Fuel Program to ensure that the program does not incentivize the expansion of factory farms in the state.

The Clean Transportation Fuel Program will create a statewide “carbon intensity” standard for transportation fuels, and a marketplace to buy, trade, and sell carbon credits to meet that standard. During the rulemaking process, Food & Water Watch pushed regulators to include guardrails to help them determine whether a biogas project is actually avoiding methane emissions.

Welcomed the adoption of nitrate pollution rules in Northeastern Oregon

The Oregon Department of Agriculture finalized groundbreaking rules to monitor and manage nitrate pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area. The rules require large farms to establish nitrate management plans, which must be certified by an agronomist (an expert in soil management science), and submit them to regulators. The largest farms will be subject to audits by state regulators.

These rules stem from the 2020 EPA emergency action petition that Food & Water Watch led, along with advocacy with our allies, which elevated nitrate contamination into a prominent statewide issue. This is welcome progress for people living in northern Morrow and Umatilla counties who have dealt with polluted drinking water for decades.

Won a court decision that protects California’s oil and gas health buffer law

This spring, a federal court denied the Trump administration’s request to pause enforcement of California’s landmark oil and gas health buffer law. This means the law, which prohibits new oil and gas drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals, and other sensitive places, remains in effect.

In January, the Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sued California, claiming that federal laws override the state’s buffer law for federal land or leases. The BLM then asked the court to stop the state from enforcing protections while its lawsuit is pending. This would have endangered people living near thousands of acres of federal lands throughout California.

Food & Water Watch and a coalition of advocacy groups, who have moved to intervene in the case, opposed that request. We applaud the court for keeping this important protection in place while Trump’s attack on Californians’ health and safety plays out in court.

Thank You for Fighting for Safe Food, Clean Water, and a Livable Climate!

These important accomplishments could not have happened without your compassion and generosity. Thank you for your commitment to protecting our communities and building a brighter future.