Read the full press release at the City of Chicago’s website

“This poll shows that people all across our city want cleaner air,” said Kim Wasserman, Director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. “Northsiders and southsiders, men and women, Latino, black and white voters all want the City to clean up or shut down the Fisk and Crawford coal plants.”

The poll found that voters in every part of the City want to reduce coal plant pollution, but support was particularly strong in Latino neighborhoods and the South Side. The Fisk coal plant is located in Pilsen and the Crawford coal plant is located in Little Village. Both plants are owned by Midwest Generation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Edison International.

“Pollution from Fisk and Crawford affects everyone in Chicago,” said Maria Torres, an Organizer with Pilsen Alliance. “People in Pilsen and Little Village have been fighting coal plant pollution for years, but it’s clear the rest of the city understands that their health is at risk too.”

In separate question, 56% of those surveyed said that protecting the environment is good for the economy.  “Chicagoans understand that we don’t need to choose between clean air and economic growth,” said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “Reducing pollution will protect public health and make Chicago’s economy stronger.”

Researchers from the Clean Air Task Force found that pollution from Fisk and Crawford causes 42 premature deaths, 66 heart attacks and 720 asthma attacks each year. The National Research Council found that pollution from Fisk and Crawford costs the public over $120 million each year in health and related damages. One in four Chicagoans live within a three-mile radius of the smokestacks.

The poll was commissioned by ELPC and our allies in the Chicago Clean Power Coalition.

Read more in Crain’s Chicago Business

View detailed results of the poll here

Read more in the Chicago Tribune

Implementing the Chicago Climate Action Plan’s Clean and Renewable Energy Goals

Hosting the Annual “Growing the Green Economy” Conference

Fighting Pollution from the Aging Fisk and Crawford Coal Plants

Implementing the Chicago Climate Action Plan’s Clean and Renewable Energy Goals

The 2008 Chicago Climate Action Plan established a goal of reducing Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2020.  Developing new sources of clean and renewable energy will be a big part of the plan’s implementation, and ELPC has played a key role shaping the strategy.

At the request of Mayor Daley, ELPC and the City of Chicago Department of Environment co-chaired a working group comprised of clean energy business executives, entrepreneurs, academics, finance experts, government and utility representatives.  Working with this group, ELPC developed a set of policy and program recommendations that, if implemented, will set the city on a path to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals and ancillary objectives such as economic development and job creation.

The Clean and Renewable Policy and Program Recommendations Report is now complete.  Recommendations are organized along two tracks with elements addressing: (1) policy advocacy objectives, with a primary goal of greening the grid through full implementation of the Illinois Renewable Energy Standard, and (2) local program development at the city level, aimed at increasing distributed generation in Chicago.  Stay tuned for an announcement about a press conference with Mayor Daley to formally release the report and present the implementation plan. Read the final report here.

Hosting the Annual “Growing the Green Economy” Conference

“Companies should be morally responsible and step up to install modern pollution control equipment to reduce mercury pollution in order to protect children’s health and other environment,” said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “These federal standards are reasonable, achievable and long overdue.” U.S. EPA held public hearing on the air toxics standard for power plants in May 2011, and is expected to finalize rules in the coming months. Members of Congress have stated they will challenge the new rules.

Federal air toxics standards would lead to drastic reductions in mercury pollution from in-state industrial boilers and process heaters as well as dozens of out-of-state coal plants that are within 30 miles of the Illinois border. Illinois made progress in reducing mercury pollution after a 2006 agreement required coal plants in Illinois to install mercury controls. But the federal standards would be the first to reduce mercury from industrial facilities and coal plants nationwide.

Companies like Horsehead Corp. in Chicago and Archer Daniels Midland in Decatur pump over 150 pounds of mercury into the air each year. That mercury remains in the environment and makes its way up the food chain, into local fish that people eat.

The Illinois Department of Public Health has issued advisories warning that all Illinois waters contain mercury-contaminated fish that are dangerous to consume, especially for women of childbearing ages and young children. Roughly 300,000 American children are born each year having been exposed to potentially damaging amounts of mercury.

“We can’t afford to continue damaging our children’s health with toxic air pollution,” said Learner, “These clean air standards are an investment that will create economic growth and better public health here in Illinois and across the country.”   The federal air toxics standards will provide public health benefits worth 5 to 13 times their costs for coal plants, and 10 to 25 times their costs for industrial facilities, according to U.S. EPA.

Download the Report

Read More about ELPC’s Work to Clean Up Coal Plants

Read More in Public News Service

The ordinance that would clean up pollution from the two coal plants in Chicago is rapidly gaining momentum. 25^th Ward Alderman Danny Solis committed to co-sponsor the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance on March 7^th.   Since Solis made his announcement, Aldermen Austin (34th Ward), Brookins (21st Ward),  Fioretti (2nd Ward), Tunney (44th Ward), Newsome (4th Ward) and Cardenas (12th Ward) have announced that they too will co-sponsor the ordinance, bringing the total number of co-sponsors to 24.  Alderman Stone (50^th) is not a co-sponsor but has pledged to vote in favor of the ordinance, which needs a total of 26 votes to pass.

The Chicago Clean Power Ordinance was introduced in April 2010 by Ald. Joe Moore (49th Ward), in response to the detrimental health and environmental impacts created across the city by the Fisk and Crawford coal plants in Pilsen and Little Village. The ordinance aims to drastically reduce soot and greenhouse gas pollution from the two plants.

“Resolving this issue can’t wait any longer,” said Alderman Solis in a March 7 press release. “The medical experts are clear: This pollution is a danger to all of us,” Solis added.

To date the Ordinance has 24 co-sponsors, including Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22^nd) and Ald. Solis (25^th) in whose wards the two old coal plants are located.

Before coming to a vote before the City Council, the Clean Power Ordinance must be heard by a joint committee consisting of the Committee on Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities, chaired by Alderman Virginia Rugai ( 19th Ward ) and the Committee on Health, chaired by Alderman James Balcer ( 11th Ward).  Despite growing aldermanic support and broad public advocacy for the Ordinance, Rugai and Balcer have yet to set a hearing date.

The Chicago Clean Power Coalition, a group of over 56 local business, health, labor, environmental and community organizations is calling on alderman to pass the Ordinance before the Council adjourns in May.  “We are grateful to the co-sponsoring Aldermen who value the good health of their constituents and protecting the environment,” said Lan Richart of the Eco-Justice Collaborative, a Coalition member group. “We now look forward to a hearing in the joint committee on Health and Energy to move the Ordinance to a vote in the full City Council. The health of millions of Chicagoans and future generations depends on it.”

ELPC’s Howard Learner joined E&E TV to discuss how wind and solar power are helping revitalize the Midwest’s manufacturing sector. Read ELPC’s clean energy supply chain reports.

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