Read more comments on Twitter @ELPCenter #ptcbriefing

Fox Business News reported the story here.

“Purchasing any car requires thoughtful consiaderation of many variables – on brand, color, price – and purchasing an electric car can involve an extra layer of research,” said Madeleine Weil, Senior Policy Advocate at ELPC. “PlugInChicagoMetro.org can help consumers by providing a central resource of information about the differences, benefits and decisions involved in being an electric car owner here in Chicago and the suburbs.”

ELPC is working to advance policies that support electric cars and public charging infrastructure in Chicago and the Midwest. “Electric and hybrid cars reduce our dependence on foreign oil, produce less pollution than conventional cars, and can help consumers save money at the gas pump,” said ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner. “We should also seize the opportunities to grow the clean car jobs of the future in the Midwest auto industry.”

According to Learner, government support for public charging stations powered by clean wind and solar power, entrepreneurial ingenuity in the business community and low-cost power available for nighttime charging are just some of the ingredients that will make Chicago a market leader. “The Chicago area can become one of the nation’s leading markets for these new clean electric, natural gas and hybrid vehicles,” he said.

More and more consumers are becoming interested in learning about electric vehicles. “There’s a lot of information about electric cars out there – from dealers selling a particular model, from ‘car guys’ obsessed with the innovative technology, from critics who will scrutinize any and all changes to the status quo – but we’re not any of those people,” Weil added. “We realize purchasing a car is a personal decision. We just want to provide a forum to help Chicago-area consumers make car-buying decisions for themselves and their families.”

For more information about electric vehicles available in the Midwest in 2012, please go to www.PlugInChicagoMetro.org.

Equipped with the PTC, the wind energy industry has contributed impressively to U.S. economic development. During this free ELPC webinar, ELPC and wind industry executive Scott Viciana discussed the impact of the PTC and proposed legislation to extend it.  If you weren’t able to listen in to the live webinar, you can download the slides and listen to the audio for free.

Midwest Democratic and Republican Senators were joined by a bipartisan majority of their colleagues in the vote to reject Senator Rand Paul’s S.J. Res. 27 by a vote of 56 to 41.

“We commend the Senators who voted today to protect public health, clean air and the Great Lakes from harmful pollution,” said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “It’s time for the owners of old, highly-polluting coal plants to invest in modern pollution control equipment. They should move to a level playing field with the companies that have already cleaned up their plants.”

The Cross State Air Pollution Standard will prevent up to 34,000 premature deaths, 400,000 asthma attacks, 15,000 heart attacks, and 19,000 hospital visits each year starting in 2014.

“Senators Brown, Durbin, Franken, Johnson , Kirk, Kohl, Levin and Stabenow recognized their constituents’ support for common-sense standards that will protect public health,” said Learner.

Speakers included:

• Bruce Knight, Dairy Advisor for Strategic Conservation Solutions, LLC and former Chief of Natural Resources Conservation Service at the USDA under President Bush
• Bennie Hutchins, Principal, Ag Energy Resources, Mississippi
• Bill Midcap, Farmer and Rural Development Specialist, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Colorado
• Andy Olsen, ELPC Senior Policy Advocate

REAP incentivizes a broad range of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies for all agricultural sectors across the country.  The program has helped thousands of rural producers and businesses slash energy costs and earn new income with energy efficiency and renewable energy.  Dairy and poultry producers, rural electric cooperatives, and other rural producers and small businesses throughout the country are successfully using REAP. The Energy Title is helping to accelerate advanced biofuels and bioproducts production, chiefly through the Biorefinery Assistance Program and the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP).

To learn more, visit ELPC’s dedicated website, FarmEnergy.org.

You can also listen to today’s briefing on BarnMedia.

“Preventing just one death is heroic, and EPA’s new pollution reduction standards do even better by preventing tens of thousands of premature deaths and heart attacks and avoiding hundreds of thousands of illnesses.

Reducing soot and smog can alleviate asthma and help people’s health in ways that make good economic sense.  The EPA’s Cross State Pollution Rule will generate up to $290 billion in annual health and welfare benefits, which greatly exceeds the pollution clean-up costs.

These long overdue clean air standards will create new jobs as utilities hire skilled workers to install modern pollution control equipment and replace the oldest, most highly polluting coal plants with cleaner new energy sources.

Today, we celebrate the beginning of a healthier nation and a stronger economy by reducing air pollution that has been both harming our health and draining our wallets.”

Read US EPA’s final cross-state air pollution rule here: http://www.epa.gov/crossstaterule/

Download ELPC’s mercury report here.

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The Environmental Law & Policy Center is the Midwest’s leading environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization. www.ELPC.org

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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