An historic victory for activism and the fight to end dirty coal pollution in Chicago communities
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The long history of two of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants in the nation is finally about to come to an end. After polluting Chicago's air and making residents sick for more than 100 years, Midwest Generation announced a deal late Tuesday evening to retire the Fisk and Crawford coal plants.1
This victory took years of campaigning by the Chicago Clean Power Coalition, national groups like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and heroic activism by the communities who were most effected by the pollution from Fisk and Crawford, including groups like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO).
CREDO was proud to support their efforts by putting pressure on Mayor Emanuel to finally take action, and I want to thank the thousands of activists who helped make this possible.
Last spring, more than 3,500 CREDO activists in the Chicago area called and wrote to Mayor Emanuel, telling him to do everything in his power to protect local residents from pollution from these two filthy coal plants. And on the Mayor's very first day in office last May, our friends at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and Greenpeace delivered our petition signatures in person to Mayor Emanuel's office.2
Since that time, Mayor Emanuel has been negotiating with Midwest Generation to reach a deal on retiring the plants. Finally, after months of negotiations and an ultimatum from Mayor Emanuel, a final agreement has been reached. Under the terms of the deal, the Fisk plant will be retired this year, and the Crawford plant will be shut down by 2014.
This is a huge victory for the power of local activism, which would not have happened if Mayor Emanuel hadn't heard our voices and taken action on this issue. Going forward, Mayor Emanuel's continued attention to this issue will help ensure that the agreement is enforced, and that the plants are retired in the agreed upon timeline.
Tell Mayor Emanuel: Thank you for working to shut down the dirty Fisk and Crawford coal plants. Please ensure that Midwest Generation fully complies with the agreement. Today, we celebrate this historic announcement. Thank you for your activism, and our thanks and heartfelt congratulations go to the local groups and residents who worked so hard to make this happen, and will soon live in the cleaner, safer communities they deserve.
1. Emanuel brokers deal to shut two polluting coal fire plants, Chicago Sun-Times, 2/29/12
2. Here's a photo of Ian from the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization delivering CREDO activists' petition signatures on Mayor Emanuel's first day in office last May.
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