Clean Power

Fisk (flickr/kendoman26)

Chicago’s Pilsen and Little Village neighbourhoods are home to two of America’s dirtiest coal plants, named Fisk and Crawford. Due to the population density of the surrounding areas, they are the worst in the country in terms of their impact on the health of local residents (Hyde Park, for its part, is only 7 miles away), and together they constitute the city’s biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions.

In response to the danger these plants pose to local communities and the planet, a coalition of environmental, faith, and community groups have come together to form the Chicago Clean Power Coalition. The Coalition is calling for the city of Chicago to pass a “Clean Power Ordinance” (CPO) which would require the plants to reduce emissions. This would make Chicago the first city in America to regulate coal plant emissions, and could set a precedent for other municipalities and policy at the national level. For more on the campaign and its goals, see the Coalition website here.

Members of SSN took the lead in organizing support for the CPO in the Hyde Park area in the summer of 2010. In the fall of 2010, a new climate activism group, Students for a Just and Sustainable Future, was founded at the University of Chicago, with the CPO as its first main issue.