Aldermen — Solis especially — need to step up on coal plant issue

Been a hot summer, no?

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: City council needs to pass the ordinance drafted by Ald. Moore and supported by 12 aldermen to start the process of closing down the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power stations in Pilsen and Little Village (see our story in this week’s Chicago Journal). The issue of climate change is, frankly, quickly becoming a question of coal: how much we will continue to rely on it, how many coal-fired plants China and other developing countries will build to power their economies. Which is why such renowned climate scientists as NASA’s James Hansen are getting arrested while protesting the filthy fossil fuel.

Maybe all of us need to follow Hansen’s lead and ramp up the protests outside of these polluting facilities. The next time your alderman gives you a free efficient light bulb, tell him or her that you’d rather have them pushing for Moore’s ordinance. If we don’t attack coal now, other efforts to ameliorate climate change will be moot.

One alderman who particularly needs to hear that message is the 25th Ward’s Danny Solis. Ald. Solis has been notably silent about the proposed new bill. Solis is exceptionally close to the mayor — himself another silent type on Fisk and Crawford — but apparently too far away from his own constituents in Pilsen, who are calling on him to back legislation that would force these polluters to go.

Solis’s backing of Moore’s ordinance would stand an important move, both substantively (it’s one more aye vote) and symbolically (a city council member breaking ranks from the mayor’s orbit on this issue could inspire other pro-administration types to do so).

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By Marinauser from South Loop
Posted: 07/22/2010 9:53 AM

Where exactly do you propose the power to come from that will replace the power generated by these stations. In heat waves, the system is already over taxed by the demand. Also, I see bold statements regarding pollution but no actual statistics to support the claim. I have no idea how modernized these plants are but do you and can you report on that? Are you ready to approve a nuclear plant on that location or is this just another NIMBY idea with no solution proposed?