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Energy
Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
9:30am
Thu Aug 5, 2010

Munoz To Endorse Coal Plant Ordinance

Frustrated with a lack of action to curb carbon emissions on Capitol Hill, Ald. Rick Munoz (22nd Ward) told WBEZ' Chip Mitchell yesterday that he will sign on as a co-sponsor of Chicago's Clean Power ordinance, which would force coal plant operators within the city limits to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 50 percent and soot-producing particulates by 90 percent within the next four years. This is a huge win for the environmentalists pushing the bill; one of Chicago's two coal-fired power plants operated by Midwest Generation -- the key target of the ordinance -- is located in Munoz' ward. Not coincidentally, the polluter has showered Munoz with campaign contributions over the past decade.

Munoz' move means that another key holdout, Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward), now has no real cover to vote down the ordinance on parochial grounds. (Solis represents the ward in which the other Midwest Generation plant is located.) Neither do the rest of the stragglers on the City Council, whose wards would experience serious air quality improvements as a result of the proposed regulation.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
4:30pm
Tue Aug 3, 2010

Bailing The U.S. Senate Out On Climate Change

Word out of Washington today is that the U.S. Senate won't even vote on its miserable energy-only climate bill before lawmakers adjourn for the August recess. This is just the latest in a series of embarrassing episodes for the upper chamber, whose broken procedures present what David Roberts called "a virtually insuperable barrier to action" on a regionally divisive issue like climate change.

Still, all hope is not lost for the nation's greenies. As we wrote recently, state lawmakers can play a key role in protecting the environment and reworking the United States' energy economy. In fact, research from the World Resources Institute shows that the combined efforts of both state governments and the Environmental Protection Agency could make a "sizable dent" in U.S. carbon emissions. That is, if the regulator agency survives what will be a hurricane of legal challenges from dirty energy producers, antiquated business interests, and the lawmakers who do their bidding.

Quick Hit
by Josh Kalven
10:47am
Wed Jul 28, 2010

Another Oil Spill, This One Closer To Home

In case you missed the disturbing news, an oil pipeline in Marshall, MI (see it on a map) sprung a leak on Monday morning and has since dumped more than 800,000 gallons of oil into a creek that feeds into the Kalamazoo River. A local congressman is calling it the "largest oil spill in the history of the Midwest." If uncontained, the oil would eventually reach Lake Michigan, but state officials say they don't expect that to happen (which, frankly, isn't all that encouraging).

Illinois-based environmentalists are rightly calling foul. "How many oil spills, decimated ecosystems, and broken communities will we endure before we understand the true cost of carbon?" asked Illinois' own Rep. Mike Quigley in a statement today. Joel Brammeier of the Alliance for the Great Lakes wrote yesterday: "[A]s today’s event in west Michigan shows, this is no time to relax our vigilance on fossil fuel development."  And on their Twitter account this morning, the Illinois Sierra Club pointed out that the Canadian company that owns the pipeline in question reported $232 million in earnings in the second quarter of this year.

Hopefully, much of those profits will be used to pay for the ongoing cleanup. 

PI Original
by Adam Doster
11:26am
Thu Jul 22, 2010
88 comments

How State Lawmakers Could Lead On Climate Change

Environment

While there's still hope that the U.S. Congress will pass a comprehensive climate bill, lawmakers in Illinois should not wait to take on the challenge of moving the state's energy economy into the 21st century. Here's how they can.

PI Original
by Adam Doster
3:32pm
Thu Jul 15, 2010
3 comments

National Groups Rally Behind Chicago Coal Ordinance

Energy

Tired of waiting around while Congress dithers and the earth warms, progressive members of the Chicago City Council, regulators in the Obama administration, and environmental advocates are taking their own steps to clamp down on dirty coal plants.

Quick Hit
by Josh Kalven
9:02am
Fri Jul 9, 2010

Politifact Whacks Kirk For "BP Lobbyist" Claims

The Pulitzer Prize-winning website Politifact waded into Illinois' U.S. Senate race this week and found that GOP nominee Mark Kirk has been stretching the truth.  Specifically, they highlighted his campaign's claim in a recent ad that Giannoulias aide Endy Zemenides "was a longtime BP lobbyist" as "barely true." 

The real story here is that Zemenides was previously a registered lobbyist for a BP subsidiary that focused on setting up gas stations in the Chicago area.  Politifact concluded: "It's one thing to be an attorney handling landscaping and zoning issues for a company developing retail gas stations; quite another to lobby for lax federal legislation on deepwater oil drilling. The Kirk ad makes too much of very little."

The site also examined two separate ads from the Kirk and Giannoulias campaigns.  See what they found here.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
3:51pm
Thu Jul 8, 2010

Number Of The Day: 1,100

That's how many wind turbines are currently spinning in Illinois, according to a new article by the Sun-Times' Abdon Pallasch. The reporter talks to a wind power energy executive who said his company wouldn't currently be making investments in Illinois if the state hadn't implemented its Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard in 2007.  The General Assembly certainly deserves credit for that.

On the flip side, Pallasch notes that "lobbying from power companies and businesses" ended up stalling legislation to require that utilities procure renewable energy from Illinois sources before turning to neighboring states. That's a fight we've reported on before and one that won't end anytime soon.