Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced preliminary plans to redevelop the Fisk coal-fired power plant site in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, now that the plant will close at the end of 2012. The Sierra Club and Joyce Foundation, which funds projects throughout the Great Lakes region, promised to put $50,000 each toward a project that will "spur economic development and job creation for these neighborhoods," according to Emanuel. Also on board is the Delta Institute, a Chicago non-profit that specializes in turning around old industrial plants into sites for green technology.

Fisk plant owner Midwest Generation is also part of the advisory group. Emanuel and Midwest Generation announced last week that Fisk would shut down by December 2012 and that the Crawford coal plant in the neighboring Little Village community would close by December 2014.