Asian Carp: Trick or Treat?

Photo credit: Tony Cartilidge

Will these frightening fish invade the Great Lakes or can they push revitalization of the Chicago area waterways? The Sierra Club’s Chicago group invites you to attend a presentation by Vic Santucci, Asian Carp Manager for Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Aquatic Nuisance Species Program. The evening program entitled “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Asian Carp,” will be Wednesday, Nov. 16 from 6:30pm-8:00pm at the Sierra Club office at 70 E. Lake St. Ste 1500.  Learn about Silver and Bighead Carp and the 38 other high risk species posed to invade our waters and plans to stop them.

This program continues the conversation around carp that began in late September after the Illinois Department of Natural Resources teamed up with Chef Parolla from Louisiana and Feeding Illinois (the umbrella food bank organization) for a carp-tasting event. The event was held for media and local politicians to help spread the word that carp is both delicious and nutritious. However, eating them isn’t the only way to beat them.

The Great Lakes Commission (GLC) is in the final stages of their report “Envisioning a Chicago Area Waterway System for the 21^st Century.” The GLC held several public meetings in Chicago and Indiana addressing issues and concerns from citizens about the effects of separating the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes basin. This hydrological separation would close the artificial connection created in the 1900s when the Chicago River flow was reversed preventing the transfer of aquatic invasives between the two basins.

The GLC is working with a number of organizations including the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Chicago to discuss how hydroseparation could be incorporated into infrastructure improvements that are already taking place in Chicago. Such a separation should work to improve the movement of goods and people, water quality and stormwater management in addition to preventing the transfer of aquatic invasive species. The GLC has proposed several options for hydroseparation and the report will be released in January.

For more information regarding Asian Carp and other invasive species invading our waters, we encourage you once again to come out to the Sierra Club’s Chicago Group’s program “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Asian Carp.” Learn how you can become actively involved in our efforts to prevent this crisis from happening to our waters. To RSVP for the program or to volunteer with the Chicago group, please contact Tess Wendel at Tess.Wendel@sierraclub.org

Smart Grid Passes, More Clean Energy On The Way

Wednesday the Illinois General Assembly passed “smart grid” legislation that included major provisions for renewable energy and energy conservation that Sierra Club, Environment Illinois, and the Natural Resources Defense Council worked to include in the legislation.

This will be a huge boost to clean energy in Illinois. By deploying solar energy across Illinois, we’ll see new jobs and businesses, and cleaner air as we move away from dirty coal. A smarter power grid will also save consumers money by giving us new tools to manage our power consumption.

Here are the major clean energy provisions we worked to include in the Electric Grid Modernization Act:

-Removes Barriers to New Renewable Energy Projects and Jobs

SB 1652 will allow large rooftop owners to benefit by installing solar and wind power on their roofs. By allowing these retailers, institutions, commercial buildings, warehouses, and others to take advantage of “net metering” – giving them credit against their electric bill for any surplus power they produce. This will spur investment in these projects on rooftops across Illinois.

-Creates New Market For Distributed Renewable Energy Projects

SB 1652 provides that 1% of the renewable energy procured under our existing Renewable Portfolio Standard will come from small-scale renewable projects. Just as the existing RPS has already created 10,000 new jobs in large-scale wind and solar projects, this new carve-out will provide purchasers for the output of small-scale projects, allowing cities and suburbs to also realize the benefits of the new energy economy that our RPS has created in more rural areas.

-Saves Energy, Cuts Pollution With Major New Energy Efficiency Program

SB 1652 will increase the amount of energy savings we get through energy efficiency by about 1.5 million mWh, roughly the amount of power that would be used in 150,000 homes for one year. Further, it allows both utilities and non-utility energy efficiency companies to participate in the market, and ensures that the expanded efficiency programs are incorporated into the annual Illinois Power Agency procurement plans.

Together, these policies will create thousands of new jobs, clean the air, and help reduce costs to consumers. Here are some of the benefits of these provisions of SB 1652–

NEW JOBS: Up to 5,000 new jobs in renewable energy – good jobs installing clean energy projects, operating and maintain them, and manufacturing clean energy components. In addition, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy estimates that the energy efficiency provision alone will create 3500 new jobs by 2015, and more than 10,000 new jobs by 2020.

CONSUMER SAVINGS: Helping consumers use less energy is a way to permanently reduce bills. The energy conservation programs in SB 1652 will not only provide new tools and products to help consumers cut their bills, they will also reduce the peak power prices that drive our electric rates. Smart meters will empower consumers to take charge of their energy consumption. Participants in smart meter pilot programs consistently save 15-20% per month after installing a smart meter.

CLEANER AIR: Cleaner power sources and energy conservation mean cleaner air – fewer asthma attacks, premature deaths, and a better future for our children and grandchildren. We also need the smart grid to move beyond oil, to power the electric vehicles of the future.

New IEPA Analysis Estimates Tenaska Pollution, Raises Doubts About Pollution Controls

As the General Assembly prepares to consider requiring Illinois residents and businesses to subsidize a coal plant proposed for Taylorville, Illinois, new findings from the Illinois EPA raise serious concerns about the pollution the facility will cause, and about the feasibility of the project’s proposed pollution controls.

“The Tenaska project just gets dirtier and more expensive as it goes along, and we should not be forced to subsidize this dangerous experiment through our electric bills,” said Jack Darin, Director, Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter. “We are now learning that the plant may pump up to 10 billion pounds of global warming pollution into our air, and hundreds of pounds of toxic mercury, which threatens children’s brains and nervous systems.”

According to a draft air permit from Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued October 17th, Tenaska’s project, also know as Christian County Generation LLC, has the potential to emit 9,980,000,000 pounds of greenhouse gases per year, up to 206 pounds of toxic mercury, and up to 438 pounds of lead pollution.

“While the Tenaska bill claims to be new, clean coal, under that veneer its just another dirty plant,” said Bruce Ratain with Environment Illinois.

This week, a coalition of clean energy, clean water, and faith leaders sent a joint letter to legislators urging them to oppose the project. The group includes the Eco-Justice Collaborative, Environment Illinois, Faith In Place, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Prairie Rivers Network, Protestants For the Common Good, and Sierra Club. They wrote:

“As leaders of the Illinois environmental community, we write to urge your opposition to any legislation to require that Illinois ratepayers purchase the power generated by the Taylorville Energy Center project proposed by the Tenaska Corporation.

The Illinois Senate is expected to consider legislation this week that would compel residential and business electricity customers to purchase Tenaska’s power for 30 years.

Oak Park Goes 100% Green and Saves Some Green for Residents

photo credit: Harvey McDaniel

Oak Park made a giant green leap forward last week by becoming the first town in Illinois and possibly in the nation to choose an all-green electricity power program. According to Oak Park’s community website, on Monday, October 18, the Oak Park village board approved a two-year contract with Integrys Energy Group to purchase aggregated energy from 100-percent renewable sources for cheaper than residents are paying for traditional dirty energy now. Overall the savings for residents are projected to be $4.5 million within the next two years as Oak Parkers begin to see a 15% decline in their energy bills.   The switch to green energy is expected to be in place by the first of the new year.

It is fantastic to see Oak Park take a proactive step to support clean energy and implement an innovative program that we hope more cities in Illinois and beyond consider.  Wind generation has already created 10,00 jobs in Illinois and green energy aggregation programs continue to grow the clean energy economy.   Aggregating the village’s energy made it possible for Oak Park to make good on their commitment to sustainability AND save their residents money, a real win-win.

While the contract for the all-green electricity program has been approved, Oak Park’s village board stopped short of creating a $400,000 energy efficiency fund generated from some of the savings.   The fund would have been used to develop programs for the whole village to save even more money through energy efficiency measures.  Despite the opposition from the Board, the matter is not dead and is likely to be addressed during the village’s budget process.

We encourage other cities throughout Illinois to look into energy aggregation programs to provide their residents with cleaner, healthier, more affordable energy.   Congratulations to Oak Park for their commitment to clean energy solutions that benefit us all.