Environmental justice coalition fights pollution on Chicago's southeast side

[Willinois]

Chicago is a focal point in the national movement to move from dirty coal to clean energy. A coalition of groups have been working on the Chicago clean power ordinance and a push to shut down two aging, dirty coal plants in a low-income residential area in Chicago's south side.

Now groups are pushing back against Leucadia the latest polluting project that's being sold as "clean coal." This Chicago Tribune article points out the contradiction of Governor Quinn signing a bill to approve the Leucadia plant to be built in a low-income neighborhood less than a month after signing a bill that's supposed to protect poor and minority communities from toxic pollution.

Quote:Eight organizations announced Wednesday that they will work as one group, dubbed the Environmental Justice Alliance of Greater Southeast Chicago, to help ensure that new and existing companies comply with air- and water-pollution limits. The activists vowed to hold public officials and environmental regulators accountable for their promises to safeguard children, the elderly and others who are more vulnerable to toxic chemicals and heavy metals.

"We are tired of the environmental assault on our community," said Cheryl Johnson, a lifelong resident of the Altgeld Gardens public housing development, where President Barack Obama once worked as a community organizer. "We want jobs and industry that don't pollute our neighborhoods and make our children sick."

Polluting companies prey upon areas that are desperate for jobs, whether it's the south side of Chicago or rural Southern Illinois. But, people are getting more organized around the belief that even low-income communities deserve jobs that won't poison the people in their neighborhood.

[Peacetrain]

"Polluting companies prey upon areas that are desperate for jobs, whether it's the south side of Chicago or rural Southern Illinois. But, people are getting more organized around the belief that even low-income communities deserve jobs that won't poison the people in their neighborhood. "

No truer quote written... From the Coal mines of the Virginias to the Taconite miners in Northern Minnesota..

People will vote against their own self interests to keep a job. And they get their self worth tied into jobs that are killing them and their families.. It is a tough cycle and once established, harder yet to break