Chicago’s new Mayor Rahm Emmanuel,
12th Ward Alderman George Cardenas and 25th Ward Alderman
Danny Solis have given Edison subsidiary Midwest Generation a two week
ultimatum to come up with an air pollution reduction plan for the company’s Fisk
coal fired power plant in the Pilsen neighborhood on the near west side, and
its Crawford coal fired plant in the Little Village neighborhood on the
southwest side, or the politicians threaten to push through the proposed
Chicago Clean Power Ordinance, which if passed will require closure of both
power plants within two years. Both
plants, grandfathered out of the federal Clean Air Act, burn strip mined coal
brought into Illinois by rail from Wyoming, and contribute mightily to air
pollution in two of Chicago’s predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods.
A deal to shut down the two
facilities in exchange for a long term wind power contract between an Edison
company and the City of Chicago was scuttled last fall by Illinois House
Speaker Mike Madigan, and ongoing negotiations concerning the fate of the
plants have apparently stalled.
