Chicago Goes All In On Clean Energy

On April 10, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution committing the city to get 100% of its energy from clean, renewable sources like wind and solar by 2035. Chicago becomes the largest city in the country to make this commitment, following cities including Atlanta, St. Louis, and San Francisco.

“This is a goal long pushed for by Chicagoans,” says Jodie Van Horn, director of the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign. “When the community stands united in its commitment to the values of environmental, economic, and racial justice, transformative impact is possible.”

Chicago joins its northern neighbor, Evanston, Illinois, and 117 other cities across the U.S. that have already committed to an equitable transition to 100% renewable energy. “As the third-largest city in the U.S., Chicago has an opportunity to model how bold climate leadership can translate into meaningful health and economic benefits for millions of residents,” says Chicago-based Ready for 100 organizer Kyra Woods (below, speaking at April 10 press conference).

Photo by Michael Courier

The  resolution was championed by the Ready For 100 Chicago Collective, a dynamic group of community- and state-based groups including the Sierra Club’s Illinois Chapter; the Chicago Youth Alliance for Climate Action; People for Community Recovery; Respiratory Health Association; The Climate Reality Project Chicago Chapter; SEIU Local 1; the Citizens Utility Board; and other environmental, education, youth, labor, and justice groups across the city.

“The Ready for 100 team has been working for months to bring community groups into the fold so that we could draft this resolution as a coalition,” Woods says. “It reflects shared community values and priorities such as reducing the disproportionate exposure of low-income communities and people of color to pollution and ensuring that all Chicagoans have access to clean power.” 

The resolution also calls for complete electrification of the Chicago Transit Authority’s bus fleet by 2040, and directs the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and the Ready for 100 Chicago Collective to take the lead in developing a community-wide transition plan by December 2020 for achieving 100% renewable electricity.

“The Chicago Collective who wrote this resolution—comprised of frontline environmental justice communities, green groups, and unions—proves that not only can Chicago build a climate-safe future for future generations, but that a truly just transition also creates good, family-sustaining jobs,” says Kassie Beyer, campaign director of Jobs to Move America in Illinois. (Below, coalition members at the April 10 press conference.)

Photo by Michael Courier

The recently introduced Illinois Clean Energy Jobs Act aims to move the entire state to 100% clean energy by 2050.

“In recent years the Midwest has become a leading national force in clean energy, with Chicago at the heart of it,” says Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs at the Respiratory Health Association. “In setting the path toward achieving an inclusive and just 100 percent clean energy goal … that will create jobs for local residents and increase community prosperity.”

“I look forward to seeing the City continue to work closely with the community to ensure that implementation of this goal lifts up all Chicagoans—and for the rest of the state to follow Chicago’s lead,” says Van Horn. “This movement is unstoppable.”

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