Blog post by Elizabeth Scrafford, Sierra Club Organizing Manager
Right now, historic clean energy legislation is pending before the General Assembly that would clean up our local water, reduce air pollution, and shut down an expensive coal plant. Yet, our city of Springfield is fighting hard against it.
Here in Springfield, our utility, City Water, Light and Power (CWLP) is publicly owned. In theory, public power gives voters a say in where their energy comes from. But in Springfield, elected leaders have struggled to listen to the people and make decisions in the best interest of the community.
CWLP owns Dallman, a massive coal plant once hailed as Springfield’s crown jewel. But in the last few years, we’ve seen an explosion/fire (not to be confused with the 2008 explosion), financial problems, a lack of desire to plan for the future (we had to force them), a hesitancy to embrace clean energy, and a lingering attachment to dirty, ole coal.
Our city council has refused to take action on coal ash contamination of ground water at the Dallman site. In 2017, after two years of community activists sounding the alarm, Sierra Club, the Springfield Branch of the NAACP, and Prairie Rivers Network filed a complaint with the State of Illinois’ Pollution Control Board that showed over 600 cases of self-reported groundwater violations since 2010, asking the state to step in and make CWLP clean up its mess. These include violations for arsenic, lead, boron, chromium, manganese, iron and more. Unfortunately, we spent most of the last year waiting for the state to move our case forward. And in the meantime, the city hasn’t done anything to address the problem of coal ash contamination that they haven’t yet been legally forced to do.
Now, the City of Springfield is lobbying against climate legislation that activists have been working to pass for years. We have been working to move the state to a clean energy future, we want legislation that invests in workforce development, energy access and solar for all, and supports communities like ours transitioning away from coal.
CWLP will only have one remaining coal unit after 2022 and the city needs the very things we have been pushing for, yet they have lobbied against the best interest of Springfield residents.
We are on the brink of life-saving climate legislation and the City of Springfield is working hard to kill it. As residents, we can win this victory for our air, water, and planet. We can move Springfield beyond coal and to a 100% clean energy future.
Please take a moment and call your legislator and urge them to vote in favor of bold and equitable climate legislation without an exemption for municipally owned coal plants!