| October 2024 |
By Robert Rowe
The HOI Group of the Sierra Club joined with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition and its partners to promote an ambitious environmental agenda that includes shaping policy on clean energy, clean buildings and clean transportation. This fall, the HOI Sierra Group held two community conversations on climate; in September we held a forum on Clean Energy at the Peoria Universalist Unitarian Church, and in October, a forum on Clean and Safe Buildings at the Carver Center in downtown Peoria.
“Watts Up with Clean Energy” opened with remarks by Reverend Innis, Senator Dave Koehler, and Alisha Granderson, followed by an information-packed presentation from Andrew Rehn, Director of Climate Policy at the Prairie Rivers Network. These were followed by lively questions and discussion. Senator Koehler summarized a forward-looking energy and environmental legislative agenda, Andrew Rehn succinctly laid out what we have accomplished in moving toward a clean and sustainable energy grid and what still needs to be done, and Alisha Granderson delivered an impassioned and poignant argument for environmental justice drawn from personal experience. We had 42 people in attendance and many stayed for discussion afterward.
Our second Community Conversation on Climate was held at the Carver Center in downtown Peoria in October. The main presentation, delivered by Scott Allen, Energy Policy Specialist with the Citizens Utility Board, focused on how to affordably and equitably transition away from fossil fuel appliances in homes and apartments. The continued use of gas appliances indoors can result in dangerous benzene and nitrogen dioxide levels that have been shown to result in increased childhood asthma and other respiratory illnesses. This disproportionately affects black, brown and lower-income neighborhoods with older homes and apartments. Reverend Marvin Hightower, president of the Peoria NAACP and Alisha Granderson, of the HOI Sierra Club, both delivered poignant remarks on the effects of historic environmental injustice on urban communities of color. More pictures of this event are available in our archives.
We are grateful to the assistance of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition and its partners, which include the Citizens Utility Board, the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Prairie Rivers Network, Faith in Place, the Illinois Healthy Community Alliance, and the Peoria NAACP. These events, that involved public comment and surveys, are intended, in part, to let policymakers like the Illinois Commerce Commission know that citizens and voters support clean energy initiatives and to counter the disproportionate influence of the fossil fuel industry and their lobbyists.