Dawn Dannebring, dawn@ciop.org, 309-531-4433
Elizabeth Scrafford, elizabeth.scrafford@sierraclub.org, 208-818-4626
Springfield, IL – Today, advocacy groups and concerned community members took action outside of Governor Rauner’s office with a “People’s Court,” criticizing Governor Rauner for backroom talks between his Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s (IEPA) and Dynegy, a Texas-based coal company, that will weaken Illinois clean air standards. Dynegy, Illinois’ largest air polluter with nine active coal plants in Illinois,worked closely with Rauner’s IEPA over the last year to make significant changes to the “Multi-Pollutant Standard” (MPS) as revealed in a Freedom of Information Request obtained by environmental organizations. Illinois’ MPS has been a cornerstone of air quality protection in Illinois, setting gradual reductions for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and mercury (Hg) pollution from the Dynegy coal fleet. Action Metro East, Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance, Citizens Against Longwell Mining, Illinois People’s Action, Indivisible Illinois, Indivisible Springfield, Metro East Green Alliance, Piasa Palisades Group of the Sierra Club, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Sangamon Valley Group of the Sierra Club organized the mock trial with community members.
“Peoria residents cannot handle more air pollution,” said Robin Garlish, volunteer leader with Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance in Peoria. “We have four coal plants in the region and air quality is so horrible I’ve been in and out of the hospital all year due to increased breathing problems.”
According to an analysis conducted by the Chicago Tribune, the revised rule would allow a massive, fleet-wide tonnage cap on Dynegy’s sulfur and nitrogen oxide pollution, far exceeding current emissions of the fleet. Residents in places like Peoria, where one of Dynegy’s dirtiest plants operates, are worried that if approved, the rule-change would allow Dynegy to close their cleaner, more costly plants and ramp up production at their cheaper, dirtier plants, like E.D. Edwards in Bartonville.
“We want to make it clear to Governor Rauner that Dynegy shouldn’t be able to write their own rules., said Rev. Tony Pierce president of Illinois People’s Action. “Today’s people’s court brings attention to the severity of the issue. Clean air and water should not be compromised in back room conversations and it’s incomprehensible that any of our legislators, or environmental agencies would put out of state coal profits above Illinois residents. As Dynegy now approaches legislators for a bailout, I hope that the government remembers that it’s here to serve the people not corporations.”
The overall tonnage cap would allow Dynegy to emit nearly double the amount of harmful sulfur dioxide they emitted last year, and likely reverse any promise of modern pollution controls to reduce dangerous smog, soot, and acid rain.
The Pollution Control Board has already granted Dynegy multiple changes to the original MPS agreement including a 5 year delay in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions in 2013 and the participating organizations have worked to oppose the MPS rule-change, and recently requested that the IEPA extend the one-month long public comment period, citing the eight-month period that was used to write the change in collaboration with Dynegy. The IEPA refused the request for an extension.
The rule is now under consideration at the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB). Illinois EPA requested and was denied a request to expedite the process. The request would have given the public less time to respond to the rule.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.