Congratulations to Green Campus Initiative (GCI) from the University of Chicago for winning ISEC’s Post Card Drive to end Illinois’ Coal Curriculum program.  They collected a total of 203 post cards from students on their campus.  The competition was close though, with SEED from Northwestern coming in a VERY close second with 210 post cards (winner is determined by comparing the number of cards collected as a percentage of total student population on that campus).  GCI will receive a free I-Go membership with driving credits and SEED will receive a $20 gift card to Starbucks for their hard work.  Thanks to everyone who participated in this drive and made it such a success! 

Check out the online tally to see how each school fared.

Marie Donahue, ISEC Steering Committee alum and recent University of Chicago graduate, wrote an article that highlighted the hard work students in Illinois have undertaken to demonstrate their support for clean air.  Below is an excerpt from her article.

Youth involvement from local colleges and universities, the Illinois Student Environmental Coalition, the Sierra Club, and other environmental groups have helped shape the renewed effort to pass the Clean Power Ordinance. Students have lobbied aldermen to become co-sponsors, increased media attention around the issue (watch these videos: ABC News7: Clean Power & YouTube: Chicago Clean Power Hearing), provided testimony at Ordinance hearings, attended regular planning meetings, and organized phone-banking sessions to spread awareness and garner support for the Ordinance.  Caroline Wooten, a student at the University of Chicago and founder of the UChicago Climate Action Network, explains that youth-lobbying efforts were instrumental in convincing Ald. Newsome and Ald. Cochran to sign on as co-sponsors of the Ordinance this spring and summer.

With the Ordinance currently in the City Council’s Rules Committee, Laura Knezevic This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Director of the Illinois Student Environmental Coalition, cautions that “there are never any guarantees when it comes to the City Council,” but she thinks that the Ordinance is “moving forward with renewed strength and more support than we had in the last session.”

Continue reading her article HERE on the website of the Will Steger Foundation.

The petition protesting Illinois’ Coal Curriculum program can now be signed online! While signing post cards is still the best way to go, the online form is handy for those schools who may be winding down for the semester and going on break. Check out the link below to sign the online post card:

SIGN ME!!!

Let’s take this viral!

Remember, schools have until December 15th to drive in as many post cards and online signatures as possible. We’ve already received several hundred, so let’s keep up the good work.  We’re going to win this campaign!

Also, if you need more post cards, we’ve got em.  Just email Laura Knezevic at LKnezevic@GreenStudents.org

This past Monday, the Tenaska bill, which would okay the construction of a coal gasification plant in Taylorville, was passed though the Illinois senate. The fact that Tenaska is a coal plant is reason enough to oppose it, but within the bill is also provisions that force the gas it produces to be purchased by several utilities. This will cause rate increases to occur in many parts of the state. While this battle is far from over, it does strike a blow to efforts on the part of many residents and students who invested a great deal of time and effort calling and meeting with their senators.

To see how your State Senator voted, click Here

Luckily though, there are still many ways in which Tenaska can be blocked. The bill has yet to pass the house where it will likely flounder and the permitting process after bill passage can also bog the process down. Stay posted for more info about the state of the bill and the next steps to fighting it.

Follow these five steps to a greener Thanksgiving!

1. Stay close to home, or take the train.
Traveling by airplane is one of the biggest ways to release CO2 into our atmosphere.  Trains are much more environmentally friendly than planes, buses, or cars.  Better yet, host Thanksgiving at your house and cut out travel completely!
2. Buy local and organic.
Organic foods keep dangerous chemicals off of our food and out of our waterways.  Buying local cuts out transportation and many tons of CO2.
3. Go vegetarian!
Much more energy is used to produce a pound of beef than a pound of veggies.  Load up on the green beans and mashed potatoes!  If you are feeling daring, swap the turkey for a healthy piece of Tofurky.
4. Decorate with natural materials.
Instead of buying plastic turkeys and pumpkins, go out and pick up some colorful fall leaves.  Make your own turkeys with pinecones and pick your own pumpkins.  Keep the house bright by lighting natural beeswax.
5. Compost your scraps.
Instead of throwing out the extra food scraps, compost them!  Composting is a great way to keep things out of our landfills and give them a second use as nutrient-rich soil.

It seems like coal rears its ugly head just about everywhere these days and we can only tackle so much. Whether it’s Fisk and Crawford owned by Midwest Generation and the effort to shut them down via the Clean Power Ordinance, the coal curriculum funded by the Illinois DCEO and the post card drive to end it, to the proposed Leucadia Coal Gassification plant in southeast Chicago which has to be shot down every time the bill comes the state floor.

And then there is State Line Power Station owned by Dominion Resources. This coal plant, sitting on the border between Chicago and Hammond Indiana, is vastly dirtier than Fisk and Crawford and technically lies in Indiana so it’s not subject to laws in Illinois or Chicago like the Clean Power Ordinance. It is shutting down next March.

WHAT?

As it turns out, Dominion decided to shutter the plant because it is no longer economically feasible to run it. Selling it to someone else will require expensive tune ups and they will already be forced to shut it down some time in 2014. Workers will be working over the summer to shut the plant down and will then be offered chances to apply to different sights owned by Dominion.

The situation is an all around win and didn’t require much pressure at all. Economics can be on the side of the environment! So come next March, we can all celebrate.

Here’s an article with more details:

In an exciting new development, Northwestern University announced Friday that it had hired a new Sustainability Coordinator. The move comes after a two year long campaign spearheaded by Students for Ecological and Environmental Development (SEED). With a change of university president in September 2009, students saw their chance and sent in over 1500 post cards asking for the creation of a sustainability coordinator position. The new president Shapiro proved “way easier to sell” on the point than students initially thought.

After a long collaborative process of students and faculty to interview potential new sustainability coordinators things came to a halt. The criteria the university had set according to students were a little too high. The person announced as hired, Robert Whittier, was later selected by the university unilaterally. While the lack of communication in the end decision was a bit disgruntling, students are still thrilled that there finally is a coordinator. The hope is that now more and better sustainability projects can be pursued on campus and in particular, with far greater cohesion between students, organizations, and faculty.

Here’s a full story from the Northwestern Daily: http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/new-sustainability-coordinator-to-start-monday-1.2668417