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.

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