Preventing a toxic legacy

As Ted Craver and Edison International convene their Annual General Meeting today, community residents in Chicago consider the future use of the sites of Fisk and Crawford, the city’s two coal plants. Edison agreed to close the plants in response to overwhelming grassroots support months ago. Solutions for how to deal with potential contamination have been more elusive. Community activists are well represented in a process to discuss these solutions and things are moving forward. Representatives from LVEJO, PERRO and Pilsen Alliance have been taking solutions right to Mayor Emmanuel. While this is encouraging, Edison has been hesitant to assume clean-up responsibilities at the plants. If Edison is not held accountable, Chicago taxpayers could end picking up the clean-up tab. Calling on those who have suffered from decades of pollution to clean the plants up when it is Edison who has profited from their operation is simply unjust. Let’s turn Fisk & Crawford into bright spots, not blight spots in the Pilsen and Little Village communities. Join us in calling on Ted Craver and Edison International to avert a toxic legacy and clean up the Fisk and Crawford sites once and for all.

Edison International: It’s time to act like a clean energy leader

Communities in Chicago scored a massive victory earlier this year, when Edison International agreed to shut down the Fisk and Crawford coal plants. That same day, the company announced it would cede control of the Homer City coal plant in Pennsylvania and declared the Waukegan coal plant north of Chicago worthless. Continue reading

Edison, GenOn clean up acts; Duke, GE embrace a dirty past

What has happened this week is nothing short of amazing and the story only keeps getting better. This week, power producers Edison International and GenOn announced the pending closure of almost 4,000MW of coal plants across Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In Chicago, more than decade of activism came to fruition as Edison International announced the closure of Fisk Generating Station by the end of this year and Crawford Generating Station by the end of 2014. The unparalleled speed of these closures largely stems from a broad-based coalition determined not to accept false solutions like natural gas as a next-worst alternative to coal power. Continue reading