Where there's a Will, there's a way

The Sierra Club is hosting a unique program this month that's generating some excitement in Springfield. Everyone has heard about green jobs, but what exactly does that mean? What sort of green jobs are coming to central Illinois and are they here already?

Three people with first hand experience will participate in a panel discussion.

Dave Burns, President of the Electrical Workers union Local 193, will speak about their new green labor hall and training center.
Chris Nickell of American Wind Energy Management Corp. will focus on job creation in the Illinois wind industry, including the wind farm proposed in Sangamon county.
farm and the Illinois wind industry.
William Mills, head of CWLP's Energy Services Office will speak about job creation happening through energy efficiency programs.

These knowledgeable speakers will address the main areas of job growth potential in the new energy economy. We're often lead to believe that coal mining is the only option for economic growth in downstate Illinois. It's important that we understand and discuss more realistic opportunities.

Tuesday, September 28, 6:30pm
Lincoln Library, Carnegie Room

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What good is having a blog if I can't post my published letters to the editor. The Illinois Times published my response to a column they ran last week.

GREENER THAN YOU THINK
I appreciate James Krohe Jr.’s effort in his column encouraging Springfield residents and city government to be more ambitious about clean energy programs [see “Greener than thou,” Sept. 16]. However, I’m disappointed that he did so by belittling the actions of numerous community groups and ignoring much of what’s already happening in Springfield.

Mayor Tim Davlin deserves credit for showing leadership on energy issues, but it’s a mistake to call this a one-man movement. Over a year ago, for example, a dozen local organizations submitted petitions to the city council with 500 signatures in support of Springfield becoming a Cool City. Additionally, CWLP has conducted an energy audit of the city that will help guide a climate action plan, and it’s being done with the help of citizen members representing the environmental community. If Mr. Krohe peruses back issues of Illinois Times he’ll find many excellent articles about local citizens organizing to promote clean energy.

There are several aspects of the city’s agreement with the Sierra Club that the column did not mention, such as a mechanism to fund new energy efficiency projects, which have the potential to reduce our global warming emissions even more than the wind power purchase. The agreement called for CWLP to hold quarterly public forums to provide updates on progress and seek feedback. The next forum is Nov. 30. The public is also invited to learn more about the growth of green jobs in central Illinois at a panel discussion hosted by the Sierra Club Sept. 28, 6:30 p.m. in Lincoln Library.

There’s no need for anyone to remain nostalgic about past glory days of environmental activism with so many current opportunities to be involved. The environmental movement is stronger and more diverse than it has ever been.

Will Reynolds
Chair, Sierra Club Sangamon Valley Group
Springfield

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I saw this chart and it reminded me of a line from Martin Luther King's speech declaring his opposition to the Vietnam War.

"As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent."

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Just because you're a law-abiding citizen doesn't mean you shouldn't be curious about what's going on at the domestic spying fusion center in Springfield. Illinois ACLU asked that question with a Freedom of Information Act request and so far the state police aren't answering.

Its original mandate in 2003 was to gather terrorism intelligence, but its mission has dramatically expanded beyond terrorism to cover information about all crimes, hazards, and threats. STIC has scores of employees, and hosts analysts from a broad array of federal, state, and local police agencies. STIC has direct access to dozens of public and private record systems containing sensitive information about many members of the public, including criminal background, digital photographs, and employment, medical, and credit history. Without proper safeguards and oversight, this vast concentration of sensitive information in government hands endangers civil liberties. It is unclear whether Illinois has adopted the necessary privacy rule - which is why the ACLU has filed this FOIA enforcement lawsuit.

Press reports across the country paint a troubling picture of fusion center activity. The fusion center in Virginia, for example, labeled that state's historic black colleges as a "possible threat." An analyst at the fusion center in Wisconsin targeted protestors on both sides of the abortion debate as a threat to public safety. The Maryland fusion center targeted and spread information about dozens of lawful advocacy organizations. The Missouri fusion center urged surveillance of the supporters of Congressman Ron Paul.

In addition to those examples of domestic spying, the Department of Justice found there was no basis for the FBI to launch domestic terror investigations on non-violent activists groups such as Greenpeace and The Catholic Worker.

Depriving the American left of their Constitutional rights has been a habit of the FBI ever since Hoover rounded up thousands of radicals and deported some like Emma Goldman in 1920. Unfortunately, we can't assume that domestic spying in violation of Constitutional rights is a relic of the past. The State Police need to open up and let us know what's going on at the fusion center.

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I couldn't get reliable internet access at the coal ash hearing so live blogging didn't happen. You can still check out pictures and updates from the Sierra Club twitter page.

Hundreds of citizens came to ask that EPA strongly regulate coal ash. The proponents of stronger regulation vastly outnumbered the industry spokespersons. There was an unusually high level of energy and excitement for an EPA hearing.

The live reenactment of the Tennessee coal ash spill was a spectacular success! I'll post videos of that and my testimony to the EPA when they wind up on youtube.

I posed with Becki "good at fighting" Clayborn before the big rally in Grant Park.

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If I can get a reliable internet connection I'll do a little live blogging and twittering this afternoon at the EPA hearing on coal ash. Come to the big rally at 5:00-6:30 if you're in Chicago!

"The rally will prove to be the highlight of the day with music, engaging speakers and participatory actions for all! There will be a human reenactment of the TVA spill for those interested in flexing their creative muscles – come be a part of the fun!"

It's across the street from the hearing location, Hilton Chicago, 720 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605. They adopted my crazy idea to have a human reenactment of the giant Tennessee coal ash spill and I'm helping to put in on. Whether it wins or fails, it should be interesting.

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The next free Liberty Brew & View screening is part of a week of events around the International Day of Peace.

The Strangest Dream

Tuesday, September 21, 7:00pm
Capital City Bar & Grill
3149 S. Dirksen Pkwy, Springfield

The Strangest Dream tells the story of Joseph Rotblat, the history of nuclear weapons and the efforts of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs ­ which he co-founded ­ to halt nuclear proliferation.

Nuclear physicist Joseph Rotblat was branded a traitor and spy after walking away from the Manhattan Project, builders of the first atomic bomb. But, with Bertrand Russell, he went on to help create the modern peace movement and eventually to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The film takes us from the site of the first nuclear test, in New Mexico, to Cairo, where contemporary Pugwash scientists meet under the cloud of nuclear proliferation, and to Hiroshima, where we see survivors of the first atomic attack. Featuring interviews with contemporaries of Rotblat, members of the Pugwash movement and passionate public figures including Senator Roméo Dallaire, The Strangest Dream demonstrates the renewed threat of nuclear weapons, while encouraging hope through the example of morally engaged scientists and citizens.

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During my weekend trip to Chicago I took a few pictures of this year's popular public art piece in the South Loop.

You can click on any photo for the larger version and a few more at my flickr set.

It's across the street from Harold Washington Library. How did it get here?

What does it want?

It's staring in this direction at the el.

The sun keeps getting in my eye.

Now a Stooges song is stuck in my head.

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I was in Taylorville Thursday for a meeting with Dick Durbin and supporters of the proposed Tenaska Co coal plant. I attended as a representative of the Sierra Club, which was the only group present that is not in favor of the project.

Durbin steered the focus of the meeting toward getting Tenaska on board with "FutureGen 2.0." The new plan is to retrofit 56 existing coal power plants and connect them to a network of CO2 pipelines. The state's collective carbon pollution would then be sequestered somewhere in eastern or central Illinois. He called it the largest clean coal grant in American history.

A representative from Tenaska said they would consider hooking into the pipeline network but also admitted that it could increase rates on consumers who are forced to buy power from their plant. Their current cost projections depend on selling captured CO2 for enhanced oil recover projects in the Gulf Coast region. The loss of revenue from selling their CO2 (rather than sequestering it in the ground) means the plant could become more expensive for ratepayers.

While Durbin was enthusiastic about the carbon pipeline network, I was surprised to read headlines the next day claiming he also supports the separate Tenaska plant. I didn't hear him explicitly endorse the project, so I'm interested in getting confirmation from Durbin.

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