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

Have you heard about the Local Food Awareness Day at the Capitol? Well, now you have.

On April 6th, local foodies, farmers, and citizens from across the state will come together in Springfield to encourage their legislators to support local food and farms. Illinois Stewardship Alliance invites you to join us for our 2nd annual local food and farm lobby day in Springfield on April 6th, from 10a.m. - 3p.m. at the Pasfield House and IL State Capitol Complex in Springfield.

Local Food Awareness Day will consist of a legislative update, orientation, lobbying 101 training, and lunch at the Pasfield House. Following lunch we will descend upon the capitol to educate legislators about the importance of local food systems and advocate for positive policy solutions that promote and support local food systems in Illinois.

These kind of visits to legislators often do have a meaningful impact. You can register to participate at the ISA website.

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The next free Liberty Brew & View screening will feature a documentary by Oliver Stone, "South of the Border," Tuesday, March 29, 7:00pm at Capital City Bar & Grill.

Synopsis:

There’s a revolution underway in South America, but most of the world doesn’t know it. Oliver Stone sets out on a road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media’s misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents. In casual conversations with Presidents Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner (Argentina), as well as her husband and ex-President Nėstor Kirchner, Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and Raúl Castro (Cuba), Stone gains unprecedented access and sheds new light upon the exciting transformations in the region.

Diane Lopez Hughes will be the special guest speaker after the film. She'll talk about the School of the Americas Watch, their upcoming week of action, and lead a group discussion.

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Expect to see many more stories like this in the near future.

Georgia Power announced plans Wednesday to shutter two coal-fired power plant units in Middle Georgia, saying the cost of equipping them to meet current and pending environmental regulations is too high to justify their continued use.

Those regulations include the new mercury rule EPA announced Wednesday and regulation of coal ash. Aging coal plants around the country will be faced with the decision to make costly upgrades or shut down.

This fits into the goal President Obama set in his State of the Union address when he called for 80% clean energy by 2035. It's time to start retiring America's fleet of outdated, worst polluting coal power plants, many of which are three, four or five decades old.

There are pressures to go in the opposite direction. The coal industry will ask taxpayers to subsidize expensive plant upgrades and continue burdening the public with the impact of their pollution. But, don't expect any similar offers from coal companies to share their profits with the public after we pay for their operating costs.

In particular, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity spends tens of millions to prop up the coal industry. Millions of dollars in grants are spent yearly to keep dying coal plants on life support.

DCEO's authority over economic development and their cozy relationship with the coal industry means additional federal dollars are directed toward coal. That was the case when they helped subsidize a $3.6 million retrofit of the Lake of Egypt Coal plant built in 1978. Nearly 1/2 million of the grant came from federal stimulus dollars designated for energy efficiency.

That money could have been spent to help Southern Illinois transition to a new energy economy with a future. The economy of coal dependent regions will never move forward as long as millions of taxpayer dollars are spent to convince people that they have no other option. It's time to stop throwing money at the past and invest in a realistic energy future.

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If you haven't picked up the March 3-9 issue of Illinois Times yet be sure to grab one today. The "Greening of Springfield" edition is one of those that makes IT the news source of record for environmental issues in the Springfield area.

Of course, I'm biased toward the article that covers the Cool Cities advisory council and quotes me about how the city election is important in determining Springfield's clean energy future. This election is the time to discuss whether we want our public utility to be totally reliant on coal or whether we're going to continue investments in clean energy and efficiency projects after the CWLP/Sierra Club agreement runs out.

I wrote an email to several editors and reporters at the State Journal-Register suggesting that the clean energy future of CWLP is a vital issue they should be discussing with candidates and including in their election coverage. I received no response. They continue to focus on CWLP porn and their general dislike of Todd Renfrow.

I guess I'm in the mood to complain so I can't help but nitpick that the IT cover is overgenerous when it states that "LLCC leads the way to renewable energy." If LLCC has shown any leadership it's in applying for grants. The Green Center remained nothing but a website for over a year because that's all that was grant funded. The college has shown no overall environmental vision, only recently formed a sustainability committee, and didn't originally plan to make the new workforce development center LEED certified.

If anything, they've been dragged late into the game by national trends and federal stimulus funding. If those grants aren't renewed it's likely that LLCC will abandon the Green Center just as quickly as they dropped the Community Volunteer Center and the adult education programs they gutted when state funding was in question. We have to thank Obama's stimulus bill and the state of Illinois for shoving LLCC in the right direction.

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Wow. Two very cool things happened Friday.

First, I discovered that the local public radio station, WUIS, has a new HD station called Xponential and it's very good. I've been listening online.

It gets better. For nothing more than liking their facebook page and leaving a comment I won tickets to Hot Tuna at Sangamon Auditorium!

The show was two hours with a stage full of virtuosos playing incredible blues, rock, country and folk jams. The first half was mostly acoustic with plenty of folk and old blues songs. After blowing the audience away, they took it up a notch for a plugged-in second set.

Jefferson Airplane members Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen are obscenely talented. It looked like Casady played the same bass all night, usually like a lead guitar.

Trying to keep up with what instrument Barry Mitterhoff had in hand was its own form of entertainment. He started out doing things I didn't know could be done with a mandolin. During a couple of songs in the plugged-in set I looked around to see which of the guitar players was doing the incredible solo jam and it was Mitterhoff on the electric mandolin! It looked like a tiny electric guitar for leprechauns. At one point he switched to an odd instrument with four strings, a short neck, and a wide, round body. Maybe a mando-bass?

G.E. Smith lived up to his astral reputation as a guitarist and sang lead on one song. Smith and drummer Skoota Warner stole the show with a cover of Arrowhead, which Smith dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.

Jim Lauderdale had the best voice of the group and transformed it into a country show whenever he walked onstage. Charlie Musselwhite lead several traditional blues songs and always played the harp exactly as it should be.

On top of seeing one hell of a show show my seats were next to two friends who also won their tickets. If I've seen a more talented lineup of musicians in Springfield I don't remember who.

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Environment Illinois issued a press release about Congressman John Shimkus under the category of "what else is new?" You can check it out at their website if you missed it.

Congressman Shimkus Supports Polluters Over Health of Children

More than 85,000 Illinois residents in and around Representative Shimkus’s district with asthma, including 21,829 children, are at increased risk of adverse health consequences if he is successful in preventing the US EPA from updating Clean Air Act standards, according to data compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council and released by Environment Illinois. Representative Shimkus has received more than $889,695 from polluters, many of which have made stopping the EPA a high priority.

Underscoring the severity of the problem, 1,061,329 residents statewide suffer from asthma including 299,285 children. EPA scientists have determined that carbon dioxide endangers public health, in part because it contributes to warmer temperatures, which make it easier for smog pollution to develop and harder to reduce it. Smog is particularly dangerous to asthma sufferers. Warmer temperatures are also associated with increased morbidity and mortality due to increased severe weather events, such as hurricanes and floods; the spread of infectious disease; and heat-related illnesses, all of which incur additional health care costs.

Representative Shimkus has cosponsored legislation intended to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from limiting air pollution. In addition, he voted in favor of a funding bill (HR 1) on February 19 that, among other things, blocks the EPA from limiting carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources. This bill amounts to the biggest attack on the health and environment of Illinoisans in recent history. By blocking new air pollution limits, he would put the public’s health at risk by allowing polluters to continue emitting unlimited amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air.

Environment Illinois also released a report last week about the political influence of Big Agribusiness groups like the Farm Bureau. "Giant agricultural companies are throwing around millions of dollars to fight to continue polluting our rivers, lakes, and streams."

Coincidentally, Shimkus just received the Illinois Farm Bureau's Silver Sow award. No, wait. That's Golden Plow Award. I thought "golden plow" was slang for a liaison under the Golden Gate Bridge but that's really what they call their award.

Remember when Shimkus made a nonsense comment about the EPA's non-existent new regulation of tractor dust? It turns out that it wasn't his own original hallucination. He was repeating the talking points of a Farm Bureau lobbyist. It's becoming clear that the Farm Bureau is focusing less on representing farmers and is instead becoming a tool of the oil, coal and chemical industries to mislead farming communities.

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