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Mike Stephen discusses the racial disparity of COVID-19 with Duaa Eldeib of ProPublica Illinois, learns about the impact of the pandemic on the state’s environmental policy with Jen Walling of the Illinois Environmental Council, and chats about the pandemic’s effects on small business and self-employed workers with Dan Cooper of the Metropolitan Planning Council. Listen

While that may be a positive for the planet, it’s coming at a cost hundreds of thousands of infected people and millions of people without jobs. Jennifer Walling, executive director for the Illinois Environmental Council, emphasized this is “not the model of what you want to see in terms of reducing environmental emissions.” Read the

“Don’t flush them. Wet wipes clog pipes in your home, they clog pipes in sewers, and they cause lots of problems for the different water treatment facilities,” said Jennifer Walling, Executive Director of the Illinois Environmental Council. We do not want to be dealing with clogged pipes and people having to come in to your

“Yesterday the Illinois Environmental Council presented the webinar “Walking and biking during COVID-19,” featuring Audrey Wennink, transportation director at the Metropolitan Planning Council, and Lynda Lopez, advocacy manager at the Active Transportation Alliance (and a former Streetsblog Chicago reporter.)” Read the full article here.

President Trump’s move to dump Clean Car Standards imposed by the Obama administration drew a swift rebuke Tuesday from environmentalists. Calling it a “brazen rollback of clean-car standards,” the Illinois Environmental Council said a new rule imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ignores how “these standards have saved Illinois families over $1.3 billion at

The Illinois Environmental Council likewise expressed its outrage: “To be clear, now is absolutely not the time to allow polluting industries to skirt environmental protection laws. This is dangerous and wildly irresponsible, especially as we’re seeing stark evidence of the burden of toxic air pollution on vulnerable populations who already struggled to breathe before this

“Climate change is exacerbating this crisis. High levels of pollution have put vulnerable communities at greater risk of serious health impacts from COVID-19. Air pollution damages lungs and can cause chronic diseases like asthma, COPD and lung cancer. Scientists expect catastrophic events and pandemics to increase as the climate changes, and this tragedy is showcasing how

CEJA would quadruple solar subsidies and give Chicago more weight in the selection process, said Colleen Smith, legislative director for the Illinois Environmental Council, a coalition of ninety grassroots groups. More importantly, Smith said, CEJA would put the state on a path to eliminate coal-fired electricity by 2030 and nuclear plants by 2050, and to

As recently as last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was in the process of developing toxicity standards for PAHs, but that process was suspended in December 2018. There also are no standards for workers in businesses that apply coal tar sealants, although Colleen Smith, who lobbies for the Illinois Environmental Council, said the National

Gavin Taves, policy director at the Illinois Environmental Council, said the ruling could negatively impact the clean energy market. “Essentially, this ruling makes it much harder for renewables to competitively be on the capacity market,” Taves said. The IEC is part of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, which supports the Clean Energy Jobs Act. CEJA

In an effort to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution, a group of state lawmakers from both legislative chambers touted a series of bills Tuesday, Feb. 18, that would tax or ban single-use plastics and aim to boost recycling. The four proposals have the support of organizations such as the Illinois Environmental Council and