6,000+ Coal Pollution
Petitions Delivered to City Hall Thanks to all those who helped gather
petitions and with their dynamic presence this day!
Early on Sept. 20 more than 100 members of the Clean Power
Coalition gathered at City Hall, calling on Mayor Emanuel to help Chicago move
beyond coal. Forty people lined up along the eastern wall of the building to
form a human billboard. They held up individual letters that formed the message
“Mayor Emanuel: Move Chicago Off Coal.” After several minutes, billboard members
in unison flipped their signs to spell out “El Carbon Nos Mata a Todos” (Coal
Kills Us All) for the Spanish media.
Shortly thereafter, coalition members held a
press conference on the fifth floor of City Hall as they delivered a hefty
stack of 6,141 petitions to Mayor Emanuel’s office. This action was the
culmination of 10 weeks of door-to-door canvassing and attendance at
neighborhood festivals, farmers’ markets and online to gather signatures and
signed postcards.
The Clean Power Coalition surpassed its goal of 5,000 petition signatures
thanks to the hard work of dozens of volunteer members of the Sierra Club
and our partners in the Chicago Clean Power Coalition, including the Pilsen
Alliance, PERRO (Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization), and
LVEJO (Little Village Environmental Justice Organization), Greenpeace, and
Rainforest Action Network.
The press conference was led by mothers from the Pilsen and Little Village
neighborhoods, including one of Sierra Club's lead volunteers, Rose Gomez, who
grew up next to the Crawford coal plant in Little Village; and Kim
Wasserman-Nieto, executive director of the Little Village Environmental Justice
Organization.
See also related event: Roll Beyond Coal as part of
Moving Planet Day - MORE ...
