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Blagojevich Administration Approves Dirty Coal Plant
Chicago's Unhealthy Air To Get Worse

Chicago-Governor Blagojevich's Environmental Protection Agency has approved a giant new source of air pollution in the Chicago region, an area already violating federal air quality standards. Over objections of elected officials, public health advocates and conservation groups the state has approved the highly controversial plans by the Indeck Corporation to build a giant coal-fired power plant 55 miles south of the Chicago Loop in the City of Elwood, Will County.

"Governor Blagojevich seems to have forgotten his campaign commitment to clean up the air and ensure that new power plants would use the cleanest cost-effective technologies," said Bruce Nilles, Sierra Club. "Instead he has given Indeck hundreds of thousands of dollars in state subsidies and today approved their plans to build a giant coal plant that is five times more polluting than a coal plant proposed in Wisconsin. So instead of cleaning up our air, this Administration is making our unhealthy air worse. This is a terrible blow for the breathing residents of the Chicago region."

The permit authorizes Indeck to add 9,600 tons of new air pollution every year to the Chicago area. With the prevailing winds, this pollution will blow over Joliet and the entire Chicago region, adding more pollution to an already polluted area. According to the US EPA the six county region of northeastern Illinois already violates federal air quality standards. In fact, air pollution in the Chicago area reached smog levels deemed "unhealthy" on twenty days last year. This week's Journal of the American Medical Association found that children with asthma are particularly vulnerable from the dangers of air pollution and more pollution means more asthma attacks and emergency room visits. The American Lung Association reports there are approximately 500,000 children and adults suffering from asthma in the Greater Chicago area.

"Indeck's dirty coal plant is one of the single biggest environmental health threats that Chicago-area residents have faced in many years," said Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Programs for the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago. "The Chicago region already has asthma rates well above the national average, and by approving this coal power plant the Governor is placing more communities and more children at risk."

The Chicago region is in the midst of an asthma epidemic without adding any new sources of air pollution. Earlier this summer the Chicago Tribune reported that the region's asthma rates are 30 to 40 percent higher than the national average and more people die from asthma here than in any other place in the United States.

In addition, the Chicago area has exceeded federal health standards for fine particle soot for the last four years in a row. These extremely tiny soot particles are tied to increased numbers of asthma attacks, emergency room visits, respiratory hospital stays and even significant numbers of premature deaths. As recently as yesterday, high soot levels triggered a U.S. EPA health warning in the Chicago area that "people with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion." Indeck's thousands of tons of soot and smog will make this bad situation even worse.

"We can do so much better than a dirty coal plant with outdated technology," said Nilles. "Every Chicago-area resident deserves a safe, clean and affordable energy future. Unfortunately, the Governor has ignored the clean technologies that exist to get us there. The state has also steamrolled over and ignored the requests of the US Fish and Wildlife Service to delay issuing the permit until endangered species concerns were addressed. Consequently we have no choice but to consider all legal options to stop this ill-conceived and harmful project."

The Sierra Club and the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago are joined by the Clean Air Task Force, Citizen Action - Illinois, C.A.R.E of Lockport, Illinois Public Interest Research Group, Lake County Conservation Alliance and the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Alliance in opposing Indeck's dirty coal plant proposal.