Recent action - Environment Illinois

More mercury victories for Illinois

Thanks in large part to Environment Illinois advocacy, Illinois continues its winning streak in protecting citizens from toxic mercury pollution. In 2006, we helped pass a bill to capture and recycle mercury-containing automobile switches. In December, Illinois enacted a historic rule to require power plant owners to clean up their mercury pollution.

We’re proud to report two more victories: This August, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed Senate Bill 1241, which prohibits the sale of mercury- containing thermostats and House Bill 943, which eliminates mercury in measuring devices such as medical thermometers, barometers and blood pressure cuffs. According to U.S. EPA, these products account for over one-third of the mercury in products sold nationally. When disposed of, mercury-containing thermostats and measuring devices are often crushed or incinerated, causing mercury’s airborne release and eventual contamination of waterways and fish that people eat.

Illinois passes Great Lakes Compact

In August, the governor signed a bill allowing Illinois to adopt the provisions of the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact, which aims to ensure sustainable water levels in the Great Lakes Basin. Although the Great Lakes are vast, less than

1 percent of their water is naturally replenished by rain and snowmelt each year. The Great Lakes face ever-increasing demands on their water for drinking, industry, transportation and recreation, as well as more radical proposals like refilling the western U.S.’s Ogallala Aquifer or shipping bottled water to Asia. Before the compact, we had no assurance of the long-term supply of this vital resource.

The compact will close the door on schemes to export Great Lakes’ water, provide public review of proposed new water uses and require Great Lakes states to create water-use efficiency programs. To become binding, the compact must pass each of the eight Great Lakes states’ legislatures as well as a vote in U.S. Congress. As of press time, two of eight Great Lakes states had adopted the compact, with bills pending in the other six states.

The Great Lakes Compact will ensure sustainable use of lake water.

Preserving Illinois's vanishing natural areas

To our members

Almost everyone now recognizes the enormous threat posed by global warming, and that burning fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas is the cause. While we find hope in the fact that a majority of our elected officials now support doing something about global warming, it is all the more frustrating when we find these same elected officials supporting projects that will increase, not decrease, global warming pollution.

For example, we continue to see more coal power than clean wind power being built in the Midwest. Since 1990, Illinois’s carbon dioxide emissions have gone up by 22 percent, driven mostly by coal-burning power plants.

We applauded Gov. Rod Blagojevich when he announced his goal of reducing global warming pollution in Illinois to 1990 levels by 2020 and 60 percent beyond that by 2050. But that goal cannot be met if his administration continues to give out permits for additional coal-burning power plants. We also applauded when Sen. Barack Obama became a co-sponsor of an aggressive global warming bill in Congress, but he followed that by supporting liquid-coal subsidies—a fuel that produces twice as much global warming pollution per mile.

Tough talk about solving global warming is great, but it’s not enough. We need to make sure that we hold our public officials accountable for achieving the goals they set, and that takes constant vigilance. We are able to provide that vigilance because you support our work. Thanks again for your critical contribution.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Stanfield

Director

More mercury victories for Illinois

Illinois passes Great Lakes Compact

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To our members