Let's Push for the Clean Energy Jobs Act

The Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA), known as Senate Bill 2132 and House Bill 3624, is a comprehensive package of clean energy legislation that was introduced before the Illinois General Assembly in February 2019. It has yet to be passed into law.

CEJA is expected to ramp up renewable energy development in Illinois, save consumers money on their energy bills, and create more accountability for utility companies operating in Illinois.

CARE is encouraging everyone to write to Governor Pritzker, their state senator, and their state representative to urge them to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act legislation in Illinois. We need to do everything we can so that CEJA becomes a reality!

The following letter was submitted by CARE Director Jenifer Garlitz to Governor Pritzker.

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Governor J.B. Pritzker
Office of the Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601

Dear Governor Pritzker,

I have lived in Illinois for over 25 years, having moved here from Pennsylvania. I am a resident of Joliet and I work as a reading specialist in Plainfield School District 202. In addition, I am a member of a local environmental group, C.A.R.E. (Citizens Against Ruining the Environment), which meets in Lockport, IL in Will County.

Thank you for committing Illinois to the U.S. Climate Alliance in 2019, which will reduce Illinois’ greenhouse gas emissions. Thank you also for your wise governance during this pandemic.

I am writing to ask you to strongly support the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA). A major reason to support CEJA is for the health of the citizens of Illinois. Reducing air pollution results in fewer cases of asthma, heart disease, and other illnesses. Because I work as a reading specialist in an elementary school, I know from firsthand experience how asthma adversely affects children.

Also, during this pandemic, we know that living in an area with high levels of air pollution makes people more likely to become seriously ill with COVID. Low-income people of color are more likely to live in areas with high levels of air pollution, which is one reason that they are at greater risk of dying from COVID than other populations in Illinois.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act will result in 100% renewable energy in Illinois by 2050. Also, CEJA will get Illinois to 100% decarbonized energy by 2030. This is crucial in order for Illinois citizens to have cleaner air, and also it is crucial in combating climate change.

Another reason to strongly support CEJA, is that it will create thousands of decent paying jobs in our state, and it ensures that job training is available to lower income people. This will help Illinois to recover from the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

Governor Pritzker, make the health of the Illinois people a priority over the profits of large corporations, by doing all that you can to make the Clean Energy Jobs Act a reality in our state.

Sincerely,

Jenifer Garlitz

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Thumbnail/banner image by Science in HD on Unsplash

Energy Bad Habits

Here are a few of my ideas and comments regarding climate change. You may think these are radical and abrupt, but I feel that our U.S. leadership and most Americans are still "asleep" when it comes to our climate. I feel we had a good taste of climate change this past summer – the second major hurricane to hit Central America is still ongoing as I write this.

Americans have developed many "bad habits" dealing with energy that are hard to break. Our economy is like a giant monster that lives and breathes on gasoline, diesel fuel and electricity, and belches out toxic pollutants that affect the entire world. We are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, polluters on earth!

One of our biggest “bad habits” is the AUTOMOBILE.

For the past 100+ years now, Americans have thrived on auto racing. The INDY 500 now draws several hundred thousand spectators. If you do the math for gasoline consumption for the participants and spectators combined, it is well over several million gallons of gasoline consumed. Since each gallon consumed equates to around 19 pounds of CO2 emissions on average, this equals several thousand tons of CO2 produced for just this one event. During the summer there are many major auto races across the country. So, the total CO2 produced is well into the million-ton range. All that for the "excitement" and "thrill" of speed, and maybe seeing a big burning wreck! You may say "it's a money maker for our economy." Well, if that is true, we are indeed in trouble.  

Joliet has three racing venues: Chicagoland Speedway, Route 66 Raceway, and the Autobahn (named after the famous speed-limitless highway in Germany). In my opinion, if our country is serious about climate change, then all three of these venues must be shut down immediately. Auto racing is a cancer for our climate and one of our major bad habits. But it's not just track racing. It's tractor pull contests, mud racing, dirt track racing, off-road rock climbing, etc. There are dozens of different racing classifications in this country alone. Don't forget the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah! We Americans set a bad example for the rest of the world on how to waste energy. But that's not all. There are big boat racing events and even airplane racing. They all need to go if we are serious about climate change. Americans glorify the winner of NASCAR races. We make heroes out of the winners. Instead, we need to see them as villains and not heroes.

Electric cars are the cure, you may say. Well, let's take a look at history. We damaged the environment to mine coal. We damaged the environment to extract oil. We are producing tons of nuclear waste from nuke plants every year, and several plants have had major disasters. We are now damaging the environment with fracking. We have damaged the environment mining minerals (the Animas River in Colorado turned orange, remember that event). And now we intend to damage the environment to mine and purify lithium for electric car batteries.

We need to step in and make several important changes to the automobile and how it is driven. Limit the speedometer range to 90 MPH. Why do we need the speedometer to go from 0 to 140, or 160, or even to 200 MPH on some cars? WHY? Every week I read about someone caught driving well over 100 MPH in the Chicago area. I have a collection of newspaper articles detailing some individuals driving 150 MPH and a few even faster. In October, an attempt was made in the Nevada desert to drive 300 MPH in a “hypercar” (an extreme high performance vehicle) just for the record!

Why do manufacturers make cars with 1000 HP engines and some even bigger? These engines are gas wasters. Limit the horsepower to no more than 250 HP, and even that may be excessive.

Put a governor on the engines of ALL cars sold in the U.S., so the speed can never go above 85 MPH. We should also drop the speed limit on the interstate highways back down to 65 MPH, or perhaps even lower to save energy. Ten years ago, several individuals in the Chicago area complained that the speed limit was too low due to the fact that almost everyone was going well over the speed limit. These individuals had no clue what effect raising the speed limit does to gas mileage. The faster you go in a car, the lower your miles per gallon is. You are pushing more air out of the way in the same period of time. For example, if you can get 35 mpg at 50 MPH, you may only get 25 mpg at 70 MPH.

How many of you have heard about the Cannonball Run?

“The Cannonball Run is an unsanctioned speed record, typically accepted to run from New York City's Red Ball Garage to the Portofino Hotel in Los Angeles, a distance of about 2,800 mi (4,500 km). As of August 2020, the record is 25 hours 29 minutes, with a top speed of 175 mph and an average speed of 110 mph, driven by Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt."

The Cannonball Run is done on our interstate highways no less, just for the thrill of it. How many hundreds of gallons of gas and tons of CO2 are produced for this one gas-wasting event? This goes on every year. And there are probably tens of thousands of Americans who are drooling to break that record.

I will finish up with comments about ADVERTISING.

Every day on TV, on the radio, and on the internet, I see and hear ads for automobile sales that show speeding, roaring, spinning wheels, burning rubber, doing burnouts, and in some cases splashing through a stream. All this to sell gas-wasting cars. Splashing through a stream is an environmental sin!

To see this for real, all you have to do is drive out to Pilcher Park on Joliet's east side. Come in through the west entrance from Rt 30. As you approach the park about a mile in from Rt 30, there is a large parking lot on the right, between the road and Hickory Creek. You will notice "burn out" spirals on the pavement. Someone with a high horsepower car with nothing else to do but spin the wheels and burn rubber on the parking lot pavement, damaging public property set aside for the enjoyment of all. And if you can't make it to the park, all you have to do is go to Google earth maps (just search for Pilcher Park) to see a satellite view of the park. The burn out trails are actually visible from space!

Tire marks on pavement and adjoining grass at Pilcher Park Nature Center in Joliet, Illinois.
(Image courtesy of Google Earth)

How does this happen? It is a failure of our society. It is a failure of parenting. It is a failure of our community standards. It is a failure of our schools. It is a failure of our leadership. It is a failure of our business culture.

Thumbnail/banner image by Benjamin Green on Shutterstock

Plastic Free July Contest Winner

Plastic Free July is a worldwide challenge hosted by the Plastic Free Foundation that takes place every year during the month of July and aims to reduce the everyday use of single-use plastic. The campaign provides resources and ideas to help individuals make small, lasting changes in their plastic consumption that could add up to substantial gains for communities over the long term. Since 2011, over 326 million people in 177 countries have participated.

In recognition of Plastic Free July, the village of Homer Glen ran an essay contest asking residents to indicate what they are doing to reduce plastic waste and their favorite ideas on solutions to the global single-use plastic pollution problem. The Homer Glen Environment Committee chose village resident Eileen Solt’s submission as the winner, which appears below. Download Eileen’s plastic-free ideas here.

CARE congratulates Eileen on her and her family’s innovative ideas and dedication to making forever changes in their everyday plastic consumption.

Here are the steps we’ve taken to reduce the amount of plastic we bring into our home, and it all started in our shower.

1 | Bar Soap

This was our first step toward awareness of how much plastic we buy, use and toss into the recycle bin on a regular basis. We thought that if we could just eliminate our liquid shower soaps and give bar soaps a try again, we’d be helping our planet. Best decision we ever made and it started us on our journey to reduce our plastic consumption well before we ever heard of Plastics Awareness Month. So, no more relying on bath gel/body wash that comes in plastic bottles with sophisticated pump dispensers that end up in the landfill (or worse, our oceans) for us! Why is it that just thirty years ago-ish it was mainstream to use bar soap? Why did we ever switch to liquid body soaps anyway? I have the fondest memories of staying overnight at my grandma’s home as a child and taking a bath in her claw-footed tub; the smell of a bar of Dove soap (her favorite) immediately takes me back to a more simple time in life. So, bar soap is back in fashion in our home!

An aside: Of course, bar soaps need to dry out so they don’t leave a mess in your shower, so a quick internet search lead me to the SoapStandle solution. While these are made out of plastic, they are a true soap saver. Your soap dries completely and there is no mess. Seriously. These make using bar soap a no brainer. All obstacles for using bar soap have been overcome in our household…for good.

2 | Shampoo/Conditioner

Our second aha moment was to question alternatives to shampoo in plastic bottles. There are many shampoo bars on the market. They look like regular bar soap, but are formulated with non-toxic ingredients and are gentle on your hair. I have only tried J.R.Ligget’s, and I love it because it is a shampoo and conditioner in one, thus eliminating two (2) plastic bottles from our shower! We are looking forward to trying others for variety sake, as well.

3 | Toothpaste

Another plastic that we use twice a day without thinking about its impact on our environment is toothpaste. We’ve discovered that there are many alternatives to toothpaste in a tube, but we never thought to question our use of this convenience item, until now. From tooth powders to tooth pills in glass containers delivered to your door, we took the first step and are trying a tooth powder from a local (Naperville), small, female-owned business called Whole Love Organics. So far, so good!

4 | Dental Floss

Continuing with items we use in our bathroom, we just ordered dental floss made from silk and it will be delivered in a glass, reusable container. Dental Lace’s founder was a former librarian. We love her story, and we are excited to try this new type of floss and thereby eliminating not only the plastic dental floss containers, but the actual plastic floss from making its way into our environment. Alarmingly, as it turns out, plastic dental floss containing PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, may be toxic and linked to cancer, according to a 2019 study published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. Who knew?

Moving to our kitchen, we looked at all of the plastic bottles that go into the recycle bin and then go where…hmmm?

5 | Kitchen Sink Hand Soap

Especially with Covid-19, we are all washing our hands like crazy. Here’s a consumable that even if you buy the large, refill containers, it’s all about plastic. Is there an alternative, we asked, to plastic hand soap? In sharing this thought with a friend, she said she saw a company that had a solution, and it was love at first site for us. Blueland.com will ship little pellets that look like Alka-Seltzer™ tablets to your home for about the same price as buying hand soap refills. Better for the environment and on budget, we’ve been using the hand soap for two months already and a little goes a long way. You buy a foaming, glass dispenser along with your first soap tablet order. The foaming soap lasts a very long time, much longer than regular liquid hand soap, and it comes in three scents. Each fragrance is light and lovely. We just placed an order for more dispensers to use in our bathrooms and laundry room.

6 | Dishwashing Liquid

So grateful to see Blueland.com expanding its products to include a powder dishwashing solution. This is also on its way to our home for us to try!

7 | Dishwasher Detergent

Another save by Blueland.com. They came out with tablets that are eco-friendly all around. None of their products are wrapped in plastic, and they are delivered in recyclable cardboard. Their refill tablets come in compostable packaging and shipped in paper padded mailers made from 77% recycled fibers.

On to our clothes.

8 | Laundry Detergent

We next looked at our laundry detergent use. Years ago, we stopped using fragranced laundry detergent. Then, we started to buy plant-based laundry detergent. Now, thanks to increased awareness of plastic pollution, we discovered just today, that Blueland.com has come out with a laundry tablet, too. We are anxiously awaiting our order to arrive to give this product a try. We are also becoming more aware of our carbon footprint. The amount of waste to bring these heavy, liquid-filled containers to market must also be brought to people’s attention. We all have so much to learn, and we all must be responsible for our actions. No more excuses!

Other ways we are reducing our dependency on plastics:

9 | Straws

We just purchased Manna stainless-steel straws in a carrying case to keep with us for use when we are on the road. We will just say “no” to straws from here on out!

We are committed in our household to taking every step possible to eliminate the plastic we bring into our home, so that we do our part to eliminate the demand to create more plastic in its place. By doing so, we are also reducing our carbon footprint on this plant, too. All of the items mentioned above are a start for us. We know we have a long journey ahead, but we know our actions will make a difference. To quote Dr. Sandra Steingraber, biologist and cancer survivor, “Just get started.”

Thumbnail/banner image by j.chizhe on Shutterstock

Our Faith Compels Us to Vote to Care for Our Earth

The year 2020 is a year when it is dawning on some of us that we are living in climate change. Climate change is no longer subtle; it is hitting us literally with Hurricane Laura, the mid-west derecho on August 10th, and a million-acre “gigafire” in the West. The fires in California are so massive that they can be seen from outer space. Texas is being hit with stronger, bigger, and slower hurricanes. The derecho in the mid-west in June struck my neighborhood near Chicago with ferocity; there were tree limbs down all over the place, and thousands of people were without electricity for days. Farmers in Iowa fared even worse, because 40% of Iowa’s corn and soybeans were flattened by the derecho.

Governor Newsome in California was asked about the cost of cleaning up after the wildfires in recent years. He said that just the debris removal after the fires was a multibillion-dollar expense. Quoting Governor Newsome, “Folks think, well we can’t afford to address climate change. My gosh. The naiveté of that. Because the most expensive option is doing nothing.”

These catastrophes have been predicted by the vast majority of scientists for years, who said that storms and wildfires would become more frequent and severe if we do nothing to slow down the release of greenhouse gases. Also, scientists predicted the rising temperatures. In 1990, the U.S. military called climate change, “a threat multiplier.” I could go on and mention environmental catastrophes happening all over the world, for example the huge wildfires in Australia. Moreover, our changing climate is causing increasing numbers of people around the world to become refugees. In our own country, many people were displaced after Hurricane Katrina, and have had their homes destroyed in other hurricanes. Now we also have refugees from the wildfires in California.

I look at this natural world and see God’s amazing gifts to us in the flowers, trees, creatures, rivers, oceans, and an excellent climate. Pope Francis states in Laudato Si’, “The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us.” When we are given a lovely gift by a friend, we naturally express our appreciation. A way that we show appreciation for God’s gifts to us in this natural world is by taking care of those gifts He has given us, and not trashing them. When we disrespect the gifts, we disrespect the Giver of the gifts.

Many times in the Old and New Testament scriptures we are told to care for the poor, immigrants, the homeless, and the powerless. Katharine Hayhoe is a woman of faith and the Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. Regarding climate change, Katharine says, “The poor, the disenfranchised, those already living on the edge, and those who contributed least to this problem are also those at greatest risk to be harmed by it. That’s not a scientific issue; that’s a moral issue. When I look around, the biggest way in which we are failing to care for those in need is through ignoring climate change and acting like it doesn’t exist. As a Christian, I believe that is something the church needs to know.” When we care for our Earth, we are caring for each other, and working for the common good of all humankind.

One of the most important things we can do to stop climate change, in addition to personal actions to help our environment, is to put taking care of the Earth near the top of our list of priorities when we go into the voting booth. Of course, it is not our only priority, but it is important enough to rise to one of our top five priorities. All of us care about our children and grandchildren and leaving them with an Earth that is beautiful and able to sustain life, and a decent quality of life. We need to think about that when we vote.

Vote for lawmakers who pledge to make cleaning up our air, water, and soil a top priority. Vote for politicians who will do all that they can to stop climate change. Specifically, vote for politicians who support the Green New Deal, the Paris Agreement, and organic and carbon-sequestration agriculture. If you live in Illinois, vote for state congresspeople who will vote to pass CEJA, the Clean Energy Jobs Act. Find out what pro-environmental laws are proposed in your state, and vote for people who will make them a reality. Also consider what environmentally friendly ordinances are proposed in your town or city, and vote for mayors and city council people who support them.

In closing I share part of a prayer from Michelle Balek, OSF: “All creation, each star and every flower, each drop of water and every person, each and every atom, down to its very electrons, explodes with the revelation of your Sacred Mystery. Our minds alone cannot fathom such splendor. Our hearts can only respond in awe, praise and gratitude.”

Thumbnail/banner image by PopTika on Shutterstock