Thousands of Illinois Residents Calling for Illinois Pollution Control Board to Deny Dynegy’s Request for More Time to Meet Clean Air Standards

PEORIA, Ill. – Today, the Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance announced it will deliver more than 8,000 petitions to an Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB) hearing tomorrow in Springfield. The petitions call on IPCB to deny Texas-based energy company Dynegy’s variance request for more time to meet Illinois state clean air standards. The Respiratory Health Association estimates that this variance alone would cause 2,000 asthma attacks and 125 premature deaths in Illinois.

Dynegy has a pending purchase of five Ameren Illinois coal-fired power plants, including the E.D. Edwards coal plant in Bartonville. The company will pay no cash for the sale, instead taking on $825 million of Ameren’s debt.

“As a former medical professional, I oppose Dynegy’s request to avoid complying with common-sense clean air standards in Illinois,” said Dr. John McLean, a retired Peoria area neurologist. “Plain and simple, we should not be putting the profits of a polluter above our children’s health and the promise of cleaning up our air.”

Dynegy, working locally as the unfunded Illinois Power Holdings shell company, has requested a variance from the IPCB to have until 2020 to comply with the Illinois State Multi-Pollutant Standard, a law established in 2006. The company claims that complying with Illinois’ common-sense clean air standard will cause the company undue financial hardship, though the company chose to underfund Illinois Power Holdings. Dynegy is hinging the final sale agreement with Ameren on the IPCB’s variance decision.

Peoria-area mother Robin Garlish was so outraged by Dynegy’s request for more time to pollute, that she started the petition online to tell IPCB to deny Dynegy’s variance, telling the story of her family’s respiratory illnesses and severe asthma exacerbated by high levels of pollution from the E.D. Edwards coal plant. The more than 8,000 Illinois residents read Robin’s story and took action.

“Our community has endured years of pollution from the E.D. Edwards coal plant, and now a new polluter is coming to town without a plan to clean up,” said Robin Garlish, Peoria mother and member of the Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance. “More than 8,000 Illinois residents spoke out to say that Dynegy does not deserve a free pass to pollute here in Illinois. It’s time to come together as a community to demand clean air.”

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined earlier this year that the air in Peoria is unsafe to breathe, largely due to sulfur dioxide emissions from the area’s two large, uncontrolled coal-fired power plants, Ameren’s Edwards plant and Midwest Generation’s Powerton plant.

“The EPA’s designation of Peoria as a metro area with unsafe air, coupled with the Clean Air Act violations found at the Edwards coal plant are troubling for our public health,” said Lisa Offutt with Peoria Families Against Toxic Waste. “Every year, the Edwards plant alone is responsible for asthma attacks, respiratory disease and premature death. We’ve had enough of the pollution. We are ready to find a coal-free path forward in Peoria.”

The Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance will be joined by residents from across the state of Illinois to deliver the thousands of petitions in person at the IPCB hearing on Dynegy’s variance request. The group is also in the midst of an advertising blitz in Peoria and Springfield, Ill., running full page advertisements in the Peoria Journal Star and the Springfield Journal-Register on Sunday, along with additional half page advertisements and online ads through Tuesday.

“The IPCB hearing is a vital opportunity for residents to make their voices heard and demand that Dynegy’s profits come second to their health,” said Kady McFadden, Field Organizer with the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign in Illinois. “Dynegy does not deserve a free pass to pollute anywhere in Illinois.”

The IPCB hearing will start at 9:00 AM on Tuesday September 17 at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency building at 1021 N. Grand Avenue East in Springfield, Ill.

To view Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance advertisements online, please click here: http://action.sierraclub.org/site/DocServer/0519_IL_BC_Edwards_Springfield_Journal_FullPage_03_x1a.pdf?docID=14161