CHICAGO – The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) will hold a press conference Thursday, August 28, 2008, at 10:00am, at Mayor Richard Daley’s office, City Hall, 5th Floor, 121 N.  LaSalle, Chicago.

LVEJO will call on the Mayor and other officials to expand CTA service, close 2 coal-fired power plants on Chicago’s Southwest Side, and create a Renewable Energy Jobs Program by 2010, 6 years in advance of the 2016 Olympics. The environmental justice organization will present information on the impact these plants will have on Chicago residents, Olympians and spectators. 

“The Beijing Games have made clear that Chicago cannot afford to play games with its air quality if it wants to host the world in 2016,” says Samuel Villasenor, LVEJO Clean Air Organizer. Villasenor explained that Chicago was notified on August 19th that it failed to meet the new USEPA CLEAN AIR standards for soot. The campaign seeks closure of Chicago’s largest sources of air pollution and greenhouse gases – the Midwest Generation’s Crawford and Fisk coal power plants. The plants are in Chicago’s Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods, but affecting air quality up to 30 miles away. They should be replaced with new Renewable Energy Job Training Centers for energy efficiency and renewable energy, says James Thindwa, Director of Chicago Jobs with Justice. 

Public transit is also a weakness of the Chicago Olympic bid. “Whether Chicago can fix public transit and congestion will make or break the Olympic bid,” says Mike Pitula, LVEJO Transit Organizer. The June IOC report questioned "how people would get from rail lines to the large concentration of sports venues planned for the lakefront, saying they were 'not in close proximity.'" Chicago did not explain how it would increase either bus or train service for the Olympics. LVEJO is calling for CTA to order new “clean air buses.” on existing and new routes such as the proposed 31st Street route. The new route will provide access to jobs and the Olympic Village site in what is currently a “transit desert”.

LVEJO is calling on the City to meet these challenges by 2010. “We who live in the shadow of these plants and wait long hours to travel to and from our jobs cannot hold our breath until 2016,” says Kimberly Wasserman Nieto, LVEJO Director, “A world-class transit system and clean air will allow Chicago to meet the demands of any event it hosts, but these basic needs of city living should become a reality before, during and after the Olympics have come and gone.”

Stop the Midwest Generation Fleet from Polluting!!!

Close Fisk & Crawford!