The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Environmental Law and Policy Center

ENews January 2004 was just published
Your online source for Midwest environmental advocacy and information

Smart Growth Image Bank is
Now Online

Smart strategies for development that are good for the environment and make good economic sense - this is smart growth. What does it look like? The Environmental Law and Policy Center's new Smart Growth Image Bank contains photographs showing smart growth examples in small towns and mid-sized cities throughout the Midwest.

These visual images are powerful tools for comparing the impacts of smart growth strategies to sprawled "business as usual." Public discussion and debate on land use options and community development have grown significantly. The Smart Growth Image Bank provides new tools for community planners and citizens engaged in local planning efforts by illustrating the visual impacts of sprawl by contrast to smarter growth opportunities.

"A picture is worth a thousand words and the new Image Bank shows smart growth examples that are working in our Midwest cities and towns. Smart growth strategies enable us to create more liveable communities that protect environmental values while enabling economic expansion," said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center. "Let's seize this win-win opportunity." Click here to go to the Smart Growth Image bank.



Support for Statewide Energy Efficiency
Building Code

The year 2003 was jam-packed with stories about skyrocketing natural gas prices and electricity blackouts. ELPC and our energy efficiency colleagues and advocates hope 2004 will bring positive change with a new piece of energy efficiency legislation introduced by Democratic state Rep. Julie Hamos and co-sponsored by Republican state Rep. Eileen Lyons.

The new legislation will establish a uniform statewide energy efficiency building code for all new commercial and non-residential construction. The code will enable builders of new commercial structures to make them energy efficient - with better insulation, sturdier windows that maintain temperatures, keeping cold air in during the summer and warm air in during the winter, energy efficient lighting and increased energy reliability. In addition, new construction built under these regulations will create significantly less pollution and would save money for owners and occupants by lowering electricity and heating bills. Illinois is one of only 14 states with no statewide or mandatory or voluntary energy efficiency standard for new construction. ELPC is excited by this piece of legislation, which has bipartisan support in the Illinois House of Representatives.



ELPC Intervenes To Stop New Nuclear Plant Siting in Central Illinois

ELPC continues to spread the message that developing clean renewable energy and energy efficiency are the best ways to manage the nation's future energy needs. When Exelon Generating recently filed an application to site a new second nuclear power plant in Clinton, Illinois - just south of Bloomington - Executive Director Howard Learner and Staff Attorneys Ann Alexander and Shannon Fisk filed a petition to intervene, contending that renewable energy and energy efficiency are safer, less costly, and cleaner alternatives to the proposed new nuclear power plant. Furthermore, building a new nuclear power plant will conflict with a current state moratorium law, which prohibits new plants until there is a high-level nuclear waste disposal solution.

ELPC's Shannon Fisk testified at a public hearing held by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Clinton on December 18th. Click here to read an article about the hearing in the Bloomington Pantagraph.



Keeping Illinois' Water Clean

ELPC is working hard to keep Illinois' water clean. Senior Attorney Albert Ettinger recently filed an appeal to the Illinois Pollution Control Board on behalf of a coalition of clean water groups including the Des Plaines River Watershed Alliance, the Livable Communities Alliance, Prairie Rivers Network and the Sierra Club. The appeal objected to a permit that would allow the Village of New Lenox, Illinois to increase by 63 percent the amount of wastewater discharge into Hickory Creek, without installing controls on nutrient pollution. The permit was issued by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and the coalition is seeking better treatment options that will not risk the health of Hickory Creek.

Hickory Creek historically has been considered a gem of the Des Plaines River system. Located in Will County, Illinois, Hickory Creek flows southwestward for 21 miles, and feeds into the Des Plaines River in Joliet. The creek provides habitat for many invertebrate species, many of which are not found elsewhere in the region.



ELPC Ensuring Farm Bill Success

ELPC is encouraging farmers, ranchers and other rural small business owners to make smart, clean energy and energy efficiency investments - and to use money from the U.S. Government to make it happen. Section 9006, a cornerstone of the 2002 Farm Bill, authorized $23 million in funding for new federal grants to help purchase renewable energy systems and to make energy efficiency improvements, including efficient lighting and pumps, wind turbines, solar hot water systems and anaerobic digesters. The grants will be awarded by the US Department of Agriculture competitively, and may be used to pay up to 25 percent of eligible project costs.

ELPC Senior Attorney John Moore and Environmental Business Specialist Charlie Kubert are promoting the program through media and public meetings and workshops in order to have applicants ready to apply. In addition, Moore and Kubert are working to generate as much interest in key states, especially among the sustainable agriculture community, to gain political support for the program.



Save the Date: CNU Hosts Chicago Discussion

"Redesigning and Reshaping America: A preview of CNU XII"
Co-hosted by the Congress for the New Urbanism and
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago


Thursday, February 5, 2004
The Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
112 South Michigan Avenue
6:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Come and join the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) for an evening with three leading figures in the New Urbanist movement. Now headquartered in Chicago, the CNU is the charter organization of the movement The New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger called "the most important phenomenon to emerge in American architecture in the post-Cold War era."

On February 5th, three CNU members will speak about their recently published books. Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk will discuss The New Civic Art. Renowned architect Daniel Solomon will share highlights of Global City Blues, and Hank Dittmar, co-director of Reconnecting America, will profile his new book, The New Transit Town. CNU's new President and author of The Wealth of Cities, John Norquist, will lead the discussion.

Attendees are invited to a reception following the event. Admission is free. For more information, contact David D. Hudson, 773-278-4800 ext. 152.



ELPC Ensuring Farm Bill Success


ELPC is encouraging farmers, ranchers and other rural small business owners to make smart, clean energy and energy efficiency investments - and to use money from the U.S. Government to make it happen. Section 9006, a cornerstone of the 2002 Farm Bill, authorized $23 million in funding for new federal grants to help purchase renewable energy systems and to make energy efficiency improvements, including efficient lighting and pumps, wind turbines, solar hot water systems and anaerobic digesters. The grants will be awarded by the US Department of Agriculture competitively, and may be used to pay up to 25 percent of eligible project costs.

ELPC Senior Attorney John Moore and Environmental Business Specialist Charlie Kubert are promoting the program through media and public meetings and workshops in order to have applicants ready to apply. In addition, Moore and Kubert are working to generate as much interest in key states, especially among the sustainable agriculture community, to gain political support for the program.


Start the New Year off Right: Resolve to Give Back to the Environment in 2004

First, click here to make a tax-deductible donation to the Environmental Law & Policy Center. Make your donation now, and you can receive great gear from our friends at Lands End and Columbia Sportswear.

Second, visit www.whatgoesaround.org to create a "givelist" and ask your friends to donate to ELPC as their gift to you and the environment in the new year.

Finally, support ELPC while shopping for warm winter items at ELPC's Store at: http://www.elpc.org/store.htm. ELPC has arrangements with dozens of online merchants, including Amazon, Patagonia, and Nordstrom. If you shop their Web sites through the ELPC Store, up to 15 percent of your purchases are contributed back to ELPC.