Straight to You From Chicago's Smokestacks: Shut Down Fisk and Crawford

If I had to chose one city in which to climb a smokestack, Chicago—aka "The Windy City"—probably would be low on my list. But what's a death-defying stunt or two, when the lives of 42 people are at stake?

That's what a few brave community activists are proving today, anyway.

This morning, several activists scaled the smokestacks of Edison International's Fish and Crawford power plants, two coal-fired electric stations that produce pollution estimated to kill, every year, 42 people who live in the minority communities near the smokestacks. These plants, at nearly 100 years of age, have become extremely controversial—they are so old that they were 'grandfathered' under the Clean Air Act and lack modern pollution controls. They are so dirty that patio furniture in surrounding neighborhoods is covered in soot. They are the only large coal plants within a major U.S. city and have the largest surrounding residential populations of any coal plant in the country.

So why are they still open? That's what Greenpeace wants to know.

For years, local community activists have joined with national groups to demand that Edison International—a national utility company— shut down the Fisk and Crawford plants by 2013. Their campaign is reaching fever pitch, especially with today's action. Recently, Chicago's city council stalled in passing the Clean Power Ordinance, which would require the plants either clean up or close down. Now, groups have been working to convince the city's new head honcho, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to take a stand.

This issue clearly matters to Chicago citizens. But it also matters to us all.  Around the country, coal is costing Americans up to half a trillion dollars every year, according to Greenpeace. Those costs come in hospital bills, in missed days of school and work days, and in a polluted environment. But companies like Edison are not paying for any of that. We are.

Edison International had already proved capable of taking action. In California, their local subsidiary is the largest renewable energy among American utility companies and plans to phase out all coal power by 2016. Don't Chicagoans deserve as good as Californians? Don't we all?

Stand with Chicago, stand with the daring activists on the smokestack today. Sign Greenpeace's petition to demand that Edison International close these aging coal plants. They've lived out their useful life, and now its time to save the lives of people in Chicago.

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Photo credit: Courtesy of Greenpeace. A Greenpeace activist holds a "Quit Coal" banner on one of the elevated levels of the smokestack at the Fisk coal plant in Chicago, Illinois May 24, 2011.