This month, Sierra Club played a key role in pushing for regulations we need to protect our families and communities from the toxic leftovers of burning coal.
On September 16, hundreds of Illinoisans and busloads of concerned citizens from neighboring states journeyed to Chicago to participate in events surrounding the EPA’s proposed coal ash regulations. Both the hearing and the rally we hosted across the street were huge successes, with an estimated 400 people cycling through the day's events. The day was capped off with a piece of Sierra Club-produced street theater in Grant Park, which we dubbed "the largest human reenactment of a coal ash spill in history."
We used the hearing as a rallying point to attract attention to coal ash throughout the upper Midwest—and we will use our YouTube videos, Twitter feed, blogs, and other forms of homegrown media to keep the buzz going.
The Chicago hearing was the fifth of eight hearings on this issue. On September 21, the EPA will hold the sixth in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a seventh in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 28. The final hearing will take place in Knoxville, Tennessee, on October 15.
