Southeast Environmental Task Force News Today

Around 50 opponents of the Invert, a massive underground development plan, disrupted a town hall after Ald. Peter Chico proposed reversing a city law to allow mining.

CHICAGO — Chicago ranked second among major U.S. cities with the worst air pollution in 2023, its average annual concentration of dangerous fine particulate matter almost three times global guidelines, according to a recent report. Even as national standards have tightened, pollution levels in the city still surpassed old regulations. At one point last summer, Chicago had the poorest air ...

Concerns about wildfire smoke can compound Chicago’s existing problems with pollution, especially in neighborhoods and parts of the city historically affected by heavy industry.

The BP Whiting Refinery, the largest refinery in the Midwest, suffered a power outage and two leaks just as its state air permit was coming up for renewal.

Chicago is joining a nationwide trend of large cities incorporating equity or justice goals into preparing for climate change’s impact on public health. The idea is to better protect Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other socially vulnerable and marginalized communities. That hasn’t always been the case. 

The city of Whiting plans to meet with the BP Whiting Refinery about the plant-wide power outage as it works to get back up and running.

CHICAGO — Straight out of the starting blocks, Chicago is learning how hard it will be to write an ordinance to reduce a broad array of pollutants built up over many years across a big, diverse city. Chicago’s first-ever “Cumulative Impact Assessment,” released in September, is already sparking debate. In its current form, the assessment contains an index that assigns a 35.3 percentile ...

An equity-focused cooperative secured top spots in a competitive Illinois Power Agency procurement process.

Straight out of the starting blocks, Chicago is learning how hard it will be to write an ordinance to reduce a broad array of pollutants built up over many years across a big, diverse city. Chicago’s first-ever “Cumulative Impact Assessment,” released in September, is already sparking debate. In its current form, the assessment contains an index that assigns a 35.3 percentile environmental ...

Chicago has the highest number of lead service lines in the nation, but the city's replacement program is moving at a glacial pace. Replacement and mitigation efforts in other states offer a better blueprint—and potential to create community jobs along the way.