Coalition applauds City for ensuring equity, exceeding climate goals, prioritizing consumers
CHICAGO – Following the City of Chicago announcement regarding procurement of 100% clean, renewable to power city buildings starting in 2025, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition released this statement:
“The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition applauds Mayor Lightfoot and the City of Chicago for taking bold action that works with the nation-leading Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) to protect our climate, cut energy costs for consumers, taxpayers and small businesses, and create equitable clean energy jobs.
“By committing to a rapid, 100% transition away from dirty fossil fuels, Chicago will save money by investing in homegrown Illinois clean energy that is not subject to the volatility in gas prices worsened by Russia’s war on Ukraine and corporate price-gouging.
“In addition, during the extensive negotiation of CEJA and its workforce programs, our coalition fought hard to ensure that BIPOC contractors and workers would benefit from the new clean energy economy embraced by the City of Chicago today. Ensuring equity for Black and Brown communities who are often the first to suffer negative consequences of pollution but the last to reap the health and economic benefits of a clean energy future is a shared goal of CEJA and the City of Chicago’s new procurement policies.”
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The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) is made up of more than 200 climate groups, healthcare professionals, environmental justice champions, businesses, community leaders, labor unions, consumer advocates, faith-based and student organizations.
Following ICJC’s central role in the passage of the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016, the diverse coalition spent more than three years organizing and holding more than 100 “Listen. Lead. Share.” events to gather feedback and policy ideas from residents across Illinois. The work centered around a simple but urgent rallying cry: CEJA can’t wait.
The wait ended on September 15, 2021 when Governor JB Pritzker signed into law the most equitable clean energy jobs bill of its kind in the nation: the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).
Visit ilcleanjobs.org to learn more.
info@ilcleanjobs.org