Young climate activists from Chicago called on Gov. JB Pritzker to enact legislation that would make the fossil fuel industry \u2014 instead of taxpayers \u2014 responsible for funding green, resilient infrastructure and disaster response in the face of climate change, following similar bills recently passed in Vermont and New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cIllinois can and must do the same,\u201d said Oscar Sanchez, co-executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, at a Sunday rally.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids get asthma before they learn to ride a bike. Cancer becomes a ZIP code issue. Our elders breathe toxic poison in their own home,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the pollution, it\u2019s the climate crisis bearing down on us right now. We see streets turn into rivers after storms, basements flood, families lose everything. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies \u2014 the same ones fueling this crisis \u2014 are posting record-breaking profits.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group, a coalition led by the local Sunrise Movement chapter, gathered across the University of Chicago\u2019s David Rubenstein event venue in Woodlawn, where the Aspen Ideas Climate Conference<\/a> officially kicked off Sunday afternoon with hundreds of leaders from business, government, academia and other fields.<\/p>\n Pritzker was set to discuss green tech and infrastructure investments; also invited were Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who were expected to talk about their approaches to energy and economic development.<\/p>\n Some of the young activists praised Pritzker for his commitment to climate issues and said he has an opportunity to demonstrate that by standing with Illinoisans and holding corporate polluters accountable. Passing a \u201cMake Polluters Pay\u201d law, they say, would make these companies responsible for the public health and climate change impacts in Illinois that are a direct result of their activities.<\/p>\n In Chicago, for instance, such legislation would help address what activists have long protested as discriminatory zoning practices<\/a>, which have pushed heavy industry into poor communities of color\u00a0 \u2014 exposing residents to toxic chemicals and pollutants and leading to a higher prevalence of negative health effects in the population, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know what environmental racism looks like, because we live it every single day,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n Some primarily Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and suburbs, like Chatham, Austin, Cicero and Berwyn, also experience severe flooding<\/a> during heavy rains.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m going to be honest with everyone, I don\u2019t like being here. Because this shouldn\u2019t have to be our reality \u2014 that polluters are polluting Black, Latino, working-class communities across Chicago and Illinois,\u201d said Gianna Guiffra, a Sunrise Movement volunteer. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have to be protesting simply to tell them that we are human beings too. These big oil and gas companies make it very clear to everyone that they are choosing profit over life, that they are choosing profit over human beings, that they are choosing profit over our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024, Vermont became the first state<\/a> to require oil companies to pay for damages from extreme weather driven by climate change, after catastrophic flooding that summer. Later last year, New York<\/a> also passed its own Climate Change Superfund Act, which would raise $75 billion over 25 years from the fossil fuel industry to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation projects in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cThese polluters should pay for the damage they have done to our communities,\u201d Guiffra said.<\/p>\n Following suit, the activists say, means Pritzker would be standing up to the Trump administration, which has made 250 million acres of federal public land eligible for sale to the highest bidder, led regulatory rollbacks on polluters, and cut tax incentive programs for renewable energy projects.<\/p>\n \u201cThis could be the ground zero of a mass movement that puts the billionaires in check, takes power back for the people and guarantees hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of good, clean energy jobs,\u201d said Sage Hanson, a Sunrise Movement volunteer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young climate activists from Chicago called on Gov. 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