Dear John,

The 2024 Election is now history, and ELPC is focused on the future.

We’ve seen the Trump administration’s playbook before, and ELPC is prepared. As you’ll read in our 2024 Report, we know how to work effectively across the Midwest states. That foundation of experience and relationships uniquely positions ELPC to pivot quickly; going on offense for environmental progress at the state level while playing defense on the federal side against the Trump administration.

As Margaret Renkel wrote in The New York Times last week:

“…regional organizations, like the Environmental Law & Policy Center in the Midwest and the Southern Environmental Law Center in the South -- have experience in using the law to defend the environment from the worst excesses of the Republican obeisance to industry and oil. Pick an organization from a vetted list by Charity Navigator or CharityWatch and help it do the work that none of us is equipped to do alone.”

Coal plants are retiring throughout the Great Lakes region, and all are on lakes and rivers. That valuable lakeshore and riverfront property has long been hidden behind utility gates and fences. ELPC envisioned a once-in-a-generation opportunity to regain these Great Lakes shorelines for public parks and greenways – for beaches, hiking and biking, boating and fishing, and just playing in the outdoors. And, we’re working with the utilities to develop solar energy and battery storage on these plant sites that are already hard-wired into the electricity grid. This Power Plants to Parklands + Renewable Energy (P2P+RE) Project is a new vision for these historic coal plants sites. In this report, you will read about a breakthrough with Consumers Energy on the retired Karn Coal Plant. This is an exciting and innovative precedent that can be replicated in transforming the hundreds of retired coal plant sites across the Midwest and nationally.

ELPC takes on the big, important battles, representing local groups in communities that are already overburdened by toxic pollution. On Chicago’s Southeast Side, we’re challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ plans to build a towering toxic dredged waste dump along the shores of Lake Michigan. In Northwest Indiana, we’re holding the large steel manufacturing, oil refining, and other facilities accountable for their air and water pollution. Everyone has a right to breathe healthy clean air, drink safe water, and live in communities without toxic threats.

ELPC attorneys and technical experts are engaged before Public Utilities Commissions across the Midwest. These backrooms are where the arcane “rules of the road” get set to either modernize the distribution grid for more solar energy, to set fair rates, and to accelerate climate solutions, or not. The rules set in one- or two-year hearings impact how our energy system works for decades. ELPC attorneys and policy advocates are leading the regional charge for a cleaner, modern, more distributed electricity grid for the future.

Thank you for your support, and all you do protect the Midwest’s environment. 

P.S. ELPC has earned a Four-Star 100% Rating with Charity Navigator and GuideStar’s highest Platinum rating. You can give confidently knowing your donation will be used responsibly. Give by Dec. 3 to triple your impact with ELPC’s TRIPLE MATCH!