Saying No to Trump's Enviro Cuts, Yes to Climate Policies

In This Issue

• 350 Chicago Newsletter Accepting Paid Subscriptions

• Events

  • May 10: 350 Chicago Tabling at Trashy Market

  • May 12: 350 Chicago General Meeting

  • May 20: Chicago Climate Connect Trivia

  • May 21: Climate Action Lobby Day

  • June 7: EcoFest at Welles Park

• Action Center

  • Online Petition: Climate Safe Pensions

  • Online Petition: Utility Transparency Act

• In Brief

  • Solar Energy & Fighting Climate Change in the Second Age of Trump (with Bill McKibben)

  • Public Comment Open for Chicago Moves Electric Framework Plan

  • New Trump Orders Aim to Keep Coal Power Alive, Despite Climate and Economic Costs

  • Illinois Transportation Update

  • Illinois Clean Energy Legislation Update

  • Big banks predict catastrophic warming, with profit potential

  • ‘Spiral of silence’: climate action is very popular, so why don’t people realise it?

  • Tools for Trump Tracking

• Main Article

  • Chicago tells Trump: ‘Hands Off!’

350 Chicago Newsletter Accepting Paid Subscriptions

We are announcing this newsletter is now turning on paid subscriptions! Any money received is going straight to supporting our work on the ground fighting for a cleaner planet in Chicago and Illinois. This is just another way to donate and help support what we do, especially for those who find this newsletter valuable.

We know there are a lot of organizations out there asking for your money, so we appreciate whatever you could spare. And if not, no worries; we don’t plan on locking any content behind paywalls, so this will remain free every month.

Events

350 Chicago Tabling at Trashy Market

• Saturday, May 10, 11:00am - 4:00pm

• Gallagher Way (outside Wrigley Field) 3635 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL, 60613

350 Chicago will be gathering signatures in support of the State Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign and the Utility Accountability Campaign and to generally talk about our work in Chicago and Illinois. Both of these campaigns have online petitions in the ‘Action Center’ section of this newsletter, but an even more impactful approach would be coming to our tabling and signing a postcard that we will hand deliver to legislators in Springfield.

via Nowhere Collective: The Trashy (Mother) Earth Market is a junky jamboree for all Mothers: Moms of humans, Mother of our Earth, and the motha-junkers making the world a more joyful place. Featuring artisans who transform reclaimed materials into one-of-a-kind wonders.

350 Chicago General Meeting

• Monday, May 12, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

• via Zoom

Join 350 Chicago for our General Meeting! During the meeting, we will provide campaign updates and discuss the work 350 Chicago is doing in Chicago and Illinois to help preserve a livable planet. We will also provide information about ways to volunteer and get involved with 350 Chicago. Please email [email protected] to attend the General Meeting, we will send you the zoom link.

Chicago Climate Connect Trivia

• Monday, May 20, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

• mHUB (1623 W Fulton St, Chicago, IL 60612, United States)

Join Chicago Climate Connect and mHUB on Monday, May 20th for a fun and casual evening of climate trivia! Whether you're a sustainability expert or just like a good challenge, this is your chance to show off your knowledge (or learn something new) while connecting with others in Chicago’s growing climate community.

We’ll have drinks, prizes, and plenty of time to meet fellow climate-curious folks across sectors. Bring a friend or come solo and we’ll match you with a team.

More events from Chicago Climate Connect for May can be found in their events page HERE.

Climate Action Lobby Day

• Wednesday, May 21

• Illinois State Capitol Building, 401 S. 2nd St. Springfield, IL 62756

• SIGN UP HERE (free to register)

Illinois’ environmental movement will gather at the State Capitol to meet with legislators and push for the passage of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) Platform on Wednesday, May 21. The Platform, which was first unveiled in the spring 2024 legislative session, includes legislation that accelerates Illinois’ climate and equity goals in the transportation, buildings, and power sectors. Please utilize this social media and email toolkit to recruit participants, inspire day-of in-person and digital action, and inspire continued action after the event. Direct any questions to [email protected].

EcoFest at Welles Park

• Saturday, June 7, 10:00am - 2:00pm

• Learn more HERE

via Matt Martin, 47th Ward Alderman: EcoFest is our annual environmental festival, where we come together as a community to learn about sustainability and celebrate our beautiful planet! Here you can discover new organizations, meet with like minded neighbors, and shop from a variety of sustainable vendors. This event will bring together small businesses, non-profits, and other vendors from across the city for a day of learning, activities, and fun focused on a sustainable future. See you at Welles Park on June 7th!

Action Center

Online Petition: Climate Safe Pensions

Investments in fossil fuels are driving climate change, and they are becoming increasingly risky with significant financial liabilities. The state of Illinois can be both a climate leader and protect the health of its pension funds by divesting from fossil fuels. Climate Safe Pensions Illinois, a coalition whose members include 350 Chicago, Third Act Illinois, and The Climate Reality Project Chicago Metro Chapter, is, therefore, asking the State of Illinois to protect pension funds and provide more transparency to the holders.

Learn more and sign here: Climate Safe Pensions Petition!

Online Petition: Utility Transparency Act

Over the years, utilities have made it acceptable to recover some of their costs from ratepayers that should be charged to their shareholders! They routinely charge ratepayers for the cost of a range of lobbying activities without the ratepayers knowledge.

Learn more and sign here: Utility Transparency Petition!

In Brief

Solar Energy & Fighting Climate Change in the Second Age of Trump (with Bill McKibben)

If you missed our talk with 350.org founder Bill McKibben, we now have the full webinar posted on YouTube. He came to speak about the mass deployment of solar power around the globe and what the climate fight looks like now in the US under the second Trump administration. We highly recommend it, and you can check it out here:

Public Comment Open for Chicago Moves Electric Framework Plan

The City of Chicago is inviting input into its Electric Vehicle and Mobility Infrastructure Framework plan, whose goal is to move the city toward a cleaner, more equitable transportation future. Comments on the Framework will be accepted until May 18. The next phase will be to develop a curbside charging pilot and will include public meetings on that topic in coming months.

Review the plan and comment HERE.

New Trump Orders Aim to Keep Coal Power Alive, Despite Climate and Economic Costs

via Inside Climate News: The U.S. electricity market has been moving away from coal for decades, but the president blamed that on Biden-era environmental regulations. Read more HERE.

For a summary of the key provisions and takeaways of the April 8 & 9 executive actions, see analysis by Jenner & Block, HERE.

Illinois Transportation Update

Illinois and the City of Chicago are facing imminent and severe cuts to CTA, Pace, and Metra if a solution to a $770 million budget shortfall isn’t found by the end of the month. More from the Active Transportation Alliance here.

Illinois Clean Energy Legislation Update

350 Chicago is working with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) Building Decarbonatization working group and we have some legislative updates below:

• Clean and Healthy Buildings Act - SB 2269/HB 3525 (Villanueva/A. Williams): Focuses on modernizing new and existing buildings by transitioning them to clean electricity, replacing gas burners and stoves with heat pumps and electric appliances. Legislative Update: We are at 8 total co-sponsors for these bills and our goal is 20. Lobby team will focus on briefings over the next few weeks so we can get closer to our goal.

• State Navigator Program - HB 3650 (Lilly): Mandates the creation of an online resource to assist building owners and renters with electrification and energy efficiency upgrades. Legislative Update: Passed the House floor on Tuesday (April 8) with a vote of 72-42! We now move to the Senate, where this bill will be sponsored by Senator Peters. We will be making a change in the Senate to make DCEO the administrator of the program as opposed to the ICC.

• Whole Building Data Access - HB 3312 (Canty): Increases building owners' access to clean energy initiatives by requiring utilities to release whole building energy use information. Legislative Update: The legislative team worked out an amendment based on feedback from Ameren that was filed last Monday (April 7^th). Ameren raised a new concern hours before committee, but the bill got through committee and passed the House on Thursday, April 10. (!!)

Big banks predict catastrophic warming, with profit potential

via Politico: Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and an international banking group have quietly concluded that climate change will likely exceed the Paris Agreement's 2 degree goal. Read more HERE (paywalled for Politico Pro users).

‘Spiral of silence’: climate action is very popular, so why don’t people realise it?

via the Guardian: Researchers find 89% of people around the world want more to be done, but mistakenly assume their peers do not. Read more HERE (free, requires registration).

Tools for Trump Tracking

Due to the speed at which the Trump administration is impacting environmental protection, sustainability, scientific research, and access to information, there are a number of tools available to track these changes. Here are a few for those interested:

• Environmental News Bits has compiled many tracking tools HERE

• Revolving Door Project has their Trump Environment Tracker HERE

Chicago tells Trump: ‘Hands Off!’

by Larry Coble

On April 5th, members of 350 Chicago and I joined the estimated 30,000 people spilling out of the confines of the Daley Center to protest the Trump administration’s attacks on government programs. Special types of sardonic humor and anger were reserved for Elon Musk and DOGE for their heedless and illegal destruction of agencies, the upending of governmental workers' lives and threatening the well being of millions of Americans.

Near the large rectangular fountain in Daley Plaza, I found myself in the midst of Chicagoans pressed shoulder to shoulder, chanting, straining to hear the speeches from the stage and sometimes laughing at the dangerously absurd havoc of the Trump administration.

Signs decrying the many forms of unjust and illegal cuts to programs and the resultant harms done to ordinary citizens rose above the crowd on cardboard stapled to sticks or held overhead by fully extended arms. Many posters protested the attacks upon climate and environmental programs designed to preserve and protect the natural world or to fight the climate crisis.

Messages of humor and outrage or both graced the signs, banners or placards dotting the crowd during the mild spring Saturday afternoon. An attitude of communal joy mixed with rage permeated the crowd and it carried the same fusion of emotions as it streamed into the streets, marching through block after block in the city’s downtown.

350 Chicago signed on to the Hands Off coalition to protest the immoral and unlawful cuts to the EPA, conservation programs, and any other funding for mitigating the ongoing climate crisis. We are dedicated to expanding our coalitions to push for fossil fuel divestment, utility accountability in Illinois and working for clean energy in the state. We focused our message on the cuts to climate and environmental policies designed to mitigate the climate crisis. We are committed to fight for an equitable, fair and just transition to a clean energy economy and supporting communities fighting for environmental justice.