Article Below by our Green Team Lead: Susan Francis
*The Green Team strives to inform and inspire*
GETTING TO SOLAR IN ILLINOIS:
SOON TO BE EASY… AND ESSENTIAL
As we end another summer with record heat around the globe, complete with accompanying climate disasters and a President who continues to scoff at the very concept of climate change… it is fortunate that here in Illinois, we are ahead of the clean energy curve.  Thanks to the precedent setting Future Energy Jobs Act of a few years ago, solar has been taking off in our state.

Today, there are several bills before our state legislature regarding renewable energy. And this Thursday night, you can learn more about the overall urgency of this issue, as well as about one key bill called the Clean Energy Jobs Act.  

For the first time, The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is coming to us in DuPage! They are hosting a discussion called: 
Extreme Heat and Clean Energy in Illinois
Date: Thursday, October 10
Time: 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Location: Congregation Etz Chaim, 1710 S. Highland Ave, Lombard, IL


Here is the description from UCS:

Later this month, Illinois state legislators have a chance to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act, a comprehensive energy bill that will bring investment in communities and put us on track to achieve 100 percent renewable electricity by 2050.

The urgent need for bold clean energy leadership is clear. We must shift to carbon-free, renewable energy for our health, our climate, and our communities. Join us to discuss DuPage County's climate impacts and clean energy opportunities with local leaders like Senator Glowiak Hilton.

The discussion will feature a presentation on the local findings from our Killer Heat in the United States  analysis, as well as panelists from our partners at Citizens Utility Board and Faith in Place, the solar industry, and experts from Argonne National Laboratory and University of Illinois Chicago.

We hope you will attend, if not we will send out a summary of this critical event because…
We Need To Make This Urgent

Democrats, we must find way to make real, here and now, what the United Nations has told us: We have approximately eleven years left to avoid complete climate catastrophe. Maybe. Maybe eleven years. Things have escalated so much already that timelines are continually changing. Our task therefore is to make that urgent, even as we often have sunny skies and temperate climes here in DuPage.

We may have unfortunate help at hand: our coming winter is being described as a Vortex-Coaster, with rolling polar vortices and accompanying severe conditions expected.  So please, learn of climate change, the solutions and how to go solar today in your own life as soon as possible. 
What specifically do we do?

To start with a particular note: please inform yourselves and make every effort to help birds and local wildlife as this severe winter looms. We lost over 50% of the wildlife on our planet in the last 40 years; we obviously cannot continue this trend.

Our new DPDC Green Team Facebook and Instagram Pages will offer helpful info on this and much more!

Here, however, is a hopeful example of solutions at hand: Just over a week ago, during the Illinois Solar Home Tour, Elmhurst alone had over 20 attendees and ended with at least seven signed solar home contracts! Thanks to the hard work of some of our members in Cool Cities Elmhurst. Solar is happening NOW, affordably, all over Illinois.

In the overall picture however, we must:

  1. Make every effort to support and elect the candidates and then policies that help the survival of our planet. We must make sweeping collective changes towards sustainability such changes must be made at political and corporate levels.
  2. Better inform ourselves of the issues and solutions at hand.
  3. Live personally in a manner that is consistent with sustainable living. Your DPDC Green Team will be bringing you many examples, but for now, be sure your home is as well insulated as possible and consider going solar.

And consider this: some of you are old enough to remember the Polio epidemic. Once understood, there were urgent warnings to stay out of public water, and later to vaccinate. Flu epidemics carry cautions on everything from hand washing, places to avoid and how to sneeze.

Please know:  The assault to our planet is the biggest public health threat that humanity has ever experienced. 

We can protect, vaccinate ourselves with knowledge, policies and actions, but we must do so today. Already, is its estimated that climate change kills a quarter million people per year. That will only increase, along with catastrophic economic impacts while threats to national security will abound as borders fade due to populations forced to immigrate to avoid prolonged drought, flooding, fires and more. 

As you would act to protect your family against serious public health threats, please, inform yourselves, take both actions and votes against climate change and environmental devastation!

To begin informing ourselves now, below is an excellent and understandable description of the Clean Energy Jobs Act; a bill sponsored by our own State Senators Laura Ellman, Pat McGuire & Laura Murphy and State Representatives Terra Costa Howard, Deb Conroy, John Connor, Michelle Mussman, Kathleen Willis, Anne Stava-Murray, Diane Pappas & Karina Villa, among many others.

This is the critical issue of our time, upon which all others depend. And the solution of green technologies and green jobs contain the solution to a myriad of other social problems. Stay with us Democrats of DuPage, your work matters!
What is the Clean Energy Jobs Act?
An in-depth look at the latest energy legislation

The Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) is comprehensive clean energy legislation (Senate Bill 2132/House Bill 3624) proposed in the Illinois General Assembly. The Bill would boost energy efficiency, take advantage of the falling cost of wind and solar power, and implement electricity market reforms to protect Illinois consumers from higher energy costs. It is the only energy legislation in Springfield that could actually secure savings for consumers while significantly ramping up renewable energy development in the state.

Take Action - Online Petition

There is an online petition promoting advocacy for the Clean Energy Jobs Act.

Even though we have a number of Democrats who support this Bill in DuPage, all our legislators need to hear from us in support of the bill, whether they are sponsoring or not. 
Paid for by the Democratic Party of DuPage County, who continues the Fight for Economic Justice,
Civil Rights and Our Environment within DuPage & Beyond.