Larry Larry, January 14, 2025

As 350 Chicago looks forward to the challenging work of fighting the climate crisis in 2025, we would like to reflect on our accomplishments in 2024. We built new relationships while strengthening and expanding current coalitions. We expanded our educational offerings through our webinars and engaged the public at events all across Northeastern Illinois, talking about our State Fossil Fuel Divestment and Utility Accountability campaigns and our Speaker Series events.

Fossil Fuel Divestment

At the beginning of 2024, 350 Chicago formed the Climate Safe Pensions Illinois (CSPI) coalition with Third Act Illinois and Climate Reality Project Chicago to fight for fossil fuel divestment in Illinois. 350 Chicago realized the effort to divest the state pension funds from fossil fuel assets would require a broader coalition to build the power necessary to have the policy enacted at the state level. The CSPI coalition partnered with the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC) to have the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act introduced in the Illinois state legislature last year. While the legislation did not pass, the coalition continued to build momentum by

  • Increasing the number of sponsors in both the state house and senate
  • Gathering 1500 signatures on postcards from citizens to support the act
  • Adding 12 more organizations to the coalition
  • Launching a new website at https://www.climatesafepensionsillinois.org/
  • Educating the public about the fiscal case for fossil fuel divestment.

During the forthcoming 2025/26 legislative session, the coalition will once again work with the IEC to have the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act,

  • Introduced into the legislature in Springfield
  • Gain sponsors for the act in Springfield
  • Continue educating policy makers and political leaders
  • Inform citizens about the act across the state
  • Gather more signatures of support on postcards and petitions.

Over the coming months, the CSPI coalition will be recruiting more allies and organizations to the coalition with a goal of surpassing 50 endorsing organizations. If your organization would like to endorse the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, you can reach out to [email protected] or sign on at this Google Form.

Utility Accountability

For the past year, 350 Chicago has collaborated with our partners in the 350 Network Council, the 15 largest 350 groups in the United States, to develop campaigns, partnerships and educate the public about the corruption of Investor Owned Utilities (IOU’s). As monopolies, IOU’s routinely charge ratepayers for their lobbying expenses, including

  • Paying for memberships in trade associations
  • Hiring lawyers, lobbyists and “expert” witnesses to push for rate increases
  • Purchasing insurance to protect their shareholders from losses.

All of the above activities are paid for by ratepayers without their knowledge.

Moreover, IOU’s routinely underestimate the costs of infrastructure projects and lobby state regulators and legislators for rate increases, demanding ratepayers make up the shortfall for cost overruns.  Investor Owned Utilities are beholden to Wall Street Investors and consistently place their profits over the welfare and needs of ratepayers, often leaving ratepayers in debt for the high cost of electricity and home heating.

In May of 2024, 350 Chicago hosted a webinar with our sister organizations in the 350 Network Council to educate Americans about the various utility campaigns occurring across the country to hold Investor Owned Utilities (IOU’s) to account for their corrupt business practices. The Teach-In highlighted the,

  • Burden of debt placed on ratepayers due to exorbitant energy prices
  • Industries history of attempting to delay and derail the transition to clean energy
  • Attempts to reform IOU’s lobbying practices
  • Efforts to convert IOU’s from private, for profit monopolies to publicly owned utilities.
Utility Reform in Illinois

To further educate the public about IOU corruption, 350 Chicago has joined the coalition being led by Citizens Utility Board (CUB) to enact lobbying reform in Illinois. The Utility Transparency Act aims to make utility bills more affordable for ratepayers by stopping IOU’s from charging rate payers for their lobbying practices. If passed, ratepayers would save approximately $40 million a year in energy costs. 350 Chicago spent the past year tabling at events across the Chicagoland area, informing residents about the initiative to stop IOU abuses in Illinois.  We will keep you up to date with developments and how you can help support efforts to enact lobbying reform in Illinois.

Speaker Series

350 Chicago continued to develop and present our Climate Speaker Series with a combination of in person and online webinar events over the past year. Led by Education committee member and chapter Vice-President Rich Foss, the speakers series brought in academics and experts to speak on a wide range of climate crisis related topics such as,

  • Regenerative agriculture as a climate solution
  • Climate change in Illinois and its effects over the coming decades
  • Climate literacy programs for K-12 schools
  • Clean energy technology and implementation progress to date
  • Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology and its perils
  • Updates on clean energy jobs in Illinois under the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act(CEJA)
  • And so much more…

Following the presentations, 350 Chicago edited and placed the videos on our YouTube channel as a learning resource about the climate crisis. We would like to thank all of our presenters for lending their expertise to our speaker series events. Look for more videos in the new year!

Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC)

We are currently in transition with our work with the ICJC. Our previous representative, Madeline Warholic, recently moved to Washington D.C. following her completion of graduate  studies. In her place, Mary Baker has recently begun attending the working group meetings for the Policy committee and represents us with the coalition’s Climate Table. Mary recently completed her fellowship with the Clean Energy Leadership Institute and we look forward to the work she will undertake with the ICJC Policy committee, representing 350 Chicago well. Currently 350 Chicago has volunteers in the process of joining working groups with the ICJC. Over the early portion of the new year, we seek to increase our presence with the ICJC to work on clean and equitable transportation, a clean and reliable grid and clean and healthy buildings.

Outreach

In 2024, 350 Chicago joined the coalition led by the Citizens Utility Board to push the state of Illinois to prevent IOU’s from charging ratepayers for their lobbying expenses.

If you know of an event in the coming year with a climate/environmental theme, please reach out to [email protected] with information.

Lastly, thank you to all the volunteers who worked the tables, helped gather signatures and explained 350 Chicago’s work to Illinoisans over the past year. Your volunteering was vital to our successful year of outreach.

Communications/Social Media/Newsletter

Led by Abby Schwartz, the Communications Committee increased 350 Chicago’s presence on Social Media by more frequent postings, enhancing our presence on Meetup and adding the Threads platform. She recruited more volunteers to create graphics and content and manage platforms. In the new year, 350 Chicago will be conducting an update of our current website while exploring the prospect of developing a better and more informative website on a new platform with volunteer Zack Gilbert guiding the effort.

A special thank you to Joshua Horwitz for producing our monthly newsletter. He has made a steady contribution with keeping our volunteers and followers informed about climate and 350 Chicago chapter news over the past year.

Actions

Once again, 350 Chicago showed support for youth activists during the Spring Climate Strike in April organized by Fridays For Future (FFF), Chicago Climate Youth Coalition and Loyola Student Environmental Association. The student strike encompassed a march and protest at Chase Bank over the institution’s ongoing funding of fossil fuel infrastructure and demanding President Biden accelerate the end of the fossil fuel era by declaring a climate emergency while protesting outside the Kluczynski Federal Building.

For the protest in April of 2024, Friday’s For Future, the Chicago Climate Youth Coalition and Loyola SEA organized and executed their action with great success, turning out over 100 people to make their voices heard.  350 Chicago provided signage and turned out people to attend the action.

Over the past 4 years, 350 Chicago has provided youth groups with advice, organizing and material support, including resources for organizing actions by helping them learn about parade permitting, funding for permits and signage, organizing expertise, contacts with legal advisers and climate organizations in Chicago while helping generate turnout for actions. 350 Chicago is proud of the mentoring role we have played in supporting the climate activism of student youth groups in Chicago. We stand ready to help the next generation of high school and college age students in developing their activism and their actions in the coming year.

Line 5 Action

On October 23rd of 2024, a coalition organized by Rising Tide Chicago and attended by climate fighting groups from Illinois and Wisconsin rallied in support of Indigenous tribes from the United States and Canada to support their fight against the Line 5 pipeline running through the tribal lands of the Chippewa’s Bad River Band between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.

While the delegation of Jannan Cornstalk (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa), Cheryl Angel II (Sicangu Lakota Spiritual Activist),  Dawn Goodwin (White Earth Tribal member), Joe Bates (Bad River Tribal Elder), Joseph Hill (Seneca Nation, Haudenosaunee) were inside the consulate, a rally of 50 supporters, including members of 350 Chicago gathered outside. We used chants, street theater, banners, signs, and songs to show support, calling for removal of the Line 5 pipeline because it violates Indigenous sovereignty, threatens clean drinking water, and contributes to climate collapse. The 70-year old Pipeline with a 50-year expected lifespan runs through the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan, Huron and Superior. A rupture in the pipeline would endanger the drinking water of millions in the Great Lakes Basin.

Over the last decade, 350 Chicago has attended and/or led actions, supported indigenous groups and their coalition partners in Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada in their efforts to have the Line 5 Pipeline shut down. We will continue supporting efforts to shut down the pipeline until it is decommissioned.

A New Milestone

350 Chicago reached a new stage in our development as an organization. We hired our first full time employee in the fall of 2024. Through the ongoing generous support of donors, grants from funders and the amazing efforts of our many volunteers, 350 Chicago was able to create a funding base to hire our first Executive Director. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Newly elected President and board member Kaitlin Cordes led our Fundraising team during 2023/24 and helped develop the resources required to hire our Executive Director.

350 Chicago doesn’t exist without the generosity of our supporters! We look forward to 2025 with a desire and drive to have a greater impact as an organization in the fight against the climate crisis. If you would like to help in our work, please feel free to reach out to us and volunteer here. We would love to work with you! If you would like to support our fight to create a  more sustainable planet, you can provide a monetary gift here.

Melissa Brice

Lastly, I would like to say thank you to Melissa Brice.  For seven years she was the main driving force in the successful campaign to have the city of Chicago divest from fossil fuel assets. She and I partnered on the issue, yet she served as the point person. Throughout the seven year campaign, we relied on each other, our donors and the numerous volunteers who worked on this issue to push it towards victory. In the end, the city of Chicago divested $70 million dollars from fossil fuels in 2022! We couldn’t have done it without her.

In 2014, she and I worked together to start the Chicago chapter. Her ten years of dedicated effort placed 350 Chicago with a solid foundation for our future growth. She and I leaned on each other during those early years of working through the process of building a successful organization and through varied campaigns.  Unfortunately, due to the demands of her management position at her place of employment, she stepped back from 350 Chicago in the spring of 2024. We miss her contributions, her optimism, her collegial working style and most of all her ability to make us better activists.

Good luck, Melissa!