[BCNnet] BCNnet: Excellent legislative news from Springfield!

[Birdchris@aol.com]

The communique, below, is from the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club's Executive Director, Jack Darin. It's a bit self-congratulatory in tone, but if you knew how hard Jack and Sierra Club staff and activists, as well as many many birders, worked on lobbying legislators on wetlands this year, you'll forgive the note of sheer glee! 

If you ever doubted the power of individuals to make a difference, I hope this partial victory will put your doubts to rest. I called my representative, John Fritchey, six times, so often that I was on a first name basis with the receptionist in his Springfield office. Fritchey and many legislators were being heavily lobbied by construction unions
and the developers' lobbying pac who all wanted to be able to develop isolated wetlands without any control at all. We'll hopefully get the Senate to pass the bill and Illinois will be one of the only states in the nation to have "fixed the nix" caused by a Supreme Court decision in 2001 that took isolated wetlands OUT from under the protections of the protections of the Clean Water Act. 

Another important environmental bill - the Illinois Safe & Clean Communities Act - passed both chambers with a unanimous vote in the Senate yesterday. That bill increases the Attorney General's ability to legally pursue polluters and fine them appropriately to make them stop polluting. 

Christine Williamson
Chicago/Cook
birdchris@aol.com

At 11:43pm Friday night, the Illinois House passed the Illinois
Wetland Protection Act, HB 422, by a 65-48-4 vote.

This is the biggest environmental vote in the General Assembly in a decade, and one that I don't think most observers thought we could win.

The Senate will not have time to act on the bill before Saturday's adjournment, but Senator Terry Link, the Senate sponsor, will arrange to extend the deadline for its passage to the end of this year. We now expect the Senate to consider the bill in the veto session this fall.

There are so many stories of hard work, sacrifice, creativity, and the sheer power of Sierra Club's grassroots pressure that made this incredible win possible.  I'll have a more detailed accounting out sometime soon, along with information about accountability work, Senate lobbying, etc.

But for this weekend, we should all celebrate.  The environmental movement has new clout in the capitol, and it would not be possible without the work of Sierra Club.

Jack Darin