Editor's note: This article has been updated with 4 additional hours of audio, a table of contents and some analysis of the important points brought up at the hearing.

Multiple sources report that the owner of the coal plants, Midwest Generation, rented seven 52-seat Coach buses and drove workers from its other coal plants in northern Illinois to Chicago’s City Hall, arriving at about 7:00 a.m. Hundreds of supporters could not enter the council chambers. Therefore the applause for certain statements or speakers may not fully reflect the public opinion of Chicago residents.

The Chicago Clean Power Ordinance pertains to Chicago’s two coal-powered electric generating stations, Fisk and Crawford. The two power plants together can produce enough electricity to power 1,019,000 homes. Crawford, on Pulaski Road in Little Village, started generating power in 1924. The two units still in use date from 1958 and 1961. Fisk, on Cermak Road in Pilsen, is older. It started in 1903. The unit still in use was built in 1959. Because the units were operating when the Clean Air Act passed in 1970, they are held to lighter pollution standards than a new plant. More people live near Crawford and Fisk than any other coal plants in America.

The ordinance would set a 10-micron particulate matter limit about equal to a new coal plant, which is a 90 percent reduction of present levels. It would also establish a standard for particulate matter emissions of 2.5 microns. The plants currently have no regulation for such emissions. The Ordinance would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the level of a natural gas plant, effectively requiring the generating stations to either convert to burning natural gas or cease operations.

Table of Contents of the audio recordings

Part I

1. Testimony by the Dept of Environment

2. Statements by Congressman Bobby Rush (0:39:49 in power01-96k_2) "What could be more important than the very air that we breathe? That said, a cleaner environment is not the erstwhile enemy of environment and job-based economy. Jobs and the environment are not a loggerheads with one another, they are not the at war with one another. They are both one in the same."

3. Testimony by the Dept of Health (0:53:59 in power01-96k_2)

4. Testimony by the Dept of Law (0:07:12 in power01-96k_3)

Part II

5. Faith Bugel, senior attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, representing the Clean Power Coalition

6. Bruce Nillis, Sierra Club (18:40 minutes in power02-96k_1) "Chicago is one of the last cities in the country with coal-fired power plants in the middle of densely packed residential areas."

7. Representatives of Midwest Gen (opponents of the ordinance)

Part III

8. Testimony on health effects by a scientist who was compensated by Midwest Generation for being at the hearing and for producing a study. If that's not a conflict of interest then I don't know what is! (See 16:39 minutes in power03-96k_1.)

9. Labor unions supporting Midwest Gen, especially IBEW

10. Public testimony, especially health related

Here is some analysis from my (David Kennedy's) cursory review of the audio recordings. I will focus on the points of contention between those proponents and opponents of the ordinance who were present at the hearing.

Opponents of the bill claim that the coal power plants contribute a small percentage of the overall particulate matter in the city. They say that regulation of one form of pollution might be a slippery slope to regulating all the other forms of pollution. "If we start going after all these things what will be left? How will we build buildings? Where will people have jobs?" (39:25 minutes in power01-96k_1)

However, an Aldermen drew an analogy to car accident deaths. If a person causes 6 deaths from wreckless driving when there are hundreds of vehicular deaths per year, does that mean we shouldn't prosecute that person? Of course we should. (00:06:40 in power03-96k_3)

Also, there are alternative fuels that can reduce pollution throughout the city. Alderman Moreno mentioned a separate bill that would promote the use of alternative fuels throughout the city.

Opponents of the bill state that the city might not have the legal authority to regulate emissions.

Alderman Moore responds to this, "Over the 20 years that I've been in the city council, this body has passed numerous laws which have been challenged in court. So the mere fact that this may be subject to a legal challenge should not ... discourage ... the city council from passing this ordinance. Laws are challenged all the time, which is one of the reasons you have a job," he said to the Assistant Corporation Counsel (of the corporate body of Chicago). (0:13:38 in power01-96k_3)

A third point of contention is whether plants are being shut down or simply forced to reduce emissions. Many of the Aldermen who support the ordinance (including Moore at 0:36:27 in power02-96k_2) qualified their support by saying that the goal is not to shut down the plants. This is surprising considering that activists and progressive media supporting the ordinance explain that their understanding is that the ordinance would force the plants to shut down.

"There is no commercially available technology to (bring carbon emissions within the limits proposed by the ordinance while still using coal energy.) Which is why we say it's a shut down ordinance." (0:12:36 hours in power02-96k_2)

Some speakers suggested that the plants could convert to natural gas in order to come within compliance of the very low Carbon dioxide emissions requirement of the ordinance.

"I guess I'm just a little bit concerned that you and some of your brothers and sisters out there seem to just accept at face value the claim by management that if this ordinance passes then they're going to close up shop and leave town. Haven't we heard this refrain time and time again over the last 200 years of the existence of this country, especially when it comes to protecting the people, particularly the working men and women. Shouldn't we at least hear what they have to say, but not just simply accept it at face value, maybe challenge it a little, question it a little, get them at the table, get them to prove what they're saying is true?" said Alderman Moore. (00:39:30 in power03-96k_3)

Another core argument is that Fisk and Crawford might play a major role in stabilizing the power on the south side of Chicago. See 0:13:37 in power02-96k_2. I haven't researched this to determine whether this is true or not and whether it can be easily fixed or not.

And there was only one mention of the fact that Fisk and Crawford could be replaced with wind generators in farmland outside Chicago and geothermal generators throughout the state. Although this could be the most popular option with environmentalists, it's the least popular option with city council politicians, apparently because they're trying to save the union jobs at Fisk and Carlson.

Other points of contention include whether the city would compromise by funding the hundreds of millions necessary to retrofit the plants to be powered by natural gas. However, Fisk and Crawford haven't been continuously upgraded to reduce emissions, especially when they were owned by Commonwealth Edison. Conversion to natural gas would involve a "six to eight hundred million dollar investment", which is an expense that Midwest Generation claims they are not prepared to make without subsidy. See 0:03:56 in power02-96k_3 for one discussion on this. Basically they're obliquely asking for a bailout and threatening higher electricity costs if the ordinance passes.

However, just as many deficit discussions fail to mention the $6.8 billion wasted annually by Illinois taxpayers on foreign wars of aggression such as Iraq and Afghanistan (source: costofwar.com ), there was no mention of perpetual federal and state subsidies of coal power and nuclear power at the expense of clean power technologies. So any reduced cost of coal power is externalized by hidden subsidies of coal power funded by unaware taxpayers. This includes the health effect of the coal power plants, which is probably the most important issue to the public. The costs of treating the health effects are externalized to the residents instead of being paid by Midwest Generation.

"... university-based environmental economists found that the true cost of coal is about $150 per ton when all the social (human and environmental) costs are included," compared to $30 per ton nominal fee.

The True Costs of Coal: New Study Adds Them Up
appvoices.org/2007/04/26/2914/

The Social Cost of Coal: A Tale of Market Failure and Market Solution
www.citizenscoalcouncil.org/pdf/SocialCostofCoal-ATaleofMarketFailureandMarketSolution.pdf

There was also no mention of the timing of replacing coal power with wind power and its impact on American jobs. From what I have read, if we expect to transition to wind power or high speed rail within a few years then we would be forced to source the manufacturing from China. However, if we plan 20 years out then we can build the infrastructure here to create American jobs around transitioning to green power.

There was no counter to Ald. Moore's statement that the science indicating that Carbon dioxide causes global warming is "indisputable". At very least, this should be rephrased to "climate change". But I certainly hope that this is not a gateway to "cap and trade". Here is an explanation of some serious problems with cap and trade schemes.

www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/

In summary, it's great news that an official hearing was finally held on the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance. Unfortunately it still was not voted on. Ald. Rugai claims that this is because the issue is complicated. It's possible that Rugai might not want to commit a lame duck city government to a lawsuit defending the bill based on home rule powers.

But if 26 aldermen have already chosen to co-sponsor the bill then it must not be that complicated. It looks increasingly as though Rugai is blocking the bill from progressing until the political climate changes. After all, why was there a 10 month delay before there was even a hearing on the bill?

Finally, here are the audio recordings.

Part 1, file 1 (1 hour)

chicago.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/2/power01-96k_1.mp3

Part 1, file 2 (1 hour)

chicago.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/3/power01-96k_2.mp3

Part 1, file 3 (16:49 minutes)

chicago.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/4/power01-96k_3.mp3

Part 2, file 1 (1 hour)

chicago.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/3/power02-96k_1.mp3

Part 2, file 2 (1 hour)

chicago.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/4/power02-96k_2.mp3

Part 2, file 3 (12:27 minutes)

chicago.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/5/power02-96k_3.mp3

Part 3, file 1 (1 hour)

chicago.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/4/power03-96k_1.mp3

Part 3, file 2 (51:33 minutes)

chicago.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/5/power03-96k_2.mp3

These audio recordings of the Chicago city council hearing on April 21, 2011 are Copyright (c) 2011 Kelly Pierce and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. See creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for details, but here is a summary of the terms.

You are free:

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* Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Notes about the recording follow.

Technical difficulties of a drained battery and a full minidisc caused the loss of about a minute of the colloquy between Alderman Pat Dowell and Chicago Environment Commissioner Suzanne Malec-McKenna and about two minutes from the testimony of Faith Bugel from the Environmental Law and Policy center. No other editing has occurred.

Appreciation is extended to city hall staff who provided access to the press box and assistance to the sound system audio. If it were not for their help, this recording would not be possible.

Most of the article text was written by David Kennedy. The audio recording, the description of the Clean Power Ordinance and the description of the union employees being bussed in by Midwest Generation were produced by Kelly Pierce, a member of the Chicago Indymedia audio collective.

Here is a recommended related article.

www.chicagonewscoop.org/chicago-clean-power-ordinance-vote-put-off-in-city-council/