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From NRDC
In June 2024, NRDC’s Edwards Clean Air Act settlement team spent three days in Peoria, Illinois, catching up with some of our 15 grant recipients and seeing the fruits of their work.
In 2019, NRDC won a lawsuit against the E.D. Edwards coal-fired power plant for pollution. The power plant was closed, and $8.6 million settlement was granted to the groups in the greater Peoria area.
Hollis K–8 school district (bus electrification grantee)
Hollis is the K–8 public school district that includes the E.D. Edwards coal-fired power plant, whose illegal and harmful air pollution NRDC and its partners sued to stop. Our visit featured a ride with Hollis Superintendent Byron Sondgeroth on the all-electric bus that the district purchased with settlement funds, replacing a leased diesel bus.
CityLink transit district (bus electrification grantee)
We joined CityLink staff for a ride on ElBae, the electric transit bus purchased with settlement funds, and a tour of CityLink’s new bus garage, dispatch annex, and offices. ElBae, which replaced an old diesel bus, has been in service since February 2021, on routes serving Peoria’s poorest neighborhoods. Thanks to its custom wrap, the bus also serves as a clean energy ambassador and makes special trips to local schools. ElBae averages 4,500 miles a year and can travel for six to seven hours on a full charge; as of our visit, it was one of five all-electric buses in CityLink’s fleet.
Peoria public schools (solar and job-training grantee)
Principal and former math teacher Arnold Spiker was our guide when we visited the Peoria Public School’s Woodruff Career & Technical Center, which used settlement funds to install a large solar array and develop a new Renewable Energy Training curriculum. The array supplies most of the massive old school building’s power and serves as a teaching tool for Renewable Energy students. We were delighted to hear that, as of summer 2024, more than half the students who finished the curriculum had found internships or permanent jobs in clean energy and related technical fields, including HVAC and solar installation.
Read the full article on NRDC to lean about the rest of the programs.
