Work Highlights
Since our founding in 2007,  EJC's work has amplified our mission and our focus to help avert climate catastrophe by linking environmental, social, and economic challenges and opportunities. We have:

• Partnered with Food and Water Watch, the Science and Environmental Health Network, BOLD Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and many other organizations across the country to create the CCS Action Network, whose mission is to support communities threatened by carbon capture and storage. Work focuses on protecting community health, safety, land, water, and property rights through congressional briefings and legislation, while simultaneously opposing federal efforts to fast track permitting of inherently unsafe CO2 pipelines and injection wells and the flow of billions in public subsidies that are driving this industry forward. Pam Richart serves on the Steering Committee. Ongoing.

• Worked with landowners and experts from the CCS Science Roundtable on Carbon Capture and Storage to evaluate and provide comments on seven Class VI Well project applications and draft permits in Illinois. Ongoing.

• Formed yet another coalition with partner Prairie Rivers Network, with the goal of protecting Illinois' only sole source aquifer, the Mahomet, from the threat of CCS. This included working statewide to pass a sole-source aquifer sequestration ban through the General Assembly. Bipartisan. Signed by the Governor on August 1, 2025.

• Helped draft and pass the SAFE CCS Act, one of the Nation's most comprehensive bills to regulate carbon capture, storage, and sequestration. This bill was signed by the Governor on July 18, 2024 and includes a two-year moratorium on CO2 pipelines. Rulemaking expected in the fall of 2025.

• Cofounded the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines in January 2022. CO2 pipelines remain under regulated and are a threat to human health; restrict landowners' use of their land; damage farmland; and support the fossil fuel industry, rather than renewables, despite the 2022 commitment from the Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Administration. To date, we have been successful at stopping:

• • • The 1,342-mile CO2 pipeline proposed by Navigator CO2 Ventures that would have passed through five states and "dumped" carbon dioxide into two reservoirs, one in Christian County and the other in Montgomery County, IL. Navigator cancelled is project in October 2023 after receiving two recommendations of denial from the Illinois Commerce Commission.

• • • The 300-mile CO2 pipeline proposed by Wolf Carbon Solutions. Wolf withdrew its petition from the Illinois Commerce Commission in November 2023 after staff recommended denial of its project. Wolf withdrew from Iowa in December 2024, citing uncertainty in the regulatory environment.

The Coalition received the Illinois Environmental Council's Award for community organizing in October 2024, which was accepted by Pam Richart.

• Worked as part of a 10-person team created by the RE-AMP Network to develop strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating carbon sinks in the Midwest via regenerative agriculture. Report was released January 2022, and highlights presented to RE-AMP members and allies on February 10, 2022.

• Organized to pass the groundbreaking Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. This bill, drafted by the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition puts Illinois on a path to 100% renewable energy by 2050, boosting Illinois' economy along the way. The bill's jobs training  and jobs creation programs will help workers and coal communities transition from fossil fuels, and build equity and wealth in communities of color. Passed September 2021!

• Carried out a grassroots campaign with partners Prairie Rivers Network and Earthjustice to pressure Dynegy-Midwest Generation to move its coal ash out of the floodplain of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, Illinois’ only National Scenic River. After five years of organizing, Dynegy agreed to move its toxic waste in 2021. Success!

• Joined forces with Prairie Rivers Network, Earthjustice, Sierra Club Illinois, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and Illinois Environmental Council and community groups living near toxic coal ash to develop and pass the Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act. Illinois was the third state in the country to pass comprehensive coal ash legislation. The bill passed in July 2019. EJC then worked o ensure the adoption of strong coal ash rules. Final rules went into effect on April 21,  2021.

• Working with Prairie Rivers Network and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club, served as lead organizer in 2017 to bring forums and workshops about Illinois' groundbreaking Future Energy Jobs Act to downstate Illinois communities who have experienced significant job loss associated with reduced production of coal, and closures of coal mines and coal plants.

• Helped found and served on the leadership team for the Downstate Caucus of the Illinois State Climate Table, created to coordinate work between the downstate advocacy organizations across Illinois with the State Climate Table in support of reducing carbon and other greenhouse gases and building resilient communities with clean, renewable energy and natural climate solutions. Work is ongoing, and focuses on implementing the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act of 2021.

• Co-Founded the Community Futures Initiative, a group of advocates and front-line communities working for a coal severance tax in Illinois. Monies from this fund were planned to go back to communities struggling to diversify their economies and break free from their dependence on coal. Although gaining momentum, this initiative was stalled with the 2016 promise by the Trump Administration to provide continued support for coal.

• Worked to bring an end to the state-subsidized Illinois Coal Education Curriculum. Success! The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity stopped distributing its climate-denying curriculum in 2013.

• Served as lead organizer for Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago in 2012 and 2013, bringing together more than 600 professionals, educators, the faith community, students and the general public around innovative solutions to today’s social, economic and environmental challenges. Event guides that highlight workshops and plenary speakers can be found here and here.

• Organized a Women’s Tribunal on Gender and Climate Justice, one of just two in the nation. Through story, the Tribunal emboldened women in the Chicago metropolitan area and Appalachia to continue to work for energy justice and an end to a reliance on dirty coal.

• Re-ignited the fight to close the Fisk and Crawford coal power plants in 2010 These plants were two of the oldest polluting coal-fired power plants in the country and no longer required to power the City or the grid. Located in densely-populated neighborhoods of color on Chicago’s southwest side, the plants were responsible for 42 deaths every year. This included the founding of the Chicago Clean Power Coalition, which included faith-based groups, environmental organizations, businesses, environmental justice groups, health organizations, and students. Victory! Both plants were permanently closed in 2012.

• Led delegations to West Virginia and central and southern Illinois to expose the impacts of coal mining (including mountaintop removal mining), burning, and disposal of waste. These experiences transform the lives of those who join us, and motivate delegates to support coal-producing communities working to move to an economy based on clean, safe, renewable energy.

• Co-founded the Heartland Coalfield Alliance to transition our state and region from coal to safe, clean, renewable energy. EJC and its partners Prairie Rivers Network and the Sierra Club continue to support coal-producing communities with technical expertise and legislative solutions.

• Co-led an experiential course on eco-justice and cities for four years as part of the Seminary Consortium on Urban Pastoral Education programming.