URGENT ACTION NEEDED
Shield Black Farmers and Indigenous Land in Pembroke Township
Oppose HB 3404 to Cease the Nicor Fuel Pipeline!
Pembroke farmers and residents want our collective help for his or her struggle towards laws which seeks to carry pricey and harmful fossil gasoline vitality through a Nicor pure fuel pipeline into Pembroke. The invoice, HB 3404, threatens Pembroke’s world-renowned 3-biome ecosystem–residence to the Kankakee Sands and blacks oaks savanna.
Because of Potawatomi and Black stewardship rooted in good relationship with the land and natural farming practices, the realm has thrived as a sanctuary for a lot of uncommon and endangered plant and animal species. Pembroke can also be residence to a deep historical past and custom of Black freedom and self-determination. Based by Joseph “Pap” Tetter, spouse Mary Eliza, and their kids in 1862 after escaping from North Carolina previous to the Emancipation Proclamation, Pembroke Township served as a sanctuary for different runaway and freed enslaved folks. The world was an essential terminal for the Underground Railroad and skilled continued waves of Black migration by way of the Nice Melancholy and Nice Migration. Pembroke’s Black farmers proceed to steward the land and develop self-sufficiency and self-determination utilizing the data and practices handed down by way of generations.
“Pembroke individuals are resilient. They’ve deep roots within the native soil. Residents have a lot to show the world about learn how to dwell as stewards of the land. Drawing on their wealthy tradition and pure surroundings, neighborhood members work to create sustainable livelihoods for future generations.”
The neighborhood has been preventing off pure fuel for over forty years to guard the surroundings and transition in the direction of renewable vitality and a sustainable future. HB 3404 would violate Pembroke’s residents self-determination and permit the proposed fracked pure fuel pipeline to hazard Pembroke’s uncommon ecosystem and hurt its historic Black farming neighborhood. Regardless of widespread opposition, minimal alternatives for neighborhood enter, and failure to conduct and current affect research, the laws handed by way of the Normal Meeting with bipartisan help as a method of “financial growth.” Pembroke residents have made it clear that fossil gasoline vitality corresponding to this pipeline don’t have any place in Pembroke’s future. Quite the opposite, the Pembroke Township and Hopkins Park Sustainability Plan requires options corresponding to renewable and environment friendly vitality, sustainable meals methods, and help for farmers.
“Individuals right here love the earth. This pure fuel pipeline has nothing to do with the wellbeing of our neighborhood. We don’t need to have it for our livelihood or financial growth.”
– Dr. Jifunza Wright-Carter, Black Oaks Middle
The invoice (HB 3404) now sits on the Governor’s desk. The way forward for Black farming in Illinois will depend on your solidarity and motion. We solely have till August 29, 2021 to get calls and letters in opposition to Governor Pritzker.
Beneath are 3 steps you possibly can take.
TAKE ACTION NOW
- Name the Governor’s workplace at 217-782-6830 to demand that Pritzker veto HB 3404 and guarantee affect research, public course of, neighborhood involvement, and NO eminent area
- Pattern script from IEC:
- “As a involved resident of Illinois, I urge you to guard public security, protect pristine agricultural land, and stop a utility price enhance by utilizing your veto powers on HB3404. This laws solely gives a false resolution to the very actual issues confronted by a neighborhood disinvested for many years. By giving a assured contract to Nicor Fuel to construct unfettered into Pembroke township, the final remaining traditionally black farming neighborhood in Illinois, with out scrutiny of related companies, vital public security protections, and solely meager public enter, Illinois residents will endure. As a substitute of assessing options, this invoice would saddle Pembroke households and farmers with fracked fuel infrastructure nicely previous your proposed finish date for fuel in Illinois. As you already know, it’s time to put money into clear vitality, not double down on dangerous fossil fuels. Amending this invoice is a crucial step in defending Illinoisans from poor public well being outcomes, rising utility prices and the more and more perilous impacts of the local weather disaster.”
- Pattern script from IEC:
- Ship electronic mail letters by way of the next pages:
- Illinois Environmental Council: Stand with the Individuals of Pembroke, Cease Fossil Gasoline Growth
- Illinois Stewardship Alliance: Inform Governor Pritzker to Veto HB3404, Protect Pembroke, and Cease the Nicor Pipeline
- Uplift Pembroke’s efforts towards the Nicor pure fuel pipeline by sharing these calls to motion amongst your networks and social media platforms!
To be taught extra:
- WBEZ, Historic Black Farming Group In Pembroke Views Deliberate Fuel Pipeline As Existential Menace
- Chicago Solar-Occasions, In Kankakee County’s Pembroke Township, race, poverty, farming, Nicor fuel pipeline converge
- Pure Sources Protection Council, Placing Pembroke’s Priorities Above a Fuel Giveaway
Comply with and help the organizations on the frontlines:
Black Oaks Middle
Blacks In Inexperienced
Illinois Environmental Council
Illinois Stewardship Alliance
Nature Conservancy
Pembroke Farming Household Affiliation
Iyabo Farms