Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Midwest Generation, owner of the Fisk and
Crawford coal-fired power plants on the city’s Southwest Side, have given themselves a February 29 deadline to negotiate a settlement
over the plants, according to Ald. Danny Solis (25th) at a City Hall press conference today.
There could finally be a resolution in the battle over the decades-long air pollution
problem in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods that often left residents wondering if government would ever respond to the dangerous, even deadly, levels of both greenhouse gas and soot emissions at the plants.
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As part of an effort to alleviate Pilsen residents' concerns over the alleged adverse health conditions caused by local pollution, the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization held a public hearing on Wednesday night with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. 
To draw attention to Chicago's two coal-fired power plants, health experts and community organizations in the Pilsen neighborhood rallied around a 20-foot inflatable asthma inhaler last week at the Pilsen Elementary Community Academy. A Moble C.A.R.E. van offered children in attendance free asthma screenings while experts highlighted the dangers of pollution from Midwest Generation's Fisk & Crawford power plants in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods.
A hearing about the Clean Power Ordinance, which would impose new limits on particulate matter and carbon dioxide emitted by Chicago's two coal-fired power plants, brought hundreds of supporters and opponents to City Hall today. Hard hat-wearing power plant employees, who said they were worried about losing their jobs if the bill is passed, packed the council's main chambers while green-clad environmental campaigners, who have long criticized how pollution from the Fisk and Crawford plants affects human health and contributes to climate change, periodically chanted outside as aldermen took testimony this morning. 