Letter: Move Illinois towards 100% renewable energy

To the Editor:

I am a college senior who grew up in Oswego. I am also an intern for Illinois PIRG Campus Action at University of Illinois-Urbana.

Reminiscing, I cannot even count how many days were spent riding bikes from forest preserves to parks to the cornfields that reached into Plainfield. Summer days felt monthslong due to the experience I had while growing up here. I owe a lot of those memories to the environment I grew up in. Not the built environment around Oswego, but the natural areas around it.

I am writing this letter to express my uncertainty with current trends of energy consumption within not only Illinois, but throughout the United States. I am not the only student who feels this way, and with enough momentum, I think there is a chance to move Illinois toward 100% renewable energy. Pushing this commitment will reward us with health benefits. Health benefits come directly and indirectly. I know many of my neighbors and classmates enjoyed strolls in the parks or fishing as much as I did.

Working toward 100% renewable energy ensures that our natural landscapes are not degraded beyond repair. It ensures the safety of animals local to our forests, the birds who sing among the trees, the fish that populate the Fox River and the deer in our parks.

Conditions are only worsening, and so decisive action needs to be taken. Join students across the state by helping the call for 100% renewable energy today.

Jonah Rojas

Champaign