VICTORY: Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity removes coal-related educational sections from its website.

Illinois is in the process of revamping its widely denounced coal education program for schools, but it still hasn’t taken down its pro-coal propaganda website. The website is problematic for several reasons. With a mounting health care crisis from reckless increases in coal mining, the site fails to acknowledge the dangers of coal slurry impoundment sites, coal ash, mercury pollution and the documented environmental impacts of coal mining and burning. The site also fails to acknowledge the continual battle to guarantee the health and safety of all coal miners, especially for non-union operations, as the industry fails to deal with the rising incidence of black lung disease.

The IDCEO removed coal-related educational sections from its website less than two weeks after the launch of a grassroots campaign that included 3,400 CREDO signatures demanding that the pages be taken down.