House passes energy bill with labor, environmental groups on board

House passes energy bill with labor, environmental groups on board

By JERRY NOWICKI
Capitol News Illinois
jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois House approved an energy regulation and decarbonization bill Thursday, a major step forward for a wide-ranging omnibus bill that had eluded lawmakers throughout the legislative session and the governor’s three years in office.

The measure that aims to bring Illinois’ energy generation sector to 100 percent carbon-free by 2050 and 50 percent renewable by 2040 will still need approval from the Senate, which planned to caucus Friday to discuss the measure, Senate Bill 2408, before a Monday return.

It passed the House 83-33 shortly before 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Gov. JB Pritzker quickly issued a news release saying he would sign it.

“This is what legislating is supposed to look like,” House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, said in closing floor debate. “It’s about good faith negotiating. It’s about advocating for the interests in our districts back home. And it’s about compromise in order to arrive at a product that benefits people in your districts, and ours.”

Environmental groups extolled the decarbonization language, which aims to take coal, gas and other carbon-emitting power plants off the grid between 2030 and 2045, depending on the energy source and ownership structure.

Union groups praised the bill’s language requiring that all major renewable construction projects must have project labor agreements in place to hire union labor, while non-residential projects, with few exceptions, would be required to pay a prevailing wage.

Republicans, meanwhile, warned of losses of downstate jobs, substantial consumer bill increases and potential grid reliability issues as fossil fuel plants are forced offline, although it passed on a bipartisan roll call.

 

Decarbonization, renewables

Environmental and labor groups were in opposition on the issue of municipal coal-fired power plants coming into Thursday. Two plants that were at issue include Springfield’s City, Water, Light and Power, and a plant funded by several municipalities in Illinois that is located in Marissa in the Metro East Area, called the Prairie State Energy Campus.

The final language requires the plants to be carbon-free by 2045, either by going offline or installing sequestration technology. By 2035, municipal plants must cut emissions by 45 percent. If a plant doesn’t meet that goal by the end of 2035, the power plant will have until June 30, 2038 to either retire a portion of carbon-emitting units or meet the decarbonization goal some other way.

The bill also provides more than $600 million over five years to three nuclear plants owned by Exelon Corporation – in Byron, Dresden and Braidwood. The company has stated it will not refuel the Byron plant after Monday, and it would begin decommissioning at that time, unless the General Assembly passed legislation to ensure its financial viability.

All told, negotiators believe the new bill is expected to raise residential electric bills by about 3-4 percent, commercial bills by about 5-6 percent, and industrial bills by about 7-8 percent, although the rollout for the various programs would be staggered over time and increases would vary by year.

The ratepayer money will fund equity programs for the clean energy workforce and new investment in renewable energy, among other initiatives.

It would also incentivize the transition of coal plants to solar facilities or battery storage sites, and it permits downstate utility Ameren to establish two utility-scale solar plants.

In a late addition to the bill, the city of Zion in Lake County, which is the site of a closed nuclear plant, would be eligible for grants “in proportional shares of $15 per kilogram of spent nuclear fuel stored at such a facility,” according to the bill.

The charge on a customer bill for renewables would increase over time from about 2 percent to 4 percent, a $360 million annual increase to fund projects such as wind and solar.

That investment is an effort to increase the portion of the state’s energy contributed by renewables, which is currently between 7 and 8 percent. Nuclear made up about 58 percent of the state’s electricity generation in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  

Downstate Republican lawmakers raised concerns that the portion of the state south of Interstate-80, on the MISO electric grid, is served by only one nuclear plant. The part of the state on the PJM grid, for the most part north of I-80, has the state’s other five nuclear plants.

“You’re not doing what you think you’re doing with this bill,” Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, said in floor debate, warning that closing the Springfield and Marissa coal plants would make downstate reliant on out-of-state coal while putting central Illinoisans out of work.

Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, noted in a news conference after the bill’s passage that it requires the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Illinois Commerce Commission and Illinois Power Agency to conduct a study at five-year intervals “to determine if there is grid reliability.”

If there are not enough renewables and nuclear power available to keep the grid running, that means coal or gas plants could be kept online to meet peak demand.

“I think it’s very legitimate,” Hoffman said of grid reliability concerns. “And so we built that into the bill, though, there are reliability checkpoints every five years. That was very important to all of us because we want the lights to go on, we want the heating and air conditioning to work.”

Hoffman said representatives of Prairie State believe federal subsidies will be included in an infrastructure before Congress that will help fund carbon sequestration infrastructure at coal plants as well.

Republicans also expressed concerns about language allowing a private company, Invenergy, to invoke eminent domain, in seven counties for the purpose of a single transmission line, the Grain Belt Express direct current transmission line.

 

Equity, ethics, EVs

Included in the rate hike is $180 million in annual funding for the newly-created Energy Transition Assistance Fund, which funds various workforce initiatives.

The bill directs the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to create the Clean Jobs Workforce Network program, which establishes 13 hubS in different communities across the state that rely on community-based organizations to provide job training and a career pipeline for equity-focused populations.

Other programs include a preapprenticeship program to prepare individuals for the renewable energy infrastructure workforce; and a contractor incubator to aid small clean energy businesses.

It also establishes a “Climate Bank” within the Illinois Finance Authority to help fund renewable projects, as well as a Jobs and Justice Fund, run by a nonprofit entity, aimed at ensuring “the benefits of the clean energy economy are equitably distributed.”  Another program aims to train individuals recently released from incarceration for careers in the renewable energy field.

Lawmakers also noted the bill tightens utility ethics laws by ending formulaic rate increases, strengthening economic disclosure requirements to include spouses employed by utilities, and creating Public Utility Ethics and Compliance Monitor to ensure utilities comply with existing and new laws.

It will also require the Illinois Commerce Commission to investigate whether ComEd misused ratepayer funds in connection to an ongoing federal investigation of the company’s Springfield influence, and if it is found that they did, the money must be returned to ratepayers.

The bill also sets a goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on Illinois roads by 2030, aiming to do so through incentives, such as offering rebates on the installation of charging infrastructure in certain communities, provided prevailing wage is paid on the construction labor.

It also creates a Displaced Energy Worker Bill of Rights, requiring the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to give advance notice of power plant or coal mine closures and to notify workers of available assistance programs.

 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

Leave a Comment





Local News

countryside logo

Countryside City Council tackles long list of items

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Steve Metsch Water leaks, a new truck and abandoned vehicles were among a laundry list of items tackled by the Countryside City Council at its latest meeting. They were all from the infrastructure committee chaired by Ald. Mark Benson (3rd). All of the following were approved by a unanimous 6-0 vote on…

Mahdi Ali (from left), Team AlBary, Ghina Albary, Abla Daoud, Minna Sulieman, Iman Ezzhory, Medinah Yusef,  and Argo Teacher Nadia Elkhatib. (Supplied photos)

Argo High School holds Iftar Dinner for community

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Carol McGowan More than 100 people gathered at Argo Community High School last week for a now annual Ramadan Iftar dinner organized by Argo teacher Nadia Elkhatib. Elkhatib was happy with the turnout for those coming Thursday night to break bread with the school’s Muslim students and their families. “I will continue…

regional palos heights logo

Pool improvements advance in Palos Heights

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Nuha Abdessalam Palos Heights aldermen last week approved contracts advancing improvements at the municipal pool. Alderman Jefry Key motioned for approval of a letter of agreement with the American Institute of Architects between Williams Architect and the City of Palos Heights for the pool improvement project. Since first proposing pool improvements in…

Palos Hills young people sang their hearts out for karaoke night at a neighborhood coffee house. (Photo by Nuha Abdessalam)

Teens enjoy Green Hills karaoke party

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Nuha Abdessalam Palos Hills tweens and teens sang their hearts out for karaoke night at a neighborhood coffee house. Green Hills Library invited all tweens and teens for a karaoke night at Strange Brew Cafe on West 103rd Street and 87th Street on Feb. 22. Organized by Green Hill Library Youth Program…

Luis Garcia, of Oak Forest and the owner and chef of Cervantinos Authentic Mexican Restaurant #2, 12778 S. Harlem Ave., Palos Heights. (Photos by Kelly White)

Cervantinos Authentic Mexican Restaurant opens in Palos Heights

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Kelly White When choosing a location for his second business location, Luis Garcia knew he wanted it to be Palos Heights. “I absolutely love it here,” Luis Garcia, of Oak Forest and the owner and chef of Cervantinos Authentic Mexican Restaurant #2, said. “It’s a great area, nice clientele and I’m happy…

The corner of Crandall and Depot in Worth will be the future site of the Garden Center Services apartment complex. (Photo by Joe Boyle)

Worth Polar Plunge raises record amount

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Joe Boyle The FOP Worth Polar Plunge has been deemed a major success and local officials said the amount raised has set a new record. The annual event, sponsored by the Worth Police Department, took place in a large swimming pool that was put up in the parking lot of the Marrs-Meyer…

Kris Sumner, Youth Programming Librarian at Green Hills Public Library, is responsible for organizing the Eid Clothing Bazaar at the library, 10331 Interlochen Dr., Palos Hills. (Supplied photos)

Green Hills Public Library hosts Eid Clothing Drive

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Kelly White The Islamic calendar has two major holidays each year: Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan and celebrates an entire month of fasting, and Eid al-Adha, the festival of the sacrifice that occurs during the culmination of the Hajj pilgrimage season. It takes place two lunar months after Ramadan.…

big PoliceLights1

Police Blotter

Spread the love

Spread the loveCHICAGO RIDGE DUI Orlando De La Rosa, 32, of Berwyn, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol following a traffic stop at 2:29 a.m. March 8 in the 9200 block of South Harlem Avenue. Police said he failed field sobriety tests and refused to submit a breath sample. He was also…

Oak Lawn Mayor Terry Vorderer rides in the Fourth of July parade in 2022. (File photo)

Oak Lawn seeks participants for Fourth of July parade

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Joe Boyle It may be spring, but it is not too early to talk about a summer parade. The Oak Lawn Village Board approved a resolution Tuesday morning authorizing the submission of a permit request to the Illinois Department of Transportation for the 2024 Fourth of July Parade. The resolution approves the…

Veronica Shaw

Sandburg welcomes new associate principal of instruction

Spread the love

Spread the loveConsolidated High School District 230 Board of Education is welcoming Dr. Veronica Shaw to Carl Sandburg High School as its new Associate Principal of Instruction. She begins July 1 and replaces Anita Huffman who was recently appointed as District 230’s Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services. With ample education leadership experience, Shaw is currently…

Neighbors

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.