Pritzker unveils major energy overhaul plan chronicleillinois.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chronicleillinois.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The governor’s office unveiled a 900-page energy overhaul bill Wednesday, accelerating a yearslong process which advocates hope will end in a comprehensive clean energy platform as the session nears its final month.
The stated goal of the bill is to drive Illinois to 100 percent “clean” energy by 2050. That, Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell said in an interview Wednesday, would include nuclear power as a major contributor. Another goal is to bring Illinois to 40 percent of its utility scale energy produced by renewables, such as wind and solar, by 2030. Right now, that number is around 8 percent.
The bill contains some of the provisions put forth in other legislation, raising the rate cap on ratepayer bills for renewable projects from about 2 percent to 3.75 percent; ending formulaic rate increases for utilities immediately; and prohibiting natural gas companies from assessing a surcharge on bills starting January 2022.
Thomas Frisbie/Sun-Times
Gov. Pritzker’s clean energy plan, introduced Thursday, has a lot to like in it. But it needs an upgrade before the Legislature’s adjournment on May 31.
The good news is Pritzker is at the negotiating table three years after the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition began working to enact a law that will move Illinois toward a smart, environment-friendly power sector. The governor has adopted many of the features in the coalition’s Clean Energy Jobs Act and a separate bill titled the Path to 100. He essentially ignored a competing bill seen by some as favorable for utility interests called Climate Jobs Illinois.
By Benjamin Cox on April 28, 2021 at 4:02pm
Governor J.B. Pritzker has issued a plan today to move the state to 100% renewable energy by 2045. Pritzker’s plan incorporates some elements of the other already-proposed measures in front of the Illinois General Assembly.
Hannah Meisel of NPR reports that Pritzker’s plan includes ending an energy rate formula lawmakers approved in 2011 that was championed by ComEd and Ameren. The rate law has come under recent scrutiny due to ComEd’s deferred prosecution agreement with the federal government that ensnared former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
The proposal would also phase out coal by 2030, and end natural gas use by 2045 by reducing caps on greenhouse gas emissions year over year, and implementing an $8 per ton carbon price on emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric plants.
Pritzker is emphasizing clean energy in the wake of the ComEd scandal.
After months of declining to endorse any specific plan to both get Illinois on a path to 100% renewable energy and crack down on public utilities’ power in Springfield, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday entered the already raucous fight with his own legislation that will compete with at least three other proposals that have already been introduced.
Pritzker’s plan incorporates some elements of the other already-proposed measures, including ending an energy rate formula lawmakers approved in 2011, championed by utility giants Commonwealth Edison and Ameren. The proposal would also phase out coal by 2030, and end natural gas use by 2045 by reducing caps on greenhouse gas emissions year over year, and implementing an $8 per ton carbon price on emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric plants.