The Illinois House Thursday reached a deal with all major stakeholders and Gov. J.B. Pritzker and passed landmark energy legislation that will keep two major nuclear power generators open and set a course for a 100 percent renewable energy-powered state.
The House voted 83-33 to pass SB2408 (Harris), which is supported by environmentalists of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC), Climate Jobs Illinois (CJI) labor unions, renewable energy groups of the Path to 100 coalition, the Sierra Club, the Illinois Environmental Council, and the Governor.
House Speaker Chris Welch (D-Westchester) thanked the stakeholders and members who worked on this deal and said the bill will save Illinois jobs, support a clean climate, and hold public utilities accountable.
“We're helping communities all over this state, we're helping people. That's why we're here tonight. Let's put the rhetoric aside, the politics aside. Think about the people that we all represent. That's why we're here tonight. What we have done here today is monumental. And it should be celebrated, not castigated. It's historic and it will positively impact people in each and every one of our districts,” Welch said. “Our climate cannot wait. Climate change is going to cost us more if we don't act now.”
The bill now goes back to the Senate for concurrence. In a statement, Senate President Don Harmon said the Senate will return Monday, Sept. 13 to take up the bill.
“The shared goal among the Senate, House, and Governor Pritzker has been to position Illinois as a national leader on reliable, renewable, and affordable energy policies. This proposal accomplishes that shared goal. I commend the work the House has done to build on the progress the Senate had made,” he said.
In a statement, Pritzker said he plans to sign SB2408 following its passage in the Senate.
“Today, with the House passage of SB2408, the State of Illinois is one historic step closer to reaching a 100 percent clean energy future. For many years, comprehensive energy legislation that puts consumers and the climate first has been debated while scientists around the world have sounded the alarm about the growing impacts of climate change. SB2408 puts the state on a path toward 100% clean energy and invests in training a diverse workforce for the jobs of the future. Illinois will become the best state in the nation to manufacture and drive an electric vehicle, and equity will be prioritized in every new program created. The days of utility companies writing energy legislation to pad their profits has ended because SB2408 puts consumers and climate at the forefront, prioritizes meaningful ethics and transparency reforms, and institutes key ratepayer and residential customer protections,” the governor said in a statement.
SB2408 with House Floor Amendment No. 2 & 4 includes the elimination of formula ratemaking, subsidies allowing the Exelon-owned Dresden and Byron nuclear plants to stay operational, creation of a clean energy goal of 100 percent renewable by 2050 and 50 percent by 2040, closure of all private natural gas facilities by 2045, requires Prairie State and Springfield City, Water, Light, and Power (CWLP) plants to reduce their emissions by 45 percent by 2035 and 100 percent by the end of 2045.
It also adds empowers the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to provide better oversight of utilities in several ways. It includes multiple provisions related to ethics, ensuring that families in disadvantaged communities are not adversely impacted by the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Additionally, utilities will be required to create a chief compliance officer position that reports to the ICC.
New in this version of the energy deal are provisions specifically would allow the state to provide Prairie State and CWLP $20 million per year to help reduce their emissions to meet those goals. Also, if they miss the 45 percent reduction target by 2035, the plants will be allowed three years to hit the target or be forced to close at least one of their generators. Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Belleville) said House Amendment No. 4 allowed Prairie State and CWLP to switch their position to “neutral” on the legislation.
In a press conference following session, Hoffman said he expects upcoming federal infrastructure language to include support for carbon capture technology that would help the plants reach their targets.
Republicans largely opposed the bill, arguing that similar legislation in the past has led to broken promises. They argued that the move away from fossil fuels in Illinois will lead to more reliance on out-of-state energy and foreign investment. They also shared concerns about grid reliability, pointing to the recent challenges faced in states like Texas and California. Several accused Democrats leaving local leaders and other stakeholders out of the negotiation process. Others said that citizens will end up footing the bill for the bill’s many reforms and generator closures.
Several Republicans brought up the issue of eminent domain, saying that too often private, for-profit wind and solar companies are able to use the power to claim constituents’ land unfairly.
Tim Butler (R-Springfield) said that Democrats were not doing what they intend to do by passing this legislation and said that the fossil fuel plants that have gone up in the past several years are some of the cleanest in the country.
“This is not the right path forward. When you turn off these power plants in Southern Illinois and mind you, the [Midcontinent Independent System Operator], the power grid that covers most of Illinois geographically -- when you turn off these power plants, we're going to be getting power from that coal plant I saw just across the river in Indiana last week and that coal plant that I saw just across the river in Kentucky last week. 50 percent of the energy generated by MISO comes from coal. You're not doing what you think you're doing with this bill. You're putting people out of work, you're raising rates for my constituents, and you're shutting things down that shouldn’t be shut down,” Butler said.
Several Republicans voted in favor of the bill, including Reps. Tom Bennett (R-Pontiac), Tom Demmer (R-Dixon), Jackie Haas (R-Kankakee), Seth Lewis (R-Bartlett), Mark Luft (R-Pekin), Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore), Martin McLaughin (R-Lake Barrington), Tony McCombie (R-Savanna), Bradley Stephens (R-Chicago), and Keith Wheeler (R-North Aurora).
Rep. David Welter (R-Morris) also supported the bill as the Dresden nuclear power plant resides in his district. However, he said Republicans were cut out of the negotiation process and that the bill does not do enough to resolve public debts held by municipalities, the cost of which may be passed onto residents. Several Republicans said they felt “held hostage” by coupling the nuclear energy subsidies with renewable energy reforms they don’t support.
ICJC praised the bill’s passage in a statement.
“After years of hard work and community collaboration, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition applauds this significant leap forward on climate change and nation-leading equity standard that assures every part of the state shares in the promise of the clean energy economy. This urgent, job-creating plan puts Illinois on a path to a 100% clean energy future while providing a just transition for workers and communities historically dependent on dirty fossil fuels, enacting some of the toughest utility accountability measures in the nation, and creating jobs and wealth in Illinois’ Black and Brown communities, which are often the first to suffer negative consequences of pollution but the last to reap the health and economic benefits of a clean energy future,” the Illinois Clean Job Coalition said.
ICJ issued the following statement:
“Our coalition has reviewed the proposed amendment and supports the current version of the bill. The legislation sets the strongest clean energy labor standards in the country, requiring project labor agreements on all utility-scale wind and solar projects and sets prevailing wages for non-residential projects. These provisions will raise the standard for other states seeking to enact new labor and employment policies for building and maintaining clean energy developments.
The bill will create thousands of new clean energy union jobs, expand union apprenticeships for Black and Latinx communities, increase energy efficiency for public schools and safeguard thousands of union workers at the state’s nuclear plants that currently generate the bulk of Illinois’ zero-emissions energy. These key components were our top priorities in any clean energy legislation enacted, so we are pleased with the result.”
The bill is not without its opponents. In a statement, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce said the bill would result in a massive hike for ratepayers.
“As the Illinois House of Representatives returns to Springfield today to take up a comprehensive energy proposal, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce urges legislators to oppose recently proposed language that takes an already flawed proposal – one that will dramatically increase costs and call reliability into question – but then doubles down by throwing an additional $200 million more at a ‘solution’ that solves nothing,” the chamber said.
Similarly, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association (IMA) characterized the bill as a rate hike.
“The governor and lawmakers are about to hit businesses and families in the pocketbook with the largest electric rate hike in our state’s history. At a time when our elected official should be helping our state recover from the pandemic, they are eliminating one of our key strategic advantages, which is low-cost and reliable energy,” IMA President and CEO Mark Denzler said in a statement.
The House Thursday also voted 74-41 to accept the governor’s amendatory veto to SB539 (Gillespie) the omnibus ethics bill. Republicans again opposed the bill, arguing that its reforms do not go far enough.
Allison Richard
Legislative Consultant
