After the Illinois Senate voted in the wee hours Wednesday to approve an energy policy overhaul that includes a nearly $700 million bailout for Exelon, parent of scandal-plagued Commonwealth Edison, the company gave lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker an ultimatum: finalize a deal in the next 12 days or face the permanent closure of one of the state’s six nuclear power plants. […]
“While we currently have no choice but to continue preparing for their premature retirement, we have established offramps that will allow us to reverse that decision if lawmakers pass legislation with enough time for us to safely refuel the plants,” Exelon spokesman Paul Adam said in a statement Wednesday. “To be clear, Byron will run out of fuel and will permanently shut down on Sept. 13 unless legislation is enacted.”
It’s not like filing up your tank with gas. Refueling a nuclear power plant is a complicated and involved process. They’ll need a bill passed well before the 13th, but I haven’t yet gotten a solid answer on what the actual drop-dead date is. Still checking.
…Adding… The full statement still doesn’t really give us an idea of an absolute deadline date…
*Less than 2 WKS* til @Exelon closes its Byron nuclear plant if lawmakers don't pass an energy bill including already-negotiated ~$700M ratepayer subsidy to keep 3 unprofitable nukes alive. In the spirit of hopefulness, Exelon has taken steps to remain nimble for a last-min deal. pic.twitter.com/HL2w1RMcU6
Just hours after redrawn state legislative maps were passed by lawmakers, attorneys for a group challenging the new boundaries told a federal judge Wednesday that the plan shortchanges Latinos. […]
“Latinos were not rewarded or given their fair share of districts after that population growth,” [Ernest Herrera, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund] told U.S. District Judge Robert Dow. “Latinos were, in fact, penalized.”
Herrera said the number of state Senate districts with a majority Latino voting age population would drop from three to two under the Democratic-drawn maps, and from five to four in the House.
“We believe there are serious constitutional but likely Section 2 claims here,” Herrera said, citing the section of the federal Voting Rights Act which prohibits practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.
According to numbers compiled by my consultant Frank Calabrese, the May House remap plan had 11 majority voting age population Latino districts, but the newly passed August remap has just 10. The House map passed back in 2011 had nine majority Latino VAP districts.
The 2020 Census found that the number of Illinois Latinos of all ages grew by more than 15 percent since the 2010 Census.
A new report from the Illinois Policy Institute shows lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker have adopted tax hikes and fee increases that total $5.24 billion since 2019.
The 24 tax hikes and fee increases include the doubling of the motor fuel tax, raising vehicle registration fees and a cigarette tax hike, among others. […]
Adam Schuster of the Illinois Policy Institute said that instead of raising taxes, the state should look at reallocating funds to programs that increase spending.
“A way to increase spending on these valuable programs is not by raising taxes,” Schuster said. “But by redistributing the money away from unproductive uses like throwing it after pension debt and using the money to fund programs that provide value to Illinois.”
Dollar values represent long-run annual revenue raised unless noted as temporary. Certain revenue sources, such as legal sports betting, will raise less in the first year of implementation and because of COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on live events. * Trade-in car tax repealed in 2021.
Wow, they admit that the virus has an impact on business without mentioning mitigations.
The Illinois Department of Health director allegedly recently said that “masks are as effective as vaccines” amid a push to crack down on mask wearing in schools.
“If we actually want our kids to be in school for in-person learning, masking is a great protection and our best bet,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike said last Thursday, according to Chalkbeat. “The bottom line is that masks are as effective as vaccines are.”
“If we actually want our kids to be in school for in-person learning, masking is a great protection and our best bet,” Ezike said Thursday. “The bottom line is that masks are effective. Vaccines are effective.”
* Instead of, you know, spending a few seconds actually reading the Chalkbeat story, Fox News just took this person’s word for it…
The Illinois Department of Public Health later told Fox News Wednesday that Ezike was inaccurately quoted in the Chalkbeat article, and had actually said during a press conference last Thursday: “If we actually want our kids to be in school for in-person learning, masking is a great protection and our best bet. The bottom line is masks are effective. Vaccines are effective.”
The original quote, however, ignited criticisms on social media this week, with one Twitter user saying, “If the goal is to increase vax uptake — and we know both Illinois & Chicago, uptake is lowest among Black & Latinx residents — Dr Ezike’s statement is at-odds with equity goals.”
What is goofy Rich is to believe that once the leverage to negotiate keeping Prairie State open is gone, that the green environmentalists won’t demand Prairie State be closed sooner.
Then how do you keep the plant open if the potential for future unfavorable laws is the issue? Adjourn the General Assembly forever? Require legislators to obtain approval from past bill sponsors if they want to amend their laws?
A Texas law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy took effect Wednesday, as a midnight deadline for the Supreme Court to stop it came and went without action.
The court could still grant a request from abortion providers to halt the law, one of the nation’s most restrictive. But for now, abortion providers in Texas, including Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s Health, said they will no longer terminate pregnancies more than six weeks from a woman’s last period.
Providers said the law — which relies on private citizens to sue people who help women get forbidden abortions — effectively eliminates the guarantee in Roe v. Wade and subsequent Supreme Court decisions that women have a right to end their pregnancies before viability, and that states may not impose undue burdens on that decision.
If the Supreme Court declines to stop the law, the most likely challenge would come after it is utilized by a private citizen. Then the person sued could contest the constitutionality of the law, with the backing of abortion providers and abortion-rights groups.
In a phone call with reporters early Wednesday, Marc Hearron, a lawyer for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that “as of now, most abortion is banned in Texas.” Hearron said the abortion providers his group represents were still hoping to hear from the Supreme Court.
They have said the law would rule out 85% of abortions in Texas and force many clinics to close. Planned Parenthood is among the abortion providers that have stopped scheduling abortions beyond six weeks from conception. […]
At least 12 other states have enacted bans on abortion early in pregnancy, but all have been blocked from going into effect.
What makes the Texas law different is its unusual enforcement scheme. Rather than have officials responsible for enforcing the law, private citizens are authorized to sue abortion providers and anyone involved in facilitating abortions. Among other situations, that would include anyone who drives a woman to a clinic to get an abortion. Under the law, anyone who successfully sues another person would be entitled to at least $10,000.
* I’ve received several reactions to the development and am posting everything in my inbox. Here’s Governor Pritzker’s campaign…
Today Governor JB Pritzker released a statement condemning the passage and implementation of Texas Senate Bill 8. The legislation that goes into effect today effectively eliminates access to abortion after six weeks, and allows virtually any private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who they view as aiding in violating the new ban.
“An attack on reproductive freedom in Texas is an attack on reproductive freedom in Illinois and every state across the country. I’m proud that we passed the most comprehensive law in the nation to protect women’s rights to make their own health care decisions no matter what happens at the Supreme Court. But make no mistake—abortion rights are on the ballot in 2022 and Republicans will do everything in their power to strip them away. That’s why it’s so critical to elect Democrats up and down the ballot across Illinois.”
Governor JB Pritzker has fought for women’s reproductive rights his entire life and in 2019 he signed The Reproductive Health Act, the most comprehensive abortion rights bill in the country, into law.
* ACLU of Illinois…
Overnight, the Supreme Court of the United States failed to act on a request to block a new, sweeping and unconstitutional abortion ban in Texas from going into effect. The following statement can be attributed to Ameri Klafeta, Director of the Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project at the ACLU of Illinois:
This is a sad day in our country. As a result of inaction overnight by the Supreme Court, a sweeping, clearly unconstitutional abortion ban is now in effect in the State of Texas. After a half-century of constant attacks fueled by misinformation and lies, the right to access reproductive health care is now denied to millions of people today.
The Texas law cruelly bans abortion care as early as six weeks – before many people even know they are pregnant. The measure also allows individuals – literally anyone even if they have no connection to a patient – to sue doctors, health care workers and even friends who support someone in accessing abortion care after six weeks. Such provisions stand in direct opposition to the principles enshrined in Roe v. Wade, making the Court’s inaction all the more disturbing.
Residents of Illinois can take slight solace in this moment. Legislators in recent years have extended critical protections for all seeking reproductive health care in Illinois – measures signed by Governor Rauner and Governor Pritzker. We must continue to defend and expand those protections. We recommit ourselves to this effort today as we think of the millions of people across the United States who now are at risk of losing their access to abortion due to the Court’s failure to act.
* Personal PAC…
Thirty years ago, Illinois was one of the most anti-choice states in the nation with a “trigger law,” spousal consent for an abortion, and bans on IVF while Texas was one of the most pro-choice states in the country. Remember pro-choice Texas Governor Ann Richards?
As of today, Texas is now the state with the most cruel anti-abortion laws in the nation—a ban on abortion after six weeks, before most women even know they are pregnant, and with no exceptions for rape and incest. The other provision allows for a $10,000 bounty for turning in anyone who assisted with any aspect of an abortion. It’s called the totalitarian state right in front of our eyes in these United States.
Today, Illinois is almost a state that protects women who seek reproductive health care.
Texas and Illinois are one story: Elections Have VERY SERIOUS Consequences.
Right in front of our eyes, candidates who want for Illinois women what Texas women now live under are running for Governor, Attorney General and the Illinois General Assembly, where 22 Texas-like anti-abortion bills are patiently waiting for a vote—and the next election to seize the opportunity.
We simply can’t let these misogynists win in 2022 like they did in Texas.
* Planned Parenthood Illinois Action…
Access to abortion is hanging by an increasingly thinning thread. With the six-week abortion ban taking effect today in Texas, we can expect many other states to follow their lead. The 2021 legislative season is already the most hostile year for reproductive health and rights in history, with many of our neighboring states enacting medically-unnecessary and extreme laws with the sole purpose of banning abortion. We know that abortion bans don’t stop people from having abortions. Bans only make it more difficult to access essential health care.
Illinois passed the Reproductive Health Act in 2019, which ensures abortion will remain legal in our state even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and positions Illinois as a safe haven for the region. Already, we are seeing patients from other states who have been forced to travel long distances to access abortion care, which has been legal in the United States for nearly 50 years.
People who have abortions are our family, friends, and neighbors. Everyone deserves the freedom to make their own medical decisions, in consultation with their families and their doctors and free from political interference. Access to essential care should never depend on where you live or how much money you make.
We will never stop fighting to help everyone access the health care they need and deserve.
So far, anyway, I’ve received nothing from any anti-abortion groups, politicians or political parties.
…Adding… Robin Kelly, Chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois…
“What we are seeing in Texas is an unconstitutional assault on women everywhere. This radical law to essentially ban abortion will hurt women of color and low-come women in particular. Like so many issues, Illinois Democrats lead the nation in protecting and expanding a woman’s right to her own healthcare decisions and our fight is far from over.”
A House Republican who sought “data, studies, scientific or medical articles, and correspondence” from people advocating in support of school mask mandates got her answer in dramatic fashion on Tuesday.
Governor Pritzker’s office responded to an August 10th Freedom of Information Act Request filed by Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) by sending a staffer to her legislative office in Springfield to hand-deliver 870 pages of studies and letters from parents that supported the mask mandate.
Government agencies typically respond to FOIA requests in emails and attachments, but in delivering the papers in such a public manner, the Pritzker administration sought to draw attention to the number of parents who have thanked him for enacting and enforcing mask mandates at the start of the new school year.
“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing this,” an Elmhurst mother emailed to Pritzker’s office on August 4th. “When the Elmhurst 205 School District voted to make masks optional last week, I was devastated and shocked.
McCombie was not in her office when the Governor’s staffer delivered the studies and emails. She responded to Pritzker’s public response to her requests when she came out of a Republican caucus meeting.
“I think it’s absolutely, positively ridiculous that it has become political,” she said. “I think it’s ridiculous that he’s going to showboat and have his staff showboat around empty offices when we’re all in caucus. I mean, have the guts to do it when we’re sitting at our desk.”
An Oak Lawn woman was arrested in Hawaii last week after, court records show, she entered the state with a fake COVID-19 vaccination card that misspelled drug company “Moderna” as “Maderna.”
* We had protests at school back in the day which got zero media coverage, probably because sports ball players weren’t involved…
Dozens of North Mac School District students and parents gathered outside the Macoupin County Courthouse in Carlinville on Tuesday, Aug. 31, to protest the district’s quarantine and remote learning policies.
Tuesday’s court hearing stemmed from whether the district had followed proper COVID-19 exposure and quarantine procedures at North Mac High School, and whether the superintendent’s move to full remote learning at the high school is legal. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four athletes that had been exposed to the virus at school and were forced to quarantine despite testing negative for COVID-19 in Sangamon County. […]
Students also staged a walkout at North Mac High in protest of the testing and quarantine policy on Monday, Aug. 30, where dozens of other students and some staff joined them outside the school.
Later that evening, District Superintendent Dr. Jay Goble announced that North Mac High would go fully remote, citing 30% of the school’s student body in quarantine.
Appellate judge candidate Tom DeVore is the attorney of record. Another Pyrrhic victory.
More than two dozen Illinois schools are reporting COVID-19 outbreaks, weeks after students returned to the classroom for in-person learning at fully reopened schools.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday listed 26 Illinois schools with COVID-19 outbreaks, including several in the suburban Chicago areas of Cook, Lake, Kane and Will counties. […]
Outbreaks reported by IDPH include those that have been identified by the school’s local health department to have two or more COVID-19 cases among people who may have a shared exposure on school grounds and are from different households.
The criteria for an outbreak was previously five or more cases but recently changed, said IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold.
* If just three former GOP Reps. like Dwight Kay, Allen Skillicorn, Jerry Long, Grant Wehrli and David Olsen (among others) hadn’t thoroughly botched or tanked their own reelection campaigns in 2018 or 2020, yesterday’s remap vote would not have been remotely possible because the House Democrats wouldn’t currently have a super-majority…
Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly used their supermajority Tuesday to push through revised boundaries for the state’s 177 legislative districts aimed at ensuring their control of the General Assembly through the end of the decade.
The maps, redrawn following the release of hard census data earlier in August, continue to face lawsuits contesting their fairness in representing minority populations and communities with like interests.
While most Illinoisans were sleeping, state senators advanced a sweeping overhaul of the state’s energy sector, kicking the legislation — and further negotiations — to the House.
Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, called the bill the “most complicated” piece of legislation he’s negotiated during his time in the Legislature. He believes Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Gov. J.B. Pritzker agree that lawmakers could get the energy proposal to the governor’s desk “in a matter of days.”
But that will require negotiations to continue and amendments to be filed in the House, which hasn’t yet set a return date to deal with the matter. […]
Exelon has initiated plans to decommission its Byron and Dresden nuclear power plants because of the lack of clean energy legislation. A spokesman for the energy company said they’re still assessing the legislation and did not immediately provide a comment.
Labor Day is Monday and Rosh Hashanah begins Monday evening and ends Wednesday evening, but Tuesday is the key date, I was told by some Jewish legislators last night (I’m not even close to being an expert here, I’m just telling you what was said). So, it appears they can’t really come back next week until Wednesday at the earliest.
Exelon hasn’t formalized the order to refuel the Byron nuclear power plant and hasn’t contracted with the approximately 1,000 workers who will be needed for that task. The company has announced a September 14 closing date, which is two weeks from yesterday.
* I asked Senate President Don Harmon last night what he thought the deadline was for passing a bill to save the nuke plants…
We had assumed it was August 31. And that’s part of the reason we came back to Springfield when we did. The governor’s office has shared with us that they believe it’s more like the 12th or 13th of the month. I hope they’re right, but I don’t want to be testing the boundaries of that deadline.
* The governor gave Harmon a list of legal issues it had with the Senate’s proposal yesterday and none were addressed in the bill. So, I asked Harmon why that didn’t happen…
Without getting too deep into the weeds, there were a host of issues raised. Some of them were fundamental to the underlying agreement among the stakeholders. Some of them seemed fairly remote and things that could be dealt with in the inevitable trailer bill. So we’re not dismissing the concerns, but I don’t know if the governor’s team understood how fundamental some of those provisions were to getting the agreement among all stakeholders. I’m not minimizing, but some of them really were things we could just wait for the inevitable collection of ticky-tack issues that we’d have to deal with.
* I asked Senate President Pro Tempore Bill Cunningham if he thought the goal posts were moved and by whom. Here’s his diplomatic answer…
I would say this, Rich, you wrote this morning that there were three primary, really steadfast goals that the governor laid out. One was a hard 2045 closure date for Prairie State. That’s in the bill. The other was closing of gas plants in 2045 without paper cover with zero emission credits. That box was checked. There was a request that there not be any late complicated add-ons or giveaways in the bill. That didn’t happen. So, those three things were achieved.
And I think because of that, we have a very good bill here. Now, we have some people who believe the bill is not good enough and would like it to be better. And they will have an opportunity to pursue that now in the House. And maybe they can make it better. I for one would like to see a faster decarbonisation schedule for Prairie State, but that’s a long way from where I live, there are no union workers from my district that are working at that plant, there are no municipalities in my district that are part of the consortium. That is not true of every legislator. Many legislators have those concerns. That is the challenge with passing this bill, that is the challenge that we’re going to face in the next couple of weeks to make a good bill better. So I’ll just leave it at that.
* The Senate’s bill earlier this week forced the municipally owned Prairie State coal-fired power plant to follow numerous carbon step-downs over the next several years and didn’t have a hard closure date in the bill. The legislation that popped in the Senate yesterday gave the governor his hard closure date, but allowed the plant to continue polluting full bore until 2045. The governor insisted yesterday on a combination of both step-downs and a 2045 (or even 2047) closure date…
An earlier draft of the energy legislation crafted by Senate Democrats would have established carbon-emission caps on the plant and an eventual closure of Prairie State if it didn’t meet those thresholds. Earlier versions of the bill left open the possibility that the facility could operate indefinitely if it cleaned up its air pollutants, a non-starter for Pritzker.
The Senate bill that passed established a 2045 closure date for Prairie State, but the governor wanted the facility to ratchet down its carbon air pollutants ahead of that date. That language wasn’t contained in the bill that passed.
I think the question is really one of economics, and I had some good conversation with the governor and his team today. They seem to think there’s a pathway. I just objectively as an outsider, the argument why would anybody invest $4 billion in an asset that by law has to close shortly after that investment matures. It just doesn’t make any intuitive sense to me. So we had offered the first model where they would be forced to make the investment and as a result become a zero carbon entity. And then we countered with an alternative that said you just have to close on this date certain in response to the governor’s demand for for that ingredient. We are very open to being proved that some hybrid can work. It’s my intuition is just that’s going to be a real challenge.
* Natural Resources Defense Council…
Illinois now has a path to transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. It’s glaring that the bill still lacks near-term standards for the biggest polluter in Illinois, the Prairie State coal plant. Science tells us we cannot wait decades to reduce emissions from coal if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change. We look to House leadership to add this simple but crucial missing piece and to pass a bill that our state can be proud of in the next few days.
* The House has not yet formally received the bill from the Senate, but I’m told the bill is dead no matter what, even though organized labor is now fully on board…
Pat Devaney, secretary-treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO, called the latest proposal a “very, very reasonable, comprehensive energy package.”
“It’s going to preserve the existing jobs in nuclear generation, it’s going to create many new jobs in the renewable energy industry, and with the changes and the compromises that have taken place, it is going to combat climate change and tackle that issue head on,” Devaney told the Senate committee.
Pritzker’s office said the current version of the Senate bill would still allow the municipally-owned Prairie State Generating Company and City, Water, Light, and Power coal-fired plants to “continue polluting for 24 years with no restrictions.”
However, Harmon said the bill would make Illinois the “epicenter of the green economy,” and that the Senate had “heard loud and clear the requirements [Pritzker] would have to sign the bill,” including “a hard close of carbon emitting plants, and that there are no special deals.” […]
However, the environmental lobby argued that Hastings and other Senate Democrats had been catering to fossil fuel interests earlier in the week when they attempted to prolong the closure of municipally owned coal-fired power plants if they could invest in costly technologies to scrub, offset, or safely bury their carbon gas deep underground. […]
Senator Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) raised concerns about giving wind and solar companies too much leverage over private land rights under eminent domain, which he called “completely unconstitutional nonsense.”
“Private merchant lines get eminent domain authority over my constituents,” Rose protested. “The United States Constitution is clear on eminent domain: public use and you must pay for it. You must pay fair market value for it. Yet we’re giving private, for-profit companies the right to put up — public utilities, I guess is what we’re calling them now, even though they’re private, for-profit companies — up over my constituents homes.”
Jaclyn Driscoll, a spokesperson for House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Democrat, said: “The Speaker has been very clear that before an energy proposal is called in the House there must be a consensus among the Democratic caucus and stakeholders, as well as include strong, meaningful ethics provisions.”
Driscoll did not respond to a question on whether the bill could be worked out in days. The House left town after the Senate passed the bill, but is expected to return in less than two weeks to approve changes to an ethics bill.
Gina McCarthy, President Joe Biden’s climate adviser, has said some existing nuclear plants are “absolutely essential” to hit U.S. goals to decarbonize the electric grid by 2035.
Incentives are included in the infrastructure bills being considered by the U.S. Congress. But Exelon has said these alone would come too late to save Byron and Dresden. The plants have more than 1,500 workers, many in high-paying union jobs.
There was also opposition from the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, which said the measure will lead to the largest electric rate hike in Illinois history and will hit the manufacturing sector “extremely hard.”
“Manufacturers use one-third of all energy in the United States,” IMA President and CEO Mark Denzler said. “Manufacturers are committed to sustainability and reducing energy usage. In the last decade, manufacturers have reduced emissions by 21% while increasing output by 18%.”
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce also opposes the bill.
The Illinois House failed to muster the votes Tuesday to accept Gov. JB Pritzker’s amendatory veto to an ethics bill that passed nearly unanimously earlier this year.
Pritzker issued the amendatory veto of Senate Bill 539 Friday, saying he supports the legislation but would like to see a minor change in language dealing with the office of executive inspector general.
The Senate approved that technical change unanimously, but the trouble for the governor came in the House as Republicans removed their support for the bill and not enough Democrats remained in the chamber just before 10 p.m. Tuesday to reach the three-fifths vote needed for it to pass. […]
The bill passed the General Assembly on the final day of the spring session, June 1, by overwhelming majorities – 56-0 in the Senate; 113-5 in the House – even though many Republicans complained that they didn’t think the bill went far enough.
Soon after it passed, Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope announced that she would resign, effective Dec. 15, calling the job a “paper tiger” and saying it showed that “true ethics reform is not a priority” for the General Assembly. She specifically alleged the provision limiting her ability to investigate non-governmental ethics violations, and the fact that a complaint would be required for an investigation, tied her hands.
The House Democrats just assumed the Republicans would be for the AV motion and were completely taken by surprise when it failed to garner enough votes to pass.
But this is a renewable motion, so all they have to do is accept it when they come back to town.
…Adding… This is a really good point in comments that my sleep-deprived brain did not consider…
== - King Louis XVI - Wednesday, Sep 1, 21 @ 12:15 pm:
Madigan would not have made such a mistake. He could count. ==
How was it a mistake? Several targeted GOP members voted against prohibiting elected officials from lobbying. I’d say the new Speaker knew exactly what he was doing when they took a roll call vote knowing full well more than a dozen of their members had already left.
* After strong hope for a deal on the climate/energy bill earlier today, the governor and the House Speaker are not going along with the proposal pushed by the Senate Democrats late this afternoon and heard in committee.
At this moment (and things can and do change), it appears that the House will vote on the newly revised remap plan, take up veto messages and then adjourn. It’s still “to be determined” when the chamber will return.
Speaker Welch said yet again this week that he wouldn’t move forward with a bill if all the stakeholders were not in agreement, and they’re not, so that’s that for now.
Stay tuned.
…Adding… The House has passed the remap bill with 73 Democratic votes.
* Leader Durkin…
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) released the following statement on the Illinois Democrats’ passage of partisan maps today:
“Today’s vote confirms that the Illinois Democrats have no interest in honest government. Contrary to their campaign promises, the House Democrats passed a legislative map that lacks any transparency or public input. After lying to taxpayers once, the Governor now has the opportunity to live up to his campaign promises and veto this politician-drawn map.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Opposition from House Republicans on a motion to accept the governor’s amendatory veto of the ethics bill caused the sponsor to pull the bill from the record. The Democrats don’t have enough members present to accept the AV (71 votes) tonight. They’ll take it up when they return to town.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Democrats put the motion back up on the board and it failed with just 59 votes. It’s a renewable motion, however.
*** UPDATE 3 *** The Senate has decided to add the climate/energy bill language to a Senate bill and send it over to the House tonight. Doing it that way means the House can amend the bill as well. The ball will soon be in the House’s court, in other words.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Since so many House Democrats cleared out before the ethics motion roll call, it’s pretty safe to assume that there will be no session tomorrow.
…Adding… I’m told SB18 is the new energy bill vehicle.
*** UPDATE 5 *** The Senate approved the climate/energy bill with 39 votes. Its fate in the House is certain: It’s gonna be significantly changed before it’s sent back to the Senate for concurrence. Senate President Harmon said he believes the governor and House Speaker “can get this done in a matter of days.”
*** UPDATE 6 *** Pritzker administration…
The Governor’s Office looks forward to working with members of the House to finalize an energy package that puts consumers and climate first. The Governor’s Office is in discussions with stakeholders to ensure that Prairie State and CWLP’s closure in 2045 includes real interim emissions reductions consistent with previous bill drafts, and is committed to working with the General Assembly to address some drafting errors in the Senate bill that the Governor raised during talks today because they could have unintended legal consequences.
BACKGROUND
Provisions to be reworked
1. The Senate draft requires project labor agreements (i.e. you have to use union labor) on all utility scale projects with public utility REC contracts and there are several places where the bill requires a PLA to even be a regulated entity that gets some benefit from the state (see, e.g. p. 271: you can’t be a high voltage direct current transmission facility unless you have entered into a PLA; p. 368-369: renewable resources are only “deemed generated in Illinois….if the high voltage transmission line was (i) constructed with a project labor agreement…” This is likely preempted by federal law, and is not the only provision with similar issues. If a court finds a provision of the bill unconstitutional, it could delay or prevent every piece of the bill from taking effect: including the critical funding for wind and solar and the right sized subsidy for the Byron and Dresden nuclear plants. The Governor’s office recommended that problematic provisions be removed and the Senate refused.
2. The bill does not update the rollover solar language, despite the fact that refunds began going back to ratepayers last week (on 8/26).
3. Provisions relating to State hiring of displaced energy workers (Page 128, line 10). These interfere with all state hiring practices, including Shakman-related compliance. The Governor’s Office and the Clean Jobs Coalition previously agreed to remove this provision.
4. Remove references and language for several bills that are now law: amendments to the High Impact Business Program, HB 165, which created the Prairie Research Institute carbon capture advisory group, and SB 265, which made critical changes to the Energy Assistance Act. Keeping this language could create conflicts with already enacted law.
Provisions that should be added
1. Alternative Fuels Act rewrite to use existing funds to create a $4,000 rebate for consumers who purchase an electric vehicle.
2. The bill removes the elimination of customer deposit requirements for low-income utility residential customers, a key priority for the Governor’s Office to ensure low income consumers are protected.
* Press release…
Following the Senate’s passage of a landmark piece of legislation that will cement Illinois’ status as a leader in the clean energy sector and save thousands of jobs, State Senator Michael E. Hastings (D-Frankfort) released the following statement:
“After years of difficult negotiations, a broad coalition of stakeholders came to a bipartisan agreement that will define the future of clean energy in Illinois. The Illinois Senate, and the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee, refuse to allow ratepayers to foot the bill for a transition to a cleaner energy future that did not include our valued nuclear fleet. We traveled the state, conducted thorough hearings and made clear in negotiations that good-paying jobs and our environment must be preserved at all costs. This starts with our nuclear fleet, the most precious natural resource the state of Illinois can offer.
“We came together to win a must win battle to not only save jobs and generate clean energy, but to create new ethical standards for utility companies. The result of this agreement is the preservation of 28,000 direct and indirect jobs and $149 million in local economic impact, maintaining our dominance in the energy generation market space, and allowing us to reach our renewable goals. Greed has run rampant in Illinois for far too long, forcing many to pay the price for the actions of a greedy few. Under this legislation, those who cast a dark cloud over our state’s government will be held to the highest ethical standards.”
…Adding… Press release…
Path to 100 Coalition Thanks Illinois Senate, Urges Quick Passage of Omnibus Energy Legislation
We thank the Illinois Senate for passing SB18, the strongest clean energy, pro-climate legislation in the country. The renewable energy provisions in this legislation would reverse the job losses happening now, and they would make the state the national leader in growing equitable clean energy jobs and fighting climate change. SB18’s bipartisan support reflects the widespread support for strong clean energy policy in Illinois.
We urge Governor Pritzker and Speaker Welch to act quickly to resolve any outstanding issues while preserving the critical renewable energy policies that all parties agreed to after years of negotiations.
Until this legislation becomes law the Illinois renewable energy program will remain broken. Our industry is losing jobs daily and our state is falling further behind other midwestern states in developing the clean energy sector. Rooftop solar installations in Illinois have fallen by more than 90% since last year, and more than 6,000 solar projects remain waitlisted and will not be built without the policies in SB18. For the thousands of families supported by renewable energy jobs in Illinois, the urgency remains very real.
Speaker Welch and the Illinois House have an opportunity to deliver an energy bill that will make Illinois a model for a just transition to a clean energy economy. But to seize this opportunity, the House must act soon.
