* Capitol News Illinois…

The state on Tuesday announced the award of the first electric vehicle manufacturing-targeted tax incentives made possible by a law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last year.

The incentives come from the Reimagining Electric Vehicles Act, which passed nearly unanimously and became law in November, and will provide an estimated $2.2 million in value to T/CCI Manufacturing in Decatur.

The REV Act passed two months after the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act which incentivizes EV adoption, driving Pritzker’s vision to make Illinois “the best place in North America to drive and manufacture an electric vehicle.”

T/CCI’s Decatur plant currently manufactures compressors for gasoline-powered cars. The company plans to retool the Decatur facility to produce compressors for EVs with an estimated $20 million investment. Currently, T/CCI makes EV compressors, a part which cools batteries and powers car air conditioning systems, in China and India.

* The Pantagraph…

Pritzker, joined by industry leaders and state and local elected officials at T/CCI’s facility, proclaimed that “if you want to build a career in the electric vehicle economy, you can start right here in Decatur.”

“This is another in-state element to the EV ecosystem of Illinois that we’re building, which is especially crucial given the supply chain challenges of the past year,” Pritzker said. “And thanks to the REV Act, Illinois beat out international competition to bring this deal home. That means new jobs and jobs that would have gone overseas are staying right here.”

It was also announced Tuesday that T/CCI will partner with Richland Community College to create an EV innovation cluster that will include a Climatic Center for Innovation & Research Facility.

About $15.3 million has been allocated to Richland and $6 million to the city of Decatur from the state’s fiscal year 2023 budget for the project.

* Pritzker said the manufacturing of EV parts domestically is necessary to work around supply chain issues. Fox 2…

REV Illinois offers competitive incentives to companies that manufacture EVs, EV parts or components, and EV charging stations. The incentives are contingent upon job creation and retention, capital investments, annual compensation, and continued operation in the state.

“This pivotal moment for our economy, our climate, our communities demand ambition, and Illinois is meeting this moment,” Pritzker said.

The announcement comes as EV infrastructure planning and development grows on both sides of the river.

“It’s coming faster than everybody realizes. It’s not stopping. It’s here” said Gabe Warner, project manager at RJP Electric.

* Crain’s…

The company will also set up a climate innovation center in cooperation with Decatur’s Richland Community College. State and company officials say the center will serve more than T/CCI, with Deputy Gov. Andy Manar saying he hopes the facility will be the first step in creating a broader EV campus that will spur manufacturing here.

The deal is rather modest, at least compared to multi-billion-dollar EV battery plants that have recently been announced in Ohio and other states. Still, T/CCI will invest more than $20 million and has agreed to keep 103 jobs that now produce compressors for conventional vehicles while adding 50 more.

But officials are hopeful the move is the first of bigger additional announcements to come. “We could have chosen to locate this anywhere. We chose Illinois,” said company Vice President Kara Demirjian-Huss in an interview. The company has facilities in China and India and considered the latter, as well as other facilities, for the new plant. But the new incentives–mostly payroll tax credits–made a difference, she said.

Those incentives will be worth up to $2 million, with another $250,000 tax credit awarded under a different program, Manar said. In addition, another $15.3 million in grants will go to Richland over some years with the city of Decatur getting $6 million for infrastructure improvements.

* While taking questions from reporters, Pritzker played down the notion that the lack of new projects was bad news, but claimed Illinois will see more out of the REV Act and more companies coming to the state…

Well, it’s been less than 10 months. I mean, I think anybody in business can tell you that it takes quite a long time to evaluate facilities’ locations where you’re going to put new manufacturing, and then to make the decision to put the capital into the ground, so to speak, that you need to in the community. So you’ve got to know it’s not just about the financial incentives. That’s obviously a core portion of what businesses consider. We provide it through the REV Act, a very competitive ability to attract companies from a financial perspective.

* Ensuring areas overburdened by past pollution can participate in and benefit from Pritzker’s clean energy law is more complicated in practice, St. Louis Public Radio reports…

But achieving this vision is more complicated in practice, which was on display when dozens of people gathered at Lewis and Clark Community College last week to discuss a local workforce development hub, just one of the key provisions laid out in the law.

“There’s still more work to be done,” said Hilary Scott-Ogunrinde, executive secretary of Macedonia Development Corp. in East St. Louis. “Community leaders now have to make sure that what’s in the black and white actually ends up in our households, in our businesses, at our city municipal governments and on our table.” […]

Along with Scott-Ogunrinde, union electricians and carpenters, environmental groups, educators, community organizations and local elected leaders gave their ideas on how to best implement such a hub, which will provide education and training for jobs related to solar and other clean energy transitions.

“Let’s face it, it’s a big piece of legislation, it’s very wonky,” said Virginia Woulfe-Beile of the Piasa Palisades Sierra Club in Alton. “It’s got a lot of moving parts, and to get these moving parts going in sync, we need people that understand what the legislation is supposed to do and how we’re supposed to get there.”