* Gov. JB Pritzker dropped this nugget into his Peoria Q and A today…
[The] day after tomorrow, I’m leaving for Tokyo to talk to Japanese companies about coming to the state of Illinois.
More in a bit.
…Adding… Here’s the list of those headed to Japan…
Governor JB Pritzker
• Senate President Don Harmon
• House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch
• Senate President Pro Tempore Bill Cunningham
• House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel
• Anne Caprara, Chief of Staff of the Governor’s Office
• Grace Hou, Deputy Governor
• Andy Manar, Deputy Governor
• Martin Torres, Deputy Governor
• Sean Rapelyea, Senior Advisor for External Affairs, Governor’s Office
• Claire Lindberg, First Assistant Deputy Governor, Governor’s Office
• Connor Josellis, Director of the Executive Office of the Governor
• Tina Yan, Deputy Chief of Staff, Digital Media, Governor’s Office
• Clare O’Neill, Senior Director of Advance, Governor’s Office
• Morgan Evans, Senior Advancer, Governor’s Office
• Kristin Richards, Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
• Cas Peters, Chief Business Attraction Officer of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
• Christy George, President and CEO of Intersect Illinois
• John Atkinson, Board Chair and Managing Director of Intersect Illinois, Chairman of Marsh Chicago
• Paulina San Millan, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Intersect Illinois
• Preeti Chalsani, Chief Quantum Officer of Intersect Illinois
• David Awschalom, Director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange
• Curt Bailey, President of Related Midwest
• Rashid Bashir, Dean of UIUC Grainger College of Engineering
• William Cox, Senior Vice President of AISIN
• Wendell Dallas, President and CEO of Nicor Gas
• Kara Demirjian Huss, Senior Vice President of TCCI
• Mark Denzler, President and CEO of Illinois Manufacturers’ Association
• Kaitlin Fahey, CEO and Founding Partner of Magnify Strategies
• Michael Fassnacht, Chief Growth Officer and President of Clayco Chicagoland
• Chris Gladwin, Chair at P33 and CEO of Ocient
• Michael Jacobson, President and CEO of Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association
• Harley Johnson, Director of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park
• Regina Jones, Sr. Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of ADM
• Robert Karr, Partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP
• Dan Lynch, Vice President of Government Affairs atUnited Airlines
• Nadya Mason, Dean of Pritzker School of Engineering and Interim Vice President for Partnerships atUniversity of Chicago
• Bill Mastoris, President of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas
• Christian Mitchell, Vice President for Civic Engagement at University of Chicago
• Takashi O’Haru, President of White Cube LLC
• Meredith O’Connor, International Director of JLL
• Eric Perreault, Vice President for Research atNorthwestern University
• Dwayne Pickett, Vice President of Clean Hydrogen Market Development at Constellation
• Barton Pitts, Vice President of Business Development at Nexamp Solar
• Gil Quiniones, President and CEO of ComEd
• Meera Raja, SVP of Deep Tech at P33
• Jim Reynolds, Chairman and CEO of Loop Capital
• Josh Richman, Chief Revenue Officer of PsiQuantum
• Smita N. Shah, CEO of SPAAN Tech Inc
• Lenny Singh, Chairman and President of Ameren Illinois
Maybe some of you have noticed that we’ve made a lot of progress over the last couple of years attracting companies to the state of Illinois, new businesses. I’ve talked a lot about clean energy businesses and electric vehicle business, but there’s a whole lot more. … (W)e’ve had a lot of conversations with companies, some of them in the state of Illinois, expanding and wanting to come to Peoria. Some of them from other parts of the country, even other parts of the world, who want to come to Peoria, and some in Peoria who want to expand and don’t know whether they should do it in Peoria or maybe somewhere else. So, you know, our job is to put as many businesses and create as many jobs as we can in Peoria. And so I feel really good about the prospects for our state. […]
I had people tell me when we started this effort a few years ago to start to really promote the state to businesses that they had not heard from the state of Illinois or the governor of the state of Illinois since Jim Thompson was governor. That’s 40 years. So I mean, that’s in a way, that’s embarrassing to admit about our state, but it also says we must be doing something right, because everybody’s recognizing it now, and they want to talk to us, and they want to come here. So I feel good about the prospects for us bringing businesses to the city of Peoria and to the surrounding community, the county and the region here.
…Adding… He really went hard on this topic…
So the first thing is, you’ve got to let everybody know you’re here, and what it is you have to offer, right?
And I’ll tell you what the number one thing we have. We’ve got a lot of things to offer. We could talk about a lot of things, and I do, but the number one thing we have is we have the workforce and the workforce training and the education. And it’s impressive when you put us up against other states. And we have some of the best talent in the nation for everything from manufacturing to service industry, scientists, engineers, I mean, we really have it all here. And we just haven’t told everybody about all of it, and when I talk about it, because, and I feel like it’s a campaign, you know, when I talk about it and promote the state of Illinois, people are surprised when we have the third largest community college system in the entire nation. Very few people know about that, right? We have 48 community colleges, and we’ve been. Funding them for the last few years, finally, and and we also have some of the best universities in the entire world, in Illinois and in the public ones. Anyway, we’ve been funding for the last few years, and so now what you’re seeing is an increase in enrollment. You know, new freshmen classes are bigger than they’ve been in a decade or more, and community colleges now can offer tuition-free opportunities for people to get a certificate or a degree to get the kind of, you know, training that they need. So that’s number one thing that I say, [applause] yeah, thank you.
And then we have lots of other things. I’ll just point out that we have the third most reliable energy grid in the entire country. Now, maybe that sounds uninteresting to you, but for a lot of businesses, right, making sure that they have a continuous source of electricity that doesn’t go out. You remember a couple years ago when Texas, I mean, the lights went out for a couple of weeks. Okay? Because their grid is no good. Ours is the third most reliable. Oh, by the way, the other two most reliable ahead of us are small states where it’s pretty easy to do. We’re the largest. I mean, we are in the top 10 most populous states. We’re the ones that have the most reliable electric grid.
And then clean energy. Which companies, you’d be surprised, they show up at our door. It’s like the first, second or third question they ask: ‘Have you got the electricity? But we want clean energy. We want to know that we’re getting it from clean sources.’ And because of the the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act that we passed a couple years ago here in Illinois, we’ve doubled the amount of renewable energy that we’re providing just since 2021 when this went into effect. And I don’t want to promise too much, but I think over the next year, you’re going to see numbers that show that we will have tripled it over the next 12 months. So I meant since we started, not from today. We’re not going to triple it from today, but, more clean energy, solar, wind, and then we’ve got really terrific, you know, we’re the largest state for nuclear, and the reason that’s so important is it’s base load. Very important. More than 50% of our electricity in the state of Illinois comes from nuclear and so we’re able to build. On top of that for states that are running out of electricity. It’s going to take us, it’ll be a long time since we were ’til we run out, though we need to keep building out our distribution and our production.
Archer Daniels Midland Co. has temporarily paused carbon dioxide injections below its North American headquarters in Decatur after tests revealed a seepage of fluids from a second monitoring well.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 27, the agribusiness giant said that preliminary data received earlier that week indicated a potential movement of brine (salt water) between different rock formations around 5,000 feet below the surface.
“We notified the U.S. EPA about this matter, and we’re conducting additional diagnostic tests in consultation with U.S. EPA and external experts,” said ADM spokesperson Jackie Anderson. “We will share additional information as we learn more.”
The company said the additional testing will take place over the next two weeks with the goal of validating the preliminary data and providing “greater visibility into the well conditions.”
The revelation comes just over six weeks after the EPA cited ADM for allegedly violating the Safe Drinking Water Act and the terms of its carbon capture and sequestration permit for activity related to its other deep monitoring well.
(W)e recently conducted a noise survey at deep monitoring well VW#1. Preliminary data received this week (Tuesday) indicated potential brine (salty water) movement between different formations at a depth of approximately 5,000 feet. The data suggests a flow across or near the Zone 3 lower packer, creating the potential ability to allow flow between zones. Prior to receiving this preliminary data, there had been no indication of this potential condition. Given the extreme depth of this anomaly and the multiple layers of shale and other confining rock up to the surface, there is no risk or impact to the surface or groundwater sources or any threat to public health.
* Excerpt from Protect the Mahomet Aquifer Coalition press release…
While ADM has paused injections and begun additional tests, industry and the US EPA are advancing three additional projects are currently proposed to inject carbon dioxide through the Mahomet Aquifer and store it there.
“This is another wake-up call that we cannot ignore,” said Andrew Rehn, Director of Climate Policy at Prairie Rivers Network. “If this happens at ADM, a company with years of CCS experience, what will happen when more projects are launched? The Mahomet Aquifer is simply too important to gamble with, and we need an immediate ban on carbon sequestration projects beneath it.”
The Mahomet Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to nearly one million people in Central Illinois, was designated a sole source aquifer by the U.S. EPA in 2015, meaning any contamination could have devastating consequences for the region. Despite this, several CCS projects are being considered that would inject carbon directly into or near the aquifer, increasing the risk of contamination.
Coalition Pushes for Legislative Action
In response to these risks, the Protect the Mahomet Aquifer campaign is rallying behind proposed legislation that would ban CCS projects under the Mahomet Aquifer and its recharge areas. State Senator Paul Faraci (D-Champaign) and Representative Carol Ammons (D-Urbana) introduced bills earlier this year to prohibit carbon sequestration activity over, under, or through a sole-source aquifer, with both bills expected to be discussed during the November veto session.
Meanwhile, the Champaign County Board Environmental and Land Use Committee is considering a ban on carbon capture and sequestration through and under the Mahomet Aquifer and its recharge areas at its meeting on October 10. The campaign – alongside elected officials – will hold a Protect the Mahomet Aquifer Rally at the Brookens Administrative Center in Urbana prior to that meeting.
“The leaks at ADM’s facility should serve as a red flag to lawmakers,” said Richart. “We can’t afford to wait for a disaster. Legislators need to act now and pass the ban on carbon sequestration beneath the Mahomet Aquifer.”
Thoughts?
…Adding… From today’s presser…
.@GovPritzker was asked about ADM temporarily halting carbon injections below their Decatur facility. He said it was "a good decision" and that "we got to continue to pay attention to it." Full comment: https://t.co/XvfAmjxlDWpic.twitter.com/HxKel1uCDX
A teacher guilty of child pornography, Illinois mandates a six year minimum sentence. So how could judge Joe McGraw decide to give him zero jail time?
[McGraw]: So I would take the file folder, go back in chambers, and I’d lay it on the floor then I would lay on top of that file, and I’d pray and pray and pray until God gave me leading [on] what to do, and then I’d come back out and give my ruling.
* Lee Enterprises’ Illinois political reporter Brenden Moore…
“Eric Sorensen just demonstrated how out-of-touch and elitist he truly is by insulting tens of thousands of Illinoisans who believe in the power of prayer. I’ll never apologize for putting my faith and hope in God, and using that faith to make serious decisions whether as a Judge or member of Congress. This campaign has never been about politics, but the values of our district not being represented in Congress. What better example is there than our own Congressman attacking the use of prayer? He mocks the values we share while promoting his own extreme views.
Everything about Eric Sorensen, from his self-proclaimed bipartisanship to the ‘good neighbor’ image he tries to project, is an act. The real Eric Sorensen is flat-out extreme, and unfit to represent us in Congress.
He supports providing sex change drugs and life-altering sex change operations to young children.
He has hosted drag shows for children exposing them to sexually explicit content and supports allowing biological men to share restrooms with young girls.
He is on the record joking about rape.
And he posted images on his secret Facebook account referring to police officers as ‘bastards’ and ‘fascist pigs’. Needless to say Illinoisans will not be lectured on values by this elitist politician who would be wise to drop the facade and go run for office in Los Angeles or New York City where folks are just as out-of-touch as him.
As far as being soft on crime goes, Eric Sorensen can try to fool voters with a deceptive ad about a decades old case that was decided through a plea agreement before sentencing. Throughout my life I’ve prosecuted and brought justice to criminals while always supporting survivors. I’ll put that record up against reading weather reports any day of the week.”
