*** UPDATE 1 *** The Senate Democrats just told me the chamber is returning a week from today.

…Adding… Press release…

The Illinois Senate will return to session on Tuesday, June 15 for the purpose of voting on clean energy legislation that Gov. JB Pritzker negotiated to set Illinois on a path to a nation-leading renewable energy plan.

“This is a landmark clean energy plan that both protects thousands of jobs and moves Illinois responsibly toward the future,” said Illinois Senate President Don Harmon.

It is expected that the Senate session will be one day only.

Hearing the House will come the following day, but that’s not yet solid.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Speaker Welch…

“As I indicated before we adjourned on the final day of session, the House is expected to return next week on Wednesday, June 16 to take care of some final-action legislation. Items such as the energy proposal, unemployment insurance, and an elected school board for Chicago will be at the top of our list. We were able to accomplish big things this legislative session, and I’m eager to keep that spirit alive in a quick special session next week.”

* Steve Daniels at Crain’s…

Senate President Don Harmon said [Monday] that he expects a vote in his chamber as early as next week on the wide-ranging energy bill that was the subject of frenzied negotiation at the end of the session.

Harmon, D-Oak Park, said he didn’t expect there to be changes to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s insistence that all coal-fired plants in Illinois shut down by 2035, despite the entreaties of municipally-owned utilities that are on the hook past that date to pay for the Prairie State plant built a little over a decade ago. Those utilities, and unions representing workers at the plant in Marissa, Ill., about 40 miles southeast of St. Louis, continue to lobby lawmakers to permit the plant to stay open longer. […]

“I think enough of the members that were concerned about (Prairie State) have come to terms with the 2035 date,” Harmon said in an interview. […]

Observers believe that enough support in the House is virtually assured, so the Senate remains the primary question mark. Harmon’s remarks today provide more assurance that the biggest state energy package since the deregulation of the generation industry in the late 1990s will pass.

* SJ-R…

A coalition of unions, utility officials and Democratic and Republican lawmakers from central and southern Illinois called on Gov. JB Pritzker and legislative leaders Friday to exempt nonprofit coal-fired plants from mandated 2035 closures in an upcoming clean-energy bill.

“Springfield already is doing the right things to transition to a ‘zero-carbon’ future,” Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said at a news conference at the Steamfitters & Plumbers Local 137 hall in Springfield.

Doug Brown, chief utility officer of Springfield’s municipality-owned City Water, Light & Power, said it is “not feasible” for the utility to close all of its coal-fired units in 14 years without the potential for higher electricity bills for consumers and shortages of power downstate that could lead to “brown-outs” and electricity restrictions.

Stop with the scare tactics, already. This state has a glut of electricity…

Illinois is the third-largest net electricity exporter among the states, and typically sends about one-fifth of the power it generates to other states via the interstate transmission lines. […]

Coal-fired power plants have been the second-largest electricity providers in Illinois for the past decade. However, coal’s contribution to in-state generation has declined, dropping to 27% of generation in 2019 as more than a dozen older coal-fired generating plants have shut down. Others are being considered for closure, in response to stricter emissions regulations and economic pressures. Natural gas-fired generation provided slightly more than 10% of the state’s net generation in 2019, an all-time high and about four times more than in 2008. Wind energy accounts for almost all the rest of the state’s net generation.

The real issue is the mismanagement of the local electric power supply…

[Springfield] owes about $36.6 million annually on bond payments, Brown said.