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*** UPDATED x4 *** A programming reminder

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Make sure you click here to keep an eye on the live coverage post today while the House is in session. Speaker Welch will be doing a media availability after session ends, so you may want to monitor that, too.

You can use this post to comment on whatever happens.

*** UPDATE 1 *** The budget fix just passed 71-44-1 after some spirited debate.

*** UPDATE 2 *** The FOID bill, HB562, just passed 75-40.

*** UPDATE 3 *** HB1092, the Firearms Restraining Order Act, passed 61-47 (it only required 60 votes).

*** UPDATE 4 *** HB2908, the Chicago elected school board bill, passed 70-41.

7 Comments

Question of the day

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Press release…

In response to House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s announcement temporarily permitting remote voting, State Rep. Steve Reick (R-Woodstock) has issued the following statement:

“Intraparty strife among Democrats has resulted in their inability to come to terms on an energy bill that they’ve been negotiating amongst themselves for months, having never taken Republican and downstate members’ concerns into account. Yet we’ve still been called back to Springfield under the pretense of voting on a so-called ‘climate bill’.

But we have another reason for being in Springfield today. The 3,088-page, $42.3 billion dollar budget that the supermajority Democrats shoved down the throats of hardworking Illinoisans minutes before the midnight deadline on May 31 was so full of drafting errors that the state cannot legally spend the money it appropriates until almost a year from now. Consequently, Gov. Pritzker issued an amendatory veto of the budget yesterday and sent it back to us for approval.

The problem is that there won’t be enough Democrats on hand in the House today to approve his veto and fix the mistakes they themselves made.

But fear not, the Speaker is temporarily amending the House rules to permit remote ‘participation’ in today’s House session. Remote legislating was not permitted in the House chamber throughout the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet now that the state is fully reopened, the Speaker is allowing its use to cover for rank incompetence.

I’m sure my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who are unable to join us in Springfield today have valid reasons for their absence. After all, this session was scheduled with only one week’s notice. But if you can’t be here, you shouldn’t be able to cast a vote. Any lawmaker not physically under the dome today who chooses to vote remotely is not only committing a dereliction of his or her elected duty but is perpetuating the Speaker’s affront to the legislative process.”

One member is attending to his dying father. Another has a family medical issue. The Senate has allowed remote voting since last year, but a quorum has to be present.

* The Question: Do you favor or oppose allowing remote floor voting as long as a quorum is physically present in the chamber? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…

survey software

…Adding… The remote voting rule change is here.

38 Comments

Pritzker on energy legislation: “I will not sign a bill that does not match the gravity of this moment”

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Gov. Pritzker today at his news conference…

We have come a long way in assisting all parties in getting to yes. And I continue to work to bring comprehensive clean, equitable, and ethical energy reform to the state of Illinois. That, and nothing less, is what the people of this state deserve the proposed climate bill, worked on by all parties, preserves for decades jobs that already exists, and creates new clean energy jobs, too. Most importantly, it does so well protecting consumers and fighting climate change.

But let me make myself perfectly clear. Our long-term goal is to create meaningful, climate change policy that makes Illinois, a leader in protecting our people, the environment, and the clean energy industry that we can grow. I will not sign a bill that does not match the gravity of this moment.

That means that a bill claiming to contain meaningful decarbonization measures, but does not pass muster on the details and does not move us toward a clean energy economy is not a real climate bill.

The bill I put forward is about the health and the well-being of our communities and a measurably precious resource, as reinforced by the events of the last year.

We can decarbonize while creating and maintaining good-paying union jobs. That’s why I held working group sessions to put all the multiple clean energy on the table for negotiations. My door remains open to all parties willing to find reasonable compromise that secures Illinois clean energy leadership.

Please excuse any transcription errors.

…Adding… In response to a question…

Here’s what’s happening: People are bringing up issues that they had settled on months ago, to try to bring them up now at the last minute hoping that everybody will say, well that’s okay we’ll just let that one go, so that we can get a bill. That’s not how it works.

We set out principles here. We’re going to get those principles, hard and fast in this bill, and that is what we need. I mean honestly, who here does not believe that we are headed for a future that we should be headed for a future in Illinois, of leadership in clean energy. We should have an industry, a whole industry of electric vehicles in Illinois based upon the clean energy principles that we set out. We should have a cleaner environment as a result of what we do in this bill. Those are enormously important principles to have in the bill and they are in the bill. Everything that gets brought up that takes us back from decarbonisation is a backward movement. I’m not going to let it happen.

He then predicted the process would take another few weeks or a month.

32 Comments

*** UPDATED x1 *** Energy bill fumble roundup

Wednesday, Jun 16, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Center Square…

A potential energy deal lawmakers were expected to take up in the Illinois Senate on Tuesday has stalled.

The Senate was called into session to take up an energy deal Gov. J.B. Pritzker wanted to subsidize nuclear energy and lay out a path toward more renewables over the next few decades.

During a Senate committee Tuesday, state Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said the good news is there was broad agreement on major provisions of the bills, including increasing investments in renewable energy and subsidizing nuclear energy with the goal of having 100% renewable energy sources by 2050.

But, he said the bad news is there’s a difference among stakeholders about whether to order coal-fired plants closed in 2035 or 2045.

“I don’t believe it’s a gigantic gulf,” Cunningham said. “I believe that it is a difference that can be corrected. I don’t think the two parties are too far apart but they are far apart right now and unfortunately, because of that the work of the working group has stalled.”

* Capitol News Illinois…

[The energy bill] contains goals of putting the state on a path to 40 percent renewable energy by 2030 through an increased fee on ratepayer bills; encouraging adoption of electric vehicles through rebates and incentives; and getting the state to 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2050. It also strengthens several ethics measures for public utilities.

It also provides several ratepayer subsidies for the development of renewable energy and preserving the profitability of nuclear energy.

That includes, but is not limited to, $694 million in subsidies to three nuclear plants owned by energy giant Exelon at a cost of about 80 cents on the average monthly ratepayer bill; an added $1.22 to an average bill to fund new renewable development; 86 cents for an expanded low-income weatherization program; about 18 cents per month to incentivize the transition of closed or closing coal plants to solar facilities; and another 9 cents per month for the conversion of coal sites to battery storage.

* Pantagraph…

After adjournment, Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, made a statement similar to one he made June 1 after the Senate failed to call an energy bill for a vote ahead of the regular session adjournment.

“There are still some points of contention between two critical constituencies — between labor and the environmental activists — I believe they’re going to be continuing to meet as early as this evening to try to work out those differences and the Senate stands ready, willing and able to return as soon as an agreement is reached,” he said Tuesday.

Harmon did not say how many Democratic lawmakers peeled support from the proposed energy package, but noted he was “confident that the bill as proposed would not have passed today,” if brought for a floor vote.

Still, he said he is also “confident” an energy bill will pass this summer.

* Sun-Times…

A spokesman from Exelon said in a statement the company is “disappointed” a bill didn’t come up for a vote and “absent quick passage of legislation, Exelon has no choice but to proceed with retiring Byron in September and Dresden in November, as previously announced.”

In a statement, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition said they were disappointed the Senate was heading home without a deal.

“Thousands of union workers and solar installers may now lose their jobs, while the climate crisis worsens and Black and Brown communities continue to struggle,” the statement reads in part. “We are deeply disappointed the Senate adjourned without taking action on a carbon-free energy future, but stand ready to enact the Governor’s plan as soon as possible.”

* WTTW…

“I think everybody has digested the fact that coal is going to have to go offline in 2035 unless some significant technology improvements become available and affordable and I think people are coming to terms with that,” Harmon said. “Really the conversations over the last 36 hours have revolved around this newfound emphasis on the pace of decarbonization in the natural gas space.”

The holdup now, Harmon said, is over the elimination of another fossil fuel. Environmentalists want natural gas capped until it’d be gone in Illinois come 2045, a deadline that labor organizations contend is a job-killer.

Meanwhile, Illinois’ burgeoning solar industry is standing at a so-called cliff, as the lack of an omnibus energy law means structural and financial problems with an existing law meant to prop up renewable energy via state-backed credits remains unfixed.

* Tribune…

The lack of accord this spring on a plan that aims to set the state on a path to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s goal of 100% carbon-free energy by 2050 was seen as a sign of a growing disconnect between the legislature and the Democratic governor.

Mainly the Senate, but yeah.

…Adding… Crain’s…

Don’t bet against a deal. Too many interests have too much at stake, including the unions that Mitchell noted were in line to secure many more jobs in newer industries than the coal-fired and nuclear power ones they’re trying to save now if the bill becomes law.

But, so far, no one that the enviros or the unions will listen to has been able to tell either to stand down.

I disagree in part. The enviros have moved a lot. Labor is being labor, however.

*** UPDATE *** An important comment…

There seems to be a massive knowledge disconnect here. This is about decarbonizing the electric sector. This has literally zero to do with how you heat your home if you use natural gas. Zero.

Natural gas will continue to flow into your homes for home heating and cooking, etc.