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* Moving right along with our look at Gov. Pritzker’s transition reports, let’s take a glance at energy policy. One of the things that transition team members were asked to focus heavily on was capital projects…
Improve storm and wastewater management systems
The new administration should invest in storm and wastewater infrastructure projects that help protect against property damage, limit soil erosion, and improve climate resiliency, particularly in communities that disproportionately suffer from the impacts of climate change. The state should also ensure there is an equitable distribution of funds across environmental justice communities. The state could leverage State Revolving Loan Funds for these efforts. There are two types of infrastructure projects that the state should prioritize:
• Gray infrastructure projects: improve stormwater and wastewater treatment plants to remove nitrogen and phosphorus.
• Green infrastructure projects: implement the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, work with conservation districts to drive on-the-ground projects, cost share with conservation entities on edge-of-field practices, and use existing state funds to purchase land for conservation.
* Here’s the section on creating community clean energy empowerment zones…
The new administration should prioritize the creation of clean energy empowerment zones in rural communities, transitioning communities, and communities of color to ensure all communities share in the economic and environmental benefits of Illinois’ shift to a clean energy economy. Through these zones, the state could provide community empowerment grants to facilitate locally-designed, community-directed clean energy initiatives, such as electric transit, wind and solar, and clean energy workforce development.
* More…
Expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure
In order to address the leading source of carbon pollution in Illinois – the transportation sector – the new administration should expand access to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure installed by qualified local union labor. The state should authorize funding for this infrastructure and support for electric distribution infrastructure to meet EV grid demands. The state could provide incentives for conversion of public transit and school buses, offer special rates to school districts that adopt EV buses, and encourage utilities to build out make-ready work as called for and provide EV supply equipment in communities without access. The new administration could expand this initiative by leveraging capital funds available through the VW settlement and reallocating those funds to clean technologies.
Expand Illinois’ energy storage leadership
Energy storage is key to a future where the world is powered by renewable energy. The new administration should leverage Illinois’ position as a leader in energy storage and help facilitate incubation of energy storage-related businesses growing out of research conducted across the state. The state could integrate R&D efforts with business creation and compete for federal and private sector clean energy storage investments in Illinois. The state could also incentivize projects that propose locating at retired or soon-to-be retired coal plants in order to spur economic development in those transitioning communities.
Support shovel ready solar projects for schools and state-owned properties
The new administration should implement the Solar for All program by initiating an additional 100 projects at publicly-owned properties in low-income communities. This would bring an additional 200MW of community solar to Illinois, create local union labor jobs, and generate electricity savings for buildings like public schools.
Thoughts?
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 8:48 am
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Uh huh….seems like a lot bougie concerns.
How about we
figure out how to make,
gas and electricity
Cheaper
I ask you
Who can afford Electric vehicles?
Who can afford to install solar?
Who has trouble every months
juggling bills?
Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas
talks about these “MarketWorld” folks
“Thought Leaders” etc
totally disconnected
to the real
energy concerns
of the struggling Precariot
Just the other side of the coin
from Rauners Free Market Champions.
Comment by Honeybear Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 9:19 am
As an electric car owner (2015 LEAF, not a TESLA), I think I can speak with knowledge. Public charging stations are a waste of money. They make no more sense then public charging stations for cell phones.
Comment by wondering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 9:25 am
continued…Charging stations are inconveniet and time consuming even if there was one on every corner. Home chargers are the answer, possible incentives for landlords to provide.
Comment by wondering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 9:28 am
continued…My old LEAF handles 95% of my driving. I have a home charger. I wouldn’t think of fast charging it on a public. Destroys the battery. It is incentive enough to run the electric just for fuel and maintenance economy. Don’t tailor infrastructure for the rare cross country road trip. Rent a gas buggy for that. Or, do as I do, a Jeep Commander on hand when needed.
Comment by windering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 9:37 am
Illinois should definitely consider doing another adjustable block program for community-scale solar once this first one wraps up.
There are about six times as many community-scale solar projects in the queue to receive the ABP credits than there are credits to award. This means that there are about 200 shovel-ready solar development projects that could build in Illinois - today - if the ABP tax credit program were to be expanded.
That would equate to a ton of taxable capital investment in rural and downstate Illinois.
Comment by sulla Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 9:55 am
I think we should expand our use of renewable forms of transportation while we are flush with cash.
While were at it. Good time to ban tractor pulls and NASCAr events.
Comment by Blue Dog Dem Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:02 am
Honeybear….Who can afford an electric? Just about everyone. Used LEAFs are cheap as dirt. One wIth 70,000 more miles of battery life goes for under $10,000. $5500 for a new battery buys another 100,000 miles on top of that. $15500 for 170,000 miles, try to beat it.
Comment by wondering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:14 am
They should allow the new wind-power transmission line into Illinois to bring in cheap wind power from Iowa.
Comment by DuPage Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:22 am
DuPage, put it through DuPage then. Do your homework, not a kw for Illinois…just a pass through to Eastern states.
Comment by wondering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:31 am
Thoughts: I owned an electric car in San Diego and charged at home — preferable to charging stations IMHO. Just moved from Champaign to the NW suburbs, and the miles driven per month are way down, so less need for charging stations. There were 3 little-used Tesla charging stations at the Champaign Meijers — does that mean each brand has its own plug? Some Alaskan shopping malls have power at each parking spot for heated oil dipsticks — sufficient to get an electric home. Overall, hybrids are self-charging and make a lot more sense.
Comment by Old Illini Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:34 am
I’m still hearing people championing electric cars but not talking about where the power to charge them comes from. Nuclear plants are reaching the end of their functional lifetimes in Illinois, where just a few years ago we were the sixth largest generator of electric power with nuclear energy in the world. If you stared today to build a new nuke plant, it probably wouldn’t go online for 20 years after wading through all the regulations and battling objectors. So power plants will keep burning coal and oil and churning out carbon emissions.
I read recently that in an average sized neighborhood, if just three of the homes on a block had electric car charging hook-ups, the power grid for the whole neighborhood would have to be upgraded.
So, Yaaay for electric cars, but… A solar farm the size of Sangamon County doesn’t seem realistic, and not many farmers will probably give up on corn and soybeans in favor of planting current bushes
Comment by Behind the Scenes Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:40 am
Yesterday i drove thru the walmart parking lot(didnt shop) outside of Murphy. 87 vehicles. 65 of which were pickup trucks. This transition to carbon free in 11 years is going to be tough. Instead of cash for clunkers, maybe the govt can just give everyone an electric ride.
Comment by Blue Dog Dem Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:46 am
Behind the scenes….No, nuke is going to stay and even expanded. Beyond that kw from coal is 90% cleaner than each car burning gas. look it up. Electric cars are not charged during peak hours.Only 20% of generating capacity is used at night when they are charged.. No, no rewiring. What else ya got?
Comment by wondering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:49 am
JB. Heres another idea. Instead of offering Amazon tax breaks. Tax the heck out of them. My neighbor the other day had a case of toilet paper delivered via UPS. I estimate that driver went 4 miles out of his way to make the delivery. We wonder why we have emmission issues.
Comment by Blue Dog Dem Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 11:00 am
If you can’t do storage renewables aren’t worth spit. And even if you get reliable and sufficient storage renewables aren’t consistent enough for baseload and without baseload generation the whole system goes down. And so what if demand drops at night solar goes to 0% (without storage) and wind also tends to drop. So how about us as a state not pretend we’re living in the middle of a Issac Asimov novel. And for the record, I did switch to an electric lawn mower this past year. It is great, E-GO brand. So I am not just opposed to all things electric.
Comment by NeverPoliticallyCorrect Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 11:23 am
As an electric motorcycle commuter riding anZero SR bought in Springfield, I can’t see a big need for charging stations. They would be useful at hotels for cross country travelers though.
Comment by Duopoly Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 12:16 pm
@- wondering - Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:31 am:
===DuPage, put it through DuPage then. Do your homework, not a kw for Illinois…just a pass through to Eastern states===
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-clean-line-1126-biz-20141125-story.html
The line was approved to deliver cheaper energy to Grundy county for distribution in the Northern part of Illinois. My understanding was it was held up in lawsuits by existing power suppliers. A change in an Illinois law would allow the project to proceed. If it cuts power rates it would help businesses and individual customers.
Comment by DuPage Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 12:24 pm
no, DuPage, no….the distribution, consolidation and kick up station was to be in Grundy. Nothing for Grundy, no step down.
Comment by wondering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 12:33 pm
We should be like California and invest in high speed electric bullet trains to replace dirty old diesel.
Comment by Blue Dog Dem Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 12:44 pm
I thought Exelon was looking for more taxpayer subsidies for 3 more of their Nuke plants? That should help.
Comment by Dupage Bard Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 1:00 pm
Yes, please raise our taxes, particularly on the middle class so rich folks in their Tesla fire starters can use our coal fired power plants to empower their virtue signalers. And of course let’s not rely on Tesla to pay for their own plugs, let’s take our limited transportation funds needed for pot holes and new highways to pay overpriced union wages at prevailing rates under a project management agreement.
Comment by Downstate Illinois Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 1:09 pm
“Just about everyone”
Yeah…wow, Wondering
78% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck
10k is out of range for a lot, if not most.
I think you’re pretty privileged to think otherwise.
Comment by Honeybear Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 1:22 pm
While I understand that car chargers in places like grocery/department stores aren’t really viable, I think there’s a few situations where it would work…places where a car would be sitting parked for an extended period of time…hotels, parking areas/garages that cater to workers (so they’d be parked there all day), etc. Many already have them set up, but maybe incentivize hotels to put some or a few more in. Also incentivize homeowners to put in home power generation and storage ability (like solar panels + tesla powerwall…as an example), so that people charging at home are using much less grid power to charge up.
Comment by Doing Human Things Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 1:36 pm
=people charging at home are using much less grid power to charge up.=
If you are charging off-peak (late night) you are using idle generation and grid capacity, so it really shouldn’t make much difference.
Comment by Duopoly Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 2:15 pm
@ Honeybear =78% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck=
Where are all these $50k urban cowboy trucks coming from then?
Comment by Duopoly Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 2:17 pm
The base-load argument against wind power is no longer valid, if it ever was. The grid is managed regionally: 13 States in one part of Illinois; 17 States for the other part. It is never calm over such large areas, and weather forecasting is good enough to know what can be produced at least 24 hours in advance, so wind is very manageable. Apart from its other issues, nuclear power is the most expensive power. There is a need to upgrade transmission so it can handle more distributed generation.
Comment by Oberon Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 2:43 pm
Duopoly- funny that. Just saw an article today saying 7 million people are behind on their car loan by at least 3 months. Economists are worried because studies show folks will usually pay their car loan over their other bills. Kinda supports my 78% argument but you go ahead and refer to your observations.
Comment by Honeybear Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 2:48 pm
O.K. Honeybear….you tell me when these paycheck to paycheck people buy a car, what price range are they looking in? According to Edmunds.com the average, I say aversge, Honeybear, is $19,400. Explain that away.
Comment by wondering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 3:20 pm
=but you go ahead and refer to your observations.=
@ HB You’ve turned into LP / Rauner - Don’t believe your lyin’ eyes. Go look at the sticker on one of those urban cowboy trucks and industry data. There’s loads of evidence that people are buying these huge gas guzzling because they can. There are some electric vehicles way cheaper with much lower operating costs. I simply call BS on your faulted association of electric vehicles with the uber rich.
Comment by Duopoly Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 3:33 pm
@DI at 1:09 has so many prejudiced and ignoramus comments, I think its a Putin-Trump troll bot. Good on all for not taking the bait.
Comment by Duopoly Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 3:48 pm
Honeybear, to clarify, the average used car price is $19,400…new is over $34,000.
Comment by wondwring Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 3:49 pm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/02/12/record-million-americans-are-months-behind-their-car-payments-red-flag-economy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c68ffd26db32
Comment by Honeybear Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 3:59 pm
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/01/11/live-paycheck-to-paycheck-government-shutdown/#6070d5ef4f10
Comment by Honeybear Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 4:02 pm
Not sure if this is because of Rivian or a remnant of Mitsubishi, but the Walmart on the West side of Bloomington put in charging stations a few months ago.
Comment by Anon221 Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 4:04 pm
I am an engineering prof, and have done numbers for what a fully electric transportation system would look like for the US. I assumed nuclear for the 24/7 capability. The answer is 100 new nuclear reactors.
There is another sustainable option called Solar Power Satellite that beams power from space but almost no work has been done on it.
Another option is nuclear fusion, but we are not close to a power plant after 60 years of research.
Comment by Old Illini Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 4:14 pm
@- Anon221 - Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 4:04 pm:
===Not sure if this is because of Rivian or a remnant of Mitsubishi, but the Walmart on the West side of Bloomington put in charging stations a few months ago.===
They have been promoted as a incentive to customers to shop at stores that let you plug in (for free) while you shop. If a customer comes in to Walmart instead of some other store, they make their money back and then some.
Comment by DuPage Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 4:58 pm
===Who can afford an electric? Just about everyone. Used LEAFs are cheap as dirt.===
There’s a reason for that. Ugly and less range than any other electric. In the Polar Vortex you’d be lucky to go 50 miles on a full charge. Me, I’m holding out for a used Tesla X when they drop to 20k, might take me a few years.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 6:19 pm
Thanks DuPage:)
Comment by Anon221 Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 6:20 pm
Another ” free lights for state facilities” project. That was a very green project. Implementation by facility managers and paid for with incentives. Southern-Central State facilities have the acreage and ability to handle large solar farms. 100% for it.
Comment by Power House Prowler Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 7:05 pm
You are right, six degrees of separation, ugly, down to 50 miles in sub zero. But, average daily mileage in the U.S. is 40. At 10k for 70,000 miles of service, a bargain. Not for the privledged though who can afford more.
Comment by wondering Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 7:44 pm