The Illinois Senate on Monday approved a wide-ranging energy plan to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050 despite the uncertainty of how much the legislation could cost residents.
The measure requires a $700 million subsidy to keep the state’s nuclear power-plant fleet afloat, and includes provisions that would close coal plants in central and southwest Illinois, invest in renewable energy such as wind and solar and a $4,000 rebate to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles.
A number of Republicans have questioned the rise of utility rates under the plan, saying it could cost ratepayers as much as $15 or more monthly.
“While clean power is essential for our state, both now and in the future, we cannot ignore the immediate effect on electricity rates this legislation will have,” Illinois Rep. Dan Ugaste said in a statement earlier this month.
Proponents of the legislation say the average residential increase will amount to $3.50 a month.
Before the bill’s passage in the Senate, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce released a statement Monday calling the proposal flawed and one that will “dramatically increase costs and call reliability into question.”
There are multiple hidden costs, said Rep. Charles Meier, an Okawville Republican whose district includes Prairie State Generating Co. in Marissa, one of two coal plants that would be forced to close by 2035 under the proposal.
Meier previously said Prairie State’s municipal and co-op owners have taken steps to boost its clean energy production to 12%, compared with 7% statewide. He said the solar power grid necessary to replace Prairie State’s generation capacity alone would eat up 123,000 acres of “prime farmland.”
“We’re guessing,” Rep. Keith Wheeler of Oswego previously said. “We’re putting a huge goal on the board and if we don’t guess right, we’ll be buying fossil-based power from neighboring states.”
Driving the action as much as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s pledge to make Illinois a no-carbon state by 2050 is Exelon’s threat to begin closing nuclear plants it owns in Byron and Morris. That would cost thousands of jobs and a large share of the carbon-free power the state already produces.
Critics complain that Exelon, which got a nuclear-fleet subsidy in an energy plan several years ago, is getting a monstrous ratepayer gift despite an ongoing federal investigation invovling its subsidiary, ComEd. ComEd acknowledged to federal prosecutors last year that it had engaged in a decadelong bribery scheme in Springfield that has implicated former House Speaker Michael Madigan and led to indictments of Madigan’s closest confidante and a former ComEd CEO, among others.
Illinois Sen. Mike Simmons, of Chicago, said while he’s happy that Illinois is on a path to becoming free of fossil fuels, he voted “present” due to Exelon rate hikes and additional fees on residents.
“…SB 2408 implements a rate hike on lower-income folks and local businesses that are trying to weather an unrelenting pandemic,” he said in a statement, in part. “I also have concerns with giving more money to Exelon right now when the public’s trust has been abused systemically in recent years by Commonwealth Edison.”
Pritzker in a statement hailed the Senate’s passage, saying Illinois is “charting a new future that works to mitigate the impacts of climate change.”
“I look forward to signing this historic measure into law as soon as possible, because our planet and the people of Illinois ought not wait any longer,” he said.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/3C3bKIq
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