Environmentalists: Next Two Weeks Will Be "Critical" for Energy Bill
A wind farm in western Illinois.
A top environmental advocate says she’s still optimistic a deal can be reached on an energy bill that funds wind and solar projects and forces the closure of coal-fired power plants downstate.
In an interview with The Illinoize, Jennifer Walling, Executive Director of the Illinois Environmental Council says she’s seen “productive discussions” even after unions declared an impasse in negotiations earlier this month.
Walling says the remaining issue continues to be the future of coal-fired power plants, specifically the Prairie State Energy facility in southern Illinois. She says coal is not a sustainable and affordable option for energy generation.
“We know coal plants are closing. A quarter of Illinois’ coal capacity closed at the end of 2019. There have been announcements of a plant in Waukegan and another in Romeoville that are closing,” she said. “A lot of them are closing not because of environmental regulations, but because they can’t compete with natural gas.”
Union interests are fighting to keep coal plants open as long as possible hundreds or thousands of jobs, but Walling says coal is the biggest problem, both economically and environmentally.
“We are anti-coal. We are anti-coal under any circumstances,” she said.
If coal plants are deactivated, even if it more than a decade down the road, some have raised concerns that wind and solar does not have the infrastructure or competitive pricing to replace the current supply.
But, Walling believes wind and solar can provide enough energy to power much of southern Illinois and downstate.
“There’s absolutely [no doubt], without any reliability issues, an ease of putting wind and solar on the ground in a way that is economical,” she said. “Any renewable energy facilities being built right now are being built at a cheaper price, even without subsidies, than coal or natural gas plants.”
She is concerned, though, if Exelon is unable to receive the bailout it is asking for and moves forward shutting down nuclear plants in Byron and the Dresden plant near Morris in the northern part of the state.
“If those go offline, you’re talking thousands of megawatts [going away] really quickly,” she said. “In that case, we’re going to build a lot of new natural gas [plants]. From a carbon perspective, that concerns me.”
Walling says August 31st is an important deadline for negotiations as it is the deadline to distribute around $300 million in funding of solar energy programs collected by utilities.
Walling says the clock is ticking.
“I think the next two weeks are going to be really critical,” she said. “I’m pretty optimistic right now, but if we’re getting closer to August 31st, then I’m going to be less optimistic. I think then that’s something that goes into veto session and we end up with some different realities with the energy sector if we’re heading into October. But I’ve heard a lot of things that make me positive we can reach a resolution.”