House to Return Thursday as New Energy Bill Introduced
The fate of coal-fired power plants like the Prairie State Energy facility in St. Clair County continues to be a point of contention as lawmakers try to reach a last minute deal on an energy bill.
The House returns to Springfield Thursday for a potential vote on an energy bill, but it appears a deal has yet to be struck.
House Speaker Chris Welch announced the session and said negotiations are moving forward.
“I am pleased to see negotiations moving forward on a comprehensive energy proposal that prioritizes a greener future for Illinois, as well as meaningful ethics reform and maintaining our current workforce,” said Welch. “I cannot thank Leaders Evans, Gabel, and Hoffman enough for their dedication and ensuring all stakeholders are heard throughout this process. I am confident that we will have a plan that Illinois can be proud of and will be viewed as a model for many other states."
Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago0 filed a new 969-page version of an energy bill Friday.
Capitol News Illinois reports the sticking point remains the future of coal plants in the state.
Negotiators have agreed to a nearly $700 million subsidy for Exelon over the next five years to keep its plants online and profitable, a position backed strongly by labor unions representing nuclear workers and accepted by environmental groups because of the importance of nuclear energy as a carbon-free power source.
But a disagreement between labor unions and environmental groups on another matter – what to do with municipal coal-fired power plants – has largely held up talks thus far.
The disagreement largely boils down to one sentence in two differing legislative proposals moving through the General Assembly. Despite that fact, lawmakers were unable to bridge the gap between the two sides at the end of the regular May legislative session or when lawmakers returned in both June and August to try again on a compromise bill.
The Senate passed Senate Bill 18 last week after being the lead chamber in negotiations for several months, moving it to the House for further discussion. Its bill would have closed municipal coal-fired plants by 2045, but would not have set interim carbon reduction goals, meaning the plants could emit as much carbon as they currently do for the next 24 years.
Another iteration rejected by environmentalists would have allowed Prairie State Energy Campus in the Metro East near St. Louis to remain open past 2045 if it offset at least 105 percent of its current carbon emissions through sequestration or other offset measures.
On Friday, Gov. JB Pritzker’s office announced it “strongly supports” House Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 1751, an identical measure to the Senate’s, according to its sponsor, except for that it also requires a 45 percent carbon reduction for municipal coal plants by 2035.
“The amendment builds on the progress made in Senate Bill 18 by requiring a 100 percent reduction in carbon emissions for municipal coal by 2045 with the additional goal of reducing emissions by 45 percent by 2035,” Pritzker’s spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh said in a statement Friday. “We know our planet cannot afford to wait more than two decades before significant progress at reducing carbon emissions is made, and this bill is a reasonable path forward. The administration looks forward to continuing discussions with our partners in the House.”
A hearing is scheduled on the new House energy bill, or another bill if introduced, Thursday morning before the House gavels in.
We’ll have more on the strategy labor leaders are taking in Wednesday’s subscriber only newsletter.