ILLINOIS – Early Thursday morning, House Republicans passed a reconciliation bill that wipes out good-paying clean energy jobs and raises energy costs for families by gutting the historic progress made in the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act. Hours earlier at the Illinois State Capitol on Wednesday, hundreds of community leaders, environmental advocates, faith leaders, business representatives, consumer groups, students, and state legislators rallied to call on lawmakers to pass two critical climate bills by the end of May – the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act (SB2473/HB3779), which accelerates Illinois’ clean energy progress, and legislation that invests $1.5 billion for safer, cleaner, more reliable public transit.
“Trump is usurping power and using his majorities in Congress to decimate the historic climate progress we’ve made at the federal level, cutting funding for climate programs, gutting clean energy manufacturing, killing good jobs, driving energy bills up, and leaving farmers and small business owners in a lurch,” said Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. “All of this to advance an anti-science political agenda that enriches his wealthy supporters like big oil and gas CEOs. If they’re successful, we’ll all lose so that just a few of them can win. That’s why it’s more important than ever that we invest in next-generation, cost-saving climate solutions right here in Illinois right now.”
Across the country and in Illinois, the power grid is struggling to keep pace with a surge in demand for energy, largely caused by energy-hungry data centers. Recent analysis from Synapse Energy Economics projects that even most data center growth in Illinois will increase carbon pollution in Northern Illinois by 64% and increase utility bill costs for both Ameren and ComEd customers by at least 8%. While the Trump administration rolls back federal clean energy incentives and gives tax breaks to fossil fuel polluters and Big Tech, Illinois’ proposed energy plan–the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (SB2473/HB3779)–offers a suite of commonsense solutions to keep consumer costs low, strengthen our grid, and protect our communities. The legislation builds off of Illinois’ nation-leading Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which set the state on a path to 100% renewable energy.
“We passed CEJA four years ago for a reason. We passed CEJA for clean air, lower utility bills, and to take action on climate. We cannot afford to go back to an Illinois that lets polluting industry go unchecked. We cannot afford to go back to an Illinois that lets corporate polluters harm our communities,” said Gina Ramirez, senior advisor with the Southeast Environmental Task Force. “With the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, Illinois can continue to lead the nation on our climate and equity goals by facing the new and emerging threats to our electric grid and putting the interests of people and our planet before the interests of dirty energy companies, big tech, and entrenched utilities.”
The CRGA Act also ensures that, for the first time, rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities are required to engage in transparent, responsible energy planning. Nearly 1 million Illinoisans are served by munis and coops across the state.
“As a member of the Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative, which owns two Illinois coal plants, the CRGA Act will help my co-op better plan for a clean energy future,” said Amanda Pankau, Director of Energy & Community Resiliency with the Prairie Rivers Network. “For too long, public power ratepayers like me who get their power from munis and coops have not had a meaningful voice in energy planning. The CRGA Act changes that. While the Trump administration turns its back on everyday Americans struggling to pay their bills, here in Illinois we have the opportunity to ensure every Illinoisan–including muni/coop communities that have long been left behind–are included in our clean energy transition.”
Advocates are also pushing for the Illinois General Assembly to invest $1.5 billion in Northeast Illinois’ transit system and to reform the system so that it’s safer, cleaner, and more reliable. If lawmakers don’t act on the transit fiscal cliff by the end of next week, it will have devastating consequences for the millions of transit riders who use the system every day and the workers who run and maintain Chicagoland’s trains and buses. It will also force more people to turn to personal vehicles, increasing air and climate pollution already harming our communities.
“Over these last two years, we’ve repeatedly heard that public transit is good for our economy, necessary for basic quality of life, and good for our climate and environment. We’ve also heard that it must be equitable and accessible,” said State Senator Ram Villivalam. “Now it’s time to make these reforms–not as just Metra, PACE, or CTA, and not just as the city, suburbs, collar counties or the rest of the state–but as one unified state where everyone has the ability to get to their doctor, school or their job with ease and safety. And we must have the goal of fully funding public transit.”
“I live on Chicago’s Northwest side, where public transportation options are anemic, so I see what’s at stake for our communities on a daily basis, and especially the communities of color where I organize folks around transportation justice issues,” said W. Robert Schultz III of the Active Transportation Alliance. “Make no mistake – the transit fiscal cliff we’re facing is dire, and lawmakers have to act now so that we can all access critical goods and services, like doctor’s appointments, grocery stores, and childcare.”
Funding and fixing public transit in Northeast Illinois is the first step toward transforming our entire transportation sector. Advocates are also fighting for the Transportation Choices Act, which improves walkability, bikeability, and access to public transportation across the state, as well as the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act, which will accelerate the electrification of Illinois’ heavily polluting transportation sector.
“It’s our moment right now to rebuild a transportation sector that Illinoisans actually deserve – one that is clean and equitable – and nothing less,” said Jeremy Cuebas, executive director of the Grassroots Empowerment Mission. “Illinois’ nearly 2 million young people are counting on us to fix and fund a clean, electrified and accessible transit system so that they and their children’s children inherit our most ambitious solutions instead of today’s problems.”
To view yesterday’s rally and press conference, click here.
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Since 1975, the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC) has worked to safeguard Illinois—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends by building power for people and the environment. www.ilenviro.org