The Illinois Environmental Council [IEC] is a nonprofit organization working to make sure environmental and climate communities are heard in public policy and legislative affairs.
IEC published its own analysis of the bill, claiming it would set back environmental progress, jobs and initiatives across Illinois. The organization is worried how the law will affect the wallets and livelihoods of Illinoisans.
“We don’t have a specific breakdown number of everyone that would be impacted, but we know that that’s a large number,” said Senior Policy Manager Cate Caldwell. “We could see as little as thousands or as many as hundreds of thousands. It’s definitely concerning.”
As renewable energy will be less abundant than environmental activists had hoped, Caldwell said residents are likely to see their electricity bills increase substantially. She said IEC expects bills to increase by approximately 21% over the next year for industrial energy bills in Central Illinois, as solar and wind farms become more expensive.
“We’re seeing that it can be as little as $121 increase for energy bills for homeowners, but up to $400 annually and that can be for commercial or industrial energy bills,” she said.
Caldwell is also concerned with job cuts — the jobs that come along with the construction, installation and operation of those renewable energy sites. IEC estimates somewhere between 20,000 and 52,000 jobs that could be lost.
The chair of the board’s land use and transportation committee said the Future Energy Jobs Act and the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in Illinois protect some renewable energy employment.
“And both of those are focused on ensuring that as renewable energy technology is being increasingly deployed in the state that we are providing for job training and that we are providing for good paying jobs, local jobs, Illinois jobs in the process,” Cline said. “Those things aren’t going to go away.”
Cline said the county could still be more attractive for developers compared to other counties after a recent upgrade to high voltage transmission lines.
Caldwell said the greater concern for IEC is what lies in the future for the environment and the clean energy sector. Those long-term challenges can keep a community from bouncing back.
“Let’s just say … you’re seeing like maybe a $50 increase on your energy bill, then let’s just say by 2030, 2032 you’re seeing almost $100, $200,” Caldwell said. “Then let’s just say you are someone that works in the energy industry … and you’ve been laid off. It’s really hard to recover from that, especially if you don’t have that federal assistance and even at the state level.”
Caldwell said the districts most reliant on the soon-to-be ending tax credits are largely the Republican ones, like those of U.S. Reps Mike Bost, Mary Miller and Darin LaHood, all of whom voted in favor of the bill.
Illinois was previously on track to sustain a 100% clean energy grid by 2050, another objective which IEC said is in jeopardy. Caldwell said it is not out of reach yet. She said legislators can still pass the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act [CRGA].
“I think the main driving point right now is that we can’t put our belief in the federal government that we’re going to be able to be successful with these rollbacks happening, but I think we can hold our state lawmakers accountable to continue that work,” she said. “I think if we actually pass CRGA … I think we’ll still be on track.”
Caldwell said CRGA could be taken up by lawmakers during the upcoming veto session in October. It would strengthen energy efficiency, prioritize clean energy resources and promote transmission improvements to strengthen the power grid.
The reconciliation bill made cuts to agriculture subsidies as well, according to IEC. Caldwell said the cap of payments and eligibility rules changed to favor large scale producers. She said there are caps on how much one producer can receive and income limits on what subsidies they can receive, resulting in agrobusinesses qualifying for more than their small-scale peers.
“So, it’s almost like they’re creating different loopholes to where large operations, they receive far more than the cap would actually suggest,” Caldwell said.
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