Illinois Environmental Council Releases Annual Scorecard
(SPRINGFIELD, IL)—The Illinois Environmental Council (IEC) released its 2026 Legislative Environmental Scorecard today. The scorecard, which is released annually, assigns legislators a percentage score based on how they voted on bills affecting the environment. This year, 58 percent of state house representatives and 46 percent of state senators received 100% scores based on their voting records on 13 bills during 2025-2026 legislative business.
“IEC’s annual Environmental Scorecard is the best way to evaluate whether your legislators have used their power in the General Assembly to protect you, plants, animals and our environment or to aid big polluters,” said Jen Walling, IEC CEO. “We put this tool in the hands of Illinois voters as a mechanism for holding elected officials accountable and determining if they have earned your vote based on their environmental voting record. It is a valuable resource as folks head into the voting booth this November.”
The 2026 Legislative Environmental Scorecard includes 13 legislative measures. Specific priorities from this year’s Scorecard include:
- Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act – SB25 (Stadelman/Hoffman)
- Rising energy costs and price volatility have hit Illinois ratepayers hard. This legislation strengthens grid reliability and affordability by adding 3 GW of battery storage to our energy system, creating a virtual power plant (VPP) program, expanding energy efficiency programs, and giving consumers more tools to save money on their energy bills. Residential energy costs are expected to be reduced by an estimated $13.4 billion over the next 20 years under CRGA.
- SB25 passed the House by a vote of 70-37-0 and the Senate by 37-22-0 in October of 2025, after the release of our 2025 scorecard.
- Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act – SB2111 (Villivalam/Delgado)
- This bill established the Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA) to replace the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and oversee CTA, Metra, and Pace—unifying Illinois’ transit system to deliver more seamless, reliable, and accessible transit service. The bill also delivers $1.5 billion in annual funding to stabilize transit operations statewide while strengthening governance and accountability through independent performance audits, a chief internal auditor, and a unified fare system by 2030.
- SB2111 passed the House by a vote of 72-32-0 and the Senate by a vote of 36-21-0 in October of 2025, after the release of our 2025 scorecard.
- Environmental Justice Air Permitting – SB3772 (Villanueva/Jiménez)
- Environmental justice (EJ) areas experience the cumulative impact of many types of pollutants. This legislation codifies, for the first time in Illinois law, a legal framework to address the cumulative impact of industrial air pollution in Illinois’ EJ communities and reforms permitting to ensure the IEPA accurately defines EJ communities and accounts for cumulative impacts, especially amid federal rollbacks.
- SB3772 passed the Senate by a vote of 43-11-0 and the House by 73-39-0.
- Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act – HB4418 (Mason/Morrison)
- This bill classifies pre-production plastic pellets as pollutants and directs the IEPA to develop and implement stormwater pollution controls, ensuring that industrial producers are held accountable for preventing pellet spills into our waterways.
- HB4418 passed the House by a vote of 69-33-0 and the Senate by 44-13-0.
“There is no better measure of our collective environmental movement’s success or of your legislators’ performance than IEC’s annual Environmental Scorecard,” Walling added. “The climate majority we’ve built in our legislature continues to deliver key environmental wins, demonstrating the importance of electing strong environmental champions to the General Assembly in November.”
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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