Illinois General Assembly misses opportunity to deliver cleaner, lower-cost, more reliable energy amidst rising costs, increasingly extreme weather, and federal mismanagement.
ILLINOIS — Today, just one day before energy bills are expected to spike across Illinois, the General Assembly failed to pass the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act, which would have taken critical steps to protect consumers and safeguard Illinois’ climate commitments made in the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. In response, Jen Walling released the following statement on behalf of the Illinois Environmental Council:
“Deep-pocketed fossil fuel interests are lining up to block climate progress yet again, and today, because the General Assembly failed to take bold, commonsense action to put our communities and our climate first, Illinoisans didn’t come out on top.
“The stakes only continue to grow as the Trump administration wages war on climate action. Energy-hungry data centers are eager to take full advantage of ratepayer-subsidized electricity. Utility companies are raking in record profits and requesting unprecedented rate hikes. Regional Transmission Organizations are woefully behind on connecting clean energy projects to the grid, which could power millions of homes with clean, affordable electricity. Our outdated power grid is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events driven by climate change. The answer to all of these compounding problems is to rapidly accelerate the deployment of clean, reliable, low-cost energy sources and give consumers tools to keep their energy costs low, which are the primary pillars of the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act.
“Today, the General Assembly had two options: do nothing, pay more, and ignore our climate commitments, or take action, pay less, and accelerate our climate progress. The legislature failed to act today, and consumers and our climate will pay the price. Legislators must prioritize passing the CRGA Act during the fall veto session to secure our clean energy future and bolster our grid with affordable clean energy resources so that Illinoisans, not fossil fuel CEOs, win the day.”
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