The state passed the legislation during a veto session after months of lobbying from advocacy groups, but some concerns over planning provisions and consumer costs linger.
Illinois’ General Assembly passed a package of comprehensive energy reforms last week that would help the state reach its clean energy goals and aims to lower prices for consumers.
The Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act will add battery storage to community solar projects and fund improvements to energy grid infrastructure that advocacy groups say would cost-effectively help the state meet its goal of transitioning to renewable energy by 2050.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who expressed support for the bill in the past, is expected to sign it into law.
“We don’t want to be in the position that we were this year, where we were passing a bill in response to rising energy bills. We want our state to be in a position where we are adjusting energy policy along the way so that we’re not having to have those situations in the first place,” said Kady McFadden, lead strategist and lobbyist for the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, who worked with policy experts to advocate for CRGA.
The coalition includes environmental organizations, businesses and consumer advocates. Clean energy companies, consumers and other environmental groups also lobbied directly for the bill.
This summer, customers of Commonwealth Edison Co.—the largest electric utility in Illinois—faced a 10 to 15 percent rate increase following pricey energy auctions held by the regional electric grid operators that serve Illinois. Customers of Ameren, the state’s second-largest electric utility, saw spikes of 18 to 22 percent. Power-hungry data centers are helping drive that surge.
The CRGA Act was introduced during the spring legislative session by state Rep. Ann Williams, a Democrat representing Chicago’s North Side, but the bill never made it to a vote following disagreements over battery financing, data center regulations and lifting a moratorium on nuclear plant construction. Oil and gas industry groups lobbied against the measure.
But the bill reemerged during Illinois’ brief “veto session” in October. The act, which passed last Thursday, is an expansion of many of the clean energy provisions in the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act that the General Assembly passed in 2021, which aim to reduce carbon emissions in the energy and transportation sectors.
“There’s no guarantee that the planning will go in favor of renewable energy,” said Jennifer Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, which advocated for CRGA. “We think, with the data that we know is available, renewable energy is [the] most affordable source of energy when we’re thinking about new capacity. We feel pretty confident it’s going to go in our favor, but it’s not mandated to.”
Walling said the council is excited about smaller provisions of the bill as well, including a pilot for thermal energy networks that can share heating and cooling within multiple buildings; geothermal renewable energy credits; and natural gas efficiency.
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