What is Veto Session and Why Does it Matter?
It’s Veto Session season in Springfield! Find out what it is, why it matters, and how you can help IEC push for key environmental priorities.
What is Veto Session and Why Does it Matter? Read More »
Transportation
2025 Equitable Transportation Townhall
Is Illinois on the right track? Help shape IEC’s Equitable Transportation policy priorities as we head into 2026.
2025 Equitable Transportation Townhall Read More »
The grades are out on legislators and the environment
More than a third of state lawmakers scored 100 percent on IL Environmental Council scorecard. The Illinois Environmental Council is out with its 2025 legislative scorecard. “This year we saw 39 state representatives and 25 state senators receive 100 percent scores based on sixteen bills,” said the council’s executive director, Jen Walling, “and over fifty percent of sitting state
The grades are out on legislators and the environment Read More »
2025 Chicago City Council Scorecard
IEC’s city programs team has published our 2025 Chicago City Council Environmental Scorecard evaluating the performance of alderpersons based on their environmental voting record.
2025 Chicago City Council Scorecard Read More »
Renewable and clean energy sector faces uncertainty amid federal tax incentive cuts
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
Renewable and clean energy sector faces uncertainty amid federal tax incentive cuts Read More »
Illinois’ Governor Has Led on Climate Policy. Here’s How Experts Assess His Work So Far
Jennifer Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, which represents 100 environmental groups, considers Pritzker surprisingly forward-thinking on climate. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’ve been through, even before this, almost four different governors’ administrations. Governor Pritzker has been the absolute best on environment and climate,” she said. “He blends an
Illinois’ Governor Has Led on Climate Policy. Here’s How Experts Assess His Work So Far Read More »
How does ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ impact energy sector?
The recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes significant changes to the way we create and pay for energy. The legislation rolls back investment in clean energy, aiming to return the focus to oil and natural gas. How might these moves impact the wallet of the average Illinoisan? The non-partisan think tank Energy Innovation found that in
How does ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ impact energy sector? Read More »
Illinois bet on solar to meet its climate goals. Trump has the industry in his crosshairs.
Illinois Environmental Council senior policy manager Cate Caldwell said the state has “long led” on environmental issues and that lawmakers should act in their shortened October legislative session. “While this federal budget threatens to reverse that progress, Illinois can instead double down on its climate commitments and invest in real, bold climate solutions that modernize
Illinois clean energy hit hard by Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ tax bill: ‘An incredibly damaging blow’
Among those who want to respond to the Trump bill with strong state action is Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, which advocates for more than 100 organizations. Illinois environmentalists have been pushing for the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, which would expand energy efficiency in Illinois and encourage renewable energy
How Trump’s megabill affects Illinois’ environment
What they’re saying: “Lowering families’ energy costs and making our air cleaner should be something we all agree on, and yet Trump and his cronies would rather gut clean energy and pollution reduction programs to fund tax breaks for billionaires,” Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, said in a statement. Read the full
How Trump’s megabill affects Illinois’ environment Read More »
Energy policy changes in “big, beautiful bill” will affect consumers, climate, experts say
“Really, really dramatic impacts with these cuts,” said Chelsea Biggs of the Illinois Environmental Council. In Illinois, the League of Conservation Voters is estimating that homeowners will pay $168 more in energy bills a year — with a 21% increase in commercial and industrial energy bills. But Biggs said this won’t just cost consumers. “These
Illinois environmental advocates aim to strengthen ties with lawmakers, increase outreach amid federal policy changes
CHAMPAIGN — Illinois environmental advocates are working to strengthen their connections with lawmakers and communities across the state while the legislature is in recess. On Saturday, June 28, progressive organizations gathered in Champaign for a convention hosted by Indivisible Illinois. The event allowed the groups to share their priorities for the rest of the year. Among the
Transit Teetering Over the Fiscal Cliff After Lawmakers Adjourn Without Fixing and Funding Transit
ILLINOIS — On Sunday, the Illinois General Assembly adjourned without addressing Northeast Illinois transit agencies’ $770 million budget deficit, leaving the millions of transit riders who use the system every day and the transit operators who run and maintain our trains and buses in the lurch. Jen Walling released the following statement on behalf of the
Wrapping Up the 2025 Illinois Legislative Session
Our team has been on the ground at the Capitol for the last five months, all the way up until the final moments this evening. And you’ve been right there with us.
Wrapping Up the 2025 Illinois Legislative Session Read More »
Activists rally for climate legislation in Springfield during annual Climate Action Lobby Day
Hannah Flath, the senior climate communications manager for the Illinois Environmental Council, said the day gave advocates a unique opportunity to speak directly to elected representatives. “Our lawmakers work for us,” Flath said. “And so lobby day gives constituents across the state the opportunity to voice their opinions with their lawmakers and urge them to
As U.S. House Republicans Pass the Most Expensive Anti-Environment Bill in History, Illinoisans Call for State Action on Climate and Consumer Protections
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
A Sprint to Accelerate Illinois’ Clean Energy Progress
With two full weeks of the legislative session left before the May 31 deadline, IEC is working overtime to ensure our priorities cross the finish line.
A Sprint to Accelerate Illinois’ Clean Energy Progress Read More »
Clock counting down to secure state funding before drastic service cuts to CTA, Metra, Pace
A warning has been issued to anyone who takes public transportation in Chicago — with drastic service cuts looming, Illinois legislators only have until the end of the month to decide what to do and how to address it. Transit advocates are taking to the streets every week to warn riders. They say the cuts are as
The state of Illinois’ environment in 2025
The state of environmental policy is in flux. Fifty-five years after the first Earth Day, Americans are divided on environmental policy on a way that wasn’t always true. In states like Illinois, Democrats are pushing to transition to cleaner energy sources, though not fast enough for some activists. In Washington, under the second Trump administration,
The state of Illinois’ environment in 2025 Read More »