Gearino and Chase reported in May, 2021 that just over five years ago, the Illinois Legislature passed a plan that aimed to build a solar power industry from scratch while saving thousands of jobs at two struggling nuclear plants. The Future Energy Jobs Act brought together environmental groups, the owner of the nuclear plants—Exelon Corp., unions and consumer advocates. The result was a plan marrying nuclear subsidies with support for renewable energy that purported to create tens of thousands of solar power jobs as well as put the state on track to move away from fossil fuels and meet its pre-existing target of having 25 percent renewable energy by 2025.
But the law sputtered from the start and now state leaders are racing to meet a May 31 legislative deadline to fix some of its biggest problems, like the impending loss of more than $300 million in funding for renewable energy programs. The 2025 target is far out of reach, the jobs expectations went unmet and the solar industry is laying off workers as promised funding dries up.
Exelon emerged as a clear winner, receiving $2.3 billion in ratepayer-funded subsidies over a decade for its two plants. It is now demanding even more money and threatening to close two other nuclear plants if it doesn’t get it. “Exelon continues to get $235 million a year, while the solar support has been stripped away,” said Howard Learner, executive director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center and a critic of the state’s nuclear bailout. “Illinois could’ve been a Midwest solar energy leader.”
Making the current scramble even more complicated is a federal bribery probe of Exelon and its Chicago utility subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison. Prosecutors say ComEd gave cash, jobs and contracts to associates of former House Speaker Michael Madigan with the hope he would shape the legislation to the company’s liking. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said that Exelon will not dictate the terms of the current debate over how to fix the state’s energy law. But the company and its close allies in organized labor nonetheless have immense power in the Legislature.
Exelon is seeking subsidies for its four Illinois nuclear plants that didn’t get help in the 2016 law, and is saying that the Byron and Dresden nuclear plants will close without this aid. Meanwhile, solar companies are laying off workers following the abrupt end of incentive funding tied to the 2016 law.
Supporters of the law talked about a boom in solar jobs, but the actual gains have been modest. Illinois went from 3,480 solar jobs in 2015, the 14th highest number in the country, to 5,259 jobs in 2020, which ranked 13th, according to the Solar Foundation. While there were few new solar jobs, there has been a surge in the small-scale solar projects the law was designed to encourage, with more than 20,000 projects completed. But solar remains a blip in Illinois’ energy landscape, providing less than 1 percent of the state’s electricity generation in 2020.
Solar and wind energy have grown in Illinois, but renewable sources are only about 7.5 percent of the state’s electricity consumption, which is far short of the pace needed to reach the target of 25 percent by 2025. Some of the problems here are specific to Illinois’ political culture, but they touch on national concerns about how to increase renewable energy while also preserving the jobs and carbon-free electricity from old nuclear power plants.
Exelon is arguing, as it did in 2016, that it would close the nuclear plants if the decision was based solely on financial factors, but that the preservation of carbon-free electricity and jobs is so important that the state should explore all options for keeping the plants open. Exelon said in a statement that the 2016 law had broad support because “it was, and remains, a good framework for comprehensive energy policy.”
Illinois got 58 percent of its electricity generation from the Exelon nuclear plants last year, and the company says that closing them would create a void that would largely be filled by electricity from fossil fuels. National environmental groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Natural Resources Defense Council, have said they support giving subsidies to nuclear plants to prevent them from closing prematurely. As their support suggests, much of the criticism of the Illinois law is not about the existence of the nuclear subsidies, but the taint associated with the bribery scandal, and the renewable-energy provisions that were severely underfunded.
ComEd spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier said in an email that the law “has delivered on its goals of spurring new investment to develop renewable energy, expanding energy efficiency programs and dedicating funding to new programs that train workers for clean energy jobs and help utility customers reduce their bills.” About the funding issues with solar and other renewable energy, she said, “Our approach to procuring renewable resources can be improved.”
A Nuclear Bailout Takes Shape
In 2016, Exelon was threatening to close the Clinton and Quad Cities power plants and wanted the Illinois General Assembly to pass a law that would require local utilities, including ComEd, to charge consumers for a 10-year subsidy for the plants. The idea had the strong backing of Exelon’s allies in organized labor, but it was difficult to get lawmakers to agree to raise utility bills. At the same time, environmental groups, clean energy business groups and environmental justice advocates had their own proposals.
Madigan, a Democrat who was the longtime speaker of the House, made clear that any clean energy proposals needed to go through Exelon and get added to their nuclear bailout, according to those closely involved with the process. Madigan, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment. “Being able to pass clean energy legislation was conditioned by the speaker to reach agreement with ComEd and Exelon and labor,” said Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, which led the push for renewable energy provisions.
Read on .....
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
