Illinois residents rally for big, bold clean energy bills

Hundreds of Illinois community members joined lawmakers outside the Illinois Capitol building to rally for clean energy legislation currently in discussion.

“We’re ready for big, bold solutions,” said Jennifer Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council.

Gina Ramirez, senior advisor with the Southeast Environmental Task Force, rallied the crowed in support of the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, which Illinois lawmakers will decide on next week. The act would accelerate Illinois’ clean energy progress with a slew of progressive initiatives, including, but not limited to:

• The creation of a Solar Bill of Rights, which aims to expand the state’s community solar through incentives to low-income groups and other changes that would make more residents eligible to join programs;
• The creation of Illinois Storage for All, which requires the agency to direct up to 25% of the funds toward grants, rebates or incentives designed to encourage renewable energy storage paired with solar distributed renewable energy generation.
• The launch of a procurement plan for larger-scale battery projects;
• create a virtual power plant program;
• Adoption of uniform standards to ensure that Illinoisians who invest in rooftop solar are given fair
  credit; and
• Directing utilities to propose rules for new large-scale data centers to protect other electric consumers and ensure
  the facilities have plans to develop clean energy resources to reduce strain on the power grid.

With the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, Ramirez said, “Illinois can continue to lead the nation on our climate and equity goals by facing the new and emerging threats to our electric grid and putting the interests of people and our planet before the interests of dirty energy companies, big tech, and entrenched utilities.”

(Read: Legislators call for increased transparency with PJM)

Utility companies and the “dirty fuel industry” wrote Illinois’ energy legislation for years, Ramirez said.

Illinois flipped that legislative script in 2021 to give environmental justice advocates a seat at the table, Ramirez said, and made reference to the Clean and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).

Throughout the rally, advocates showed a sense of pride in the CEJA, which expanded the Illinois Solar for All program from $30 million to $70 million per year, unlocking the benefits of affordable renewable energy for families across the state. CEJA also sets a target to get Illinois to 40% renewable energy by 2030 and 50% renewable energy by 2040.

(See also: Five years of Illinois Solar for All)

Currently 2.46% of Illinois electricity is from solar, though the state is ranked 10^th for capacity and 11^th for its solar generation per capita, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. For overall generation, Illinois is the nation’s sixth-largest energy-consuming and eleventh-largest energy-producing state, and generates more nuclear energy than any other state, according to Energy Information Administration. Illinois typically sends about one-fifth of the power it generates to other states over the regional grid.

Illinois’ power grid is struggling to keep pace with the surge in demand for energy largely caused by its power-hungry data centers, Ramirez said. Many of these facilities are being located in environmental justice communities, she noted, “and while they promise progress in economic advancements, they also pose risks to our electric grid and place a huge pollution burden on our neighborhoods that are already surrounded by toxic-industry data centers that consume huge amounts of electricity.”

This electricity, she said, “often comes from a source that contributes to pollution and climate.”

(Read: Illinois lawmakers propose 15 GW energy storage target by 2035)

Recent analysis from Synapse Energy Economics projected that if the retirement of coal plants are delayed so that more data centers can be powered up, CO2 pollution in Northern Illinois will increase by at least 64%.

“It’s not right,” Ramirez said. “And it’s not just pollution that will increase if we don’t put safeguards in place, bills will go up,” she said. “We cannot allow these power-hungry facilities to drive up costs for consumers that are already struggling to pay their bills.”

Read about other solar-related bills state lawmakers are debating this legislative session here.

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