Efforts to pass a comprehensive energy bill putting Illinois on the path to lower carbon emissions while authorizing a $700 million bailout for three of Exelon’s (NASDAQ:EXC) Illinois nuclear plants and more funding to encourage solar development are in limbo.
The nearly 1,000-page H.B. 3666 was to have been passed in a special one-day legislative session Tuesday, just weeks before Exelon’s deadline to close one of its plants. This time the bill included a hard closure date for the coal-fired Prairie State Energy Campus, a 1,600-MW complex located in Southern Illinois that has been a major sticking point in negotiations.
Built and operated by municipal power companies and rural cooperatives in Illinois and several nearby states, the power plant is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the state and an impediment to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s efforts to fight climate change by embracing renewable energy while maintaining the nuclear plants.
Pritzker had agreed to allow Prairie State to run until 2040 if it cut its emissions in half through carbon capture and sequestration, a technology that could cost its owners $4 billion. A previous version of the legislation had Prairie State closing by 2035.
Two of the governor’s key constituents — environmental groups and organized labor — have for months been at loggerheads over the fate of Prairie State and Exelon’s nuclear plants.
The environmentalists want coal plants to close immediately because they contribute to climate change. They want gas turbines plants, some of which are still being built, closed by 2040.
Labor has fought for the jobs at Exelon’s nuclear plants. Employees of Prairie State are not unionized. Gas turbine plants, while a jobs provider during construction, employ 30 to 50 people.
The solar industry, specifically rooftop solar installers, have seen installations dramatically drop off without state-funded incentives to homeowners. The legislation included new funding for those incentives.
After Senate committee clashes Tuesday afternoon over an amendment requiring Prairie State to close in 2040 but without any carbon cleanup requirements in the interim, passage of the bill appeared again to be stymied. But after midnight, and after the House of Representatives had adjourned, the Senate passed the bill with the amendment along party lines.
Lawmakers Wednesday were not sure when another session would be called, given the upcoming Labor Day holiday. The governor’s office was not happy, noting in a statement that Prairie State could continue polluting with no restrictions as the bill now stands.
Exelon did not comment. But the company has said it will shut down Unit 1 of its Byron nuclear plant on Sept. 14 and Unit 2 on Sept. 16.
The company is also planning to close its Dresden plant in November. The three plants employ more than 1,500 workers, many of them highly paid because they are unionized.
The Path to 100 Coalition organized by solar installers issued a statement late Wednesday thanking the Senate for passage of the bill and urging the governor and House to work quickly to resolve the outstanding issues.
“The renewable energy provisions in this legislation would reverse the job losses happening now, and they would make the state the national leader in growing equitable clean energy jobs and fighting climate change,” the group said. “Until this legislation becomes law, the Illinois renewable energy program will remain broken.”