Illinois in September 2021 became the first Midwestern state to enact legislation designed to create a carbon-free electric generation system by 2050.

The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which Democratic lawmakers negotiated over three years with organized labor, environmental groups and the wind and solar industries, also bailed out two of Exelon’s nuclear plants at the cost of $700 million in subsidies. The bill also gives specific dates for the closing of coal-fired plants, as well as oil- and gas-fired turbines.

The legislation requires all investor-owned, baseload coal-fired power plants and remaining oil peakers to shut down by 2030. The municipally owned Prairie State coal plant, with customers in six states, must reduce its emissions by 45% by 2035 through carbon capture and sequestration and must shut down by 2045, unless it can curtail all of its carbon dioxide emissions. City Water, Light and Power, the Springfield municipal power operation, which heats and lights the State House, faces the same shutdown rule.

Gas turbine plants, even those now under construction, must also close by 2045 under the terms of the bill, although the state would have an option to allow continued operation if they are critically needed: in other words, if the anticipated growth in renewable energy — from 7% in 2021 to 100% by 2045 — cannot be achieved.

And as if anticipating that possibility, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is now considering final permits for a 1,100-MW combined cycle gas turbine in downstate Illinois. If built, it would join two other new gas turbines approved previously and now under construction.

The question, which was debated somewhat before passage of the landmark legislation, is whether in 25 years the gas turbines would become obsolescent in the competition with what lawmakers believed would be massive amounts of wind and solar generation.

Even as the state EPA considers final permitting for the gas turbine, the Illinois Commerce Commission, in consultation with the Illinois Power Agency, is hosting a series of public webinars to dig into exactly what will have to be done to design and build a robust statewide energy storage system backing up wind and solar. The final two sessions are planned for later this month.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) administration is also targeting transportation decarbonization and is in line for $149 million in initial grants from the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill to build electric vehicle charging stations.

The Pritzker administration is also working to make Illinois a center of electric vehicle manufacturing. In May the governor welcomed Canadian bus and truck maker Lion Electric at the groundbreaking in Joilette for a new bus assembly plant, made possible by $7.9 million in state tax credits. (See Canadian EV Co. Lion Electric to Build Truck, Bus Factory in Illinois.)

Electric truck maker Rivian, which acquired a former truck plant used by Diamond Star Motors downstate, announced a massive expansion of the facility in November. Samsung is considering a battery plant nearby.

In Northern Illinois, the state is hoping Jeep’s parent company Stellantis will consider converting its Belvidere assembly plant to build an electric version of its Dodge Charger. A decision is expected in the first quarter.

Minnesota Clean Car Rule to Affect 2025 Models

Minnesota is another Midwestern state with a governor aiming to move into an electric future.

Gov. Tim Walz (D) proposed stricter car emission standards in September 2019, even as President Donald Trump fought California’s standards for low- and zero-emissions vehicles.

In 2021, the Walz administration won a regulatory battle and moved to implement a clean car plan modeled on California regulations mandating new cars sold in 2035 be emission free. Republican lawmakers, some representing rural regions where EV chargers are rare, tried to block Walz by threatening to block funding to the agency that would implement the plan.

After months of debate and efforts by GOP lawmakers to stall the state’s two-year budget if Walz did not rescind his proposal, the Minnesota House of Representatives in June approved by a 99-34 vote an environmental budget bill that included tougher vehicle emissions standards and required auto dealers to carry more hybrids and EVs. (See Minnesota’s ‘Clean Cars’ Emissions Standards Debated, Approved.)

But the compromise stalled the governor’s plan until January 2024 and only begins applying to 2025 model year vehicles. The clean car rule is expected to become an issue in this year’s gubernatorial election.

Walz is up for re-election. Regardless of whether he wins, a buildout of EV charging stations has begun in the state and is expected to expand, based on the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill.

Minnesota is in line over the next five years for at least $68 million of the administration’s $7.5 billion aimed at building EV charging infrastructure. The state’s largest EV charging spend so far has been about $7 million from the Volkswagen settlement fund over a 10-year period.

Ohio Utilities Still Count on Subsidies for Old Coal Plants

In contrast to Illinois and Minnesota, Ohio is focused on protecting fossil and nuclear power plants, having capped the state’s renewable portfolio standard at 8.5% by 2026 and dramatically slowing the growth of rural utility-scale solar development by giving county governments control. The state has also stymied wind farm development since 2014. (See Ohio Lawmakers Slow Utility-scale Wind and Solar.)

Thanks to lawmakers, Ohio electric customers are also subsidizing two large 1950s-era coal-fired power plants jointly owned by the state’s investor-owned utilities and a rural electric cooperative. The statewide customer-paid OVEC subsidy was included late in the development of the now infamous Ohio House Bill 6, approved by lawmakers in 2019 to bail out two nuclear power plants then owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary. H.B. 6 is at the heart of the largest, ongoing federal public corruption investigation in the state’s history.

The former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, accused of masterminding the legislation, has been indicted on federal racketeering charges. FirstEnergy has paid a $230 million fine in a deferred prosecution deal with the U.S. Justice Department and has fired its CEO and a handful of others. And lawmakers, in new legislation, deleted the nuclear bailout from the law — but not the OVEC subsidy.

A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate in March had hearings in May and June but did not have the votes for passage out of the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee. Two Republicans introduced a companion bill in the House in September. Hearings were held in September and October, but no vote occurred.

Another effort is expected in 2022. Meanwhile, the subsidy has cost Ohio customers about $400 million so far and is expected to cost $1.4 billion by 2030.