The House reconvened yesterday for a special session to address two items: an amendatory veto of the ethics bill passed this spring, and a long-negotiated energy bill. There’s no question we are in a climate crisis, both around the world and here at home. From shoreline erosion to flooding, extreme heat and cold, climate change is impacting public health and damaging infrastructure, people’s homes and belongings, so this comes at a critical juncture for our state.
The ethics bill that passed the House in May received huge bipartisan support in both the House and Senate and includes some critically needed components. As with any omnibus measure, it did not include every component members suggested or address every concern. We have significant work to do to restore our constituents’ faith in our state legislature. Shortly after we passed the original bill, the current Legislative Inspector General (LIG) resigned and used her letter of resignation to criticize the new law. She described the LIG role as a “paper tiger” as a result of our failure to appropriately lift the barriers in current law that limit the power of the LIG. The Governor issued an amendatory veto to correct a technical drafting error, which required the House and Senate to vote to accept those changes. The motion to accept the amendatory veto passed with a vote of 74-41.
The only other piece of legislation addressed during the special session was a long awaited energy package. Unlike in previous years in which utility interests were leading the negotiations, the revelations of ComEd/Exelon’s corruption indictment and deferred prosecution agreement meant that they were no longer in the driver’s seat for these negotiations. Ultimately, they were excluded from talks on the bill’s contents. The bill is incredibly complex and is more than 950 pages long, with plenty to like and dislike included. In order to come to consensus, negotiators had to balance the priorities of environmental groups focused on combating climate change; organized labor and others concerned with jobs at nuclear power plants and municipally owned coal operators; consumer advocates; and communities seeking racial equity in the energy sector.
As someone who has long stood against subsidies to profitable corporations and fought rate hikes impacting our communities, this vote was an extraordinarily challenging decision. This bill will result in a rate hike of approximately $3.50/month on average across the state, ComEd/Exelon will receive $700 million in subsidies over a 5-year period, specifically aimed at keeping the Byron, Dresden, and Braidwood nuclear power plants open. This is a far cry from the $5-7 billion they demanded at the beginning of negotiations, or the unrestricted $2.3 billion in the last energy bill, which also included unfettered ability to raise rates. It’s important to note that there are also significant new controls in place that would never have been possible in years past. The rate increases in this bill are targeted at addressing equity issues, job transition programs, and support for the community of Zion related to spent nuclear fuel storage.
Some highlights of the new ethics provisions include:
— expanded statement of economic interest requirements to include disclosure of an immediate family member employed by a public utility in Illinois,
— requiring the Illinois Commerce Commission to investigate whether ComEd misappropriated ratepayer funds in connection with the conduct detailed in their deferred prosecution agreement, and mandates a refund to ratepayers any funds found to have been misused in this way,
— the creation of a new Public Utility Ethics and Compliance Monitor role, and establishment of new internal ethics controls for all electric and natural gas public utilities; and the prevention of utilities from recovering criminal penalties or post-employment costs of those convicted of a criminal act in the course of their employment with the utility from ratepayers.
The Illinois Environmental Council analysis of these provisions as well as the other components of the bill can be accessed here.
Over the course of the last several weeks, as negotiators got down to the final issues, the greatest sticking points centered around decarbonization goals as they apply to municipally owned coal plants (often referred to as munis). Negotiators for the environmental groups were adamant that without specific timelines and goals for carbon reduction, the law would be meaningless. The municipal coal fired plants were adamant that decarbonization requirements would be fatal for them, and they’d have to close even before the mandated final date for 100% decarbonization by 2045. At one point, the bill would have allowed an additional rate increase to address the costs of carbon capture technology, but that language was removed in favor of an extension of the timeline for meeting the interim reduction levels. That move brought the munis to neutral and allowed the bill to move forward.
Equity concerns were an additional hard fought component, with members pointing out long-standing efforts to bring diversity to contracting, and the challenges faced by small contractors who often lack the infrastructure to compete with larger organizations. Members of the Black and Latino Caucuses pushed for and won significant changes to try to level the playing field and create greater opportunities for Black and Brown-led businesses in the wind and solar sectors.
