Proposals to phase out coal and natural gas plants stall energy talks in Springfield as Senate again leaves town without a deal

As reported by the Chicago Tribune.

However, IL State Senate President Don Harmon has vowed to get the energy bill done -- perhaps in a special session to be held later this summer. Vigilant resistance against a degraded old reactor bailout costing IL residents hundreds of millions, or even more than a billion, dollars is therefore required. This nuclear bailout would be on top of the $2.35 billion old nuclear reactor bailout approved by the IL legislature and previous IL governor in Dec. 2016.

[IL] Energy bill deal elusive as [State] Senate heads home empty-handed

It's an embarrassing setback for [Illinois State] Senate President Harmon and Gov. Pritzker, as continued warring between two favored constituencies, environmentalists and labor, hung up the governor's top legislative priority.

As reported by Crain's Chicago Business. (The article is behind a pay wall.)

NEIS Action Alert -- Illinois’ Energy Legislation Vote Due Tuesday (Senate), Wednesday (House)! Exelon nuclear bailout bigger than before!

NEIS ACTION ALERT!

Illinois’ Energy Legislation Vote Due Tuesday (Senate),

Wednesday (House)!

Exelon nuclear bailout bigger than before!

Greetings All –

This will be the very last time we will contact you, asking you to ACT to oppose the nuclear bailouts for Exelon’s money-losing nuclear plants.

Currently there are competing version of legislation between the Governor and the Legislature.  Governor Pritzker has waffled on the size of the Exelon bailout in his proposed bill. What was once an independent, fact-based, $350 million 5-year bailout determined by the Governor-selected auditor, Synapse Energy Economics, has now ballooned to $700 million without rational justification or explanation. Another recent analysis suggests this amount could approach as high as $1 billion over time. Anything above the Synapse amount is political pork and nuclear ransom, reminiscent of “the Madigan Way” we thought we left behind.

The Governor’s rationale, that this bailout “…protects consumers and the climate…that we need to preserve our nuclear fleet and the jobs associated with that,” is both misinformed and wrong.  Consumers are the ones left paying this nuclear ransom. Despite its lower-carbon emissions profile, nuclear power has been demonstrated to be more a detriment than benefit in the climate crisis fight, sapping up money and resources better allocated to truly renewable energy sources, efficiency, energy storage and transmission improvements.  These industries already account for 4-5 times the number of jobs in Illinois compared to nuclear. 

While some would write this off as merely “politics,” we have to call it for what it is:

(legalized) extortion: “the act of securing money, favours, etc. by intimidation or violence.”

1.) CONTACT THE GOVERNOR AND YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS:

This will likely be the simplest ask we’ve made of you yet:  contact the Governor, and tell him “We’ve got your back!  Don’t cave to Exelon.  Keep your pledge that you are ‘not going to sign a bill written by the utility companies.’”

Essential inclusions: Tell the Governor and your State Senator and Representative that the final legislation MUST include these:

1.)   No bailouts for Exelon’s unprofitable nuclear plants:  Nuclear bailouts have been shown to actually impede implementation of renewable energy.  It’s the communities and workers affected by plant closures who will need the bailout, not profitable Exelon.

2.)   Significant equity clauses and “just-transitions” programs for nuclear, coal, and other fossil fuel generator and mining communities faced with severe economic disruption as a result of their inevitable closures, ideally initiated prior to facility closure, and the funds escrowed to be available to the communities and workers to protect their tax base and create replacement economic opportunities when the facilities finally close.

3.)   Maximal financial support for an aggressive build-out of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, and improved electric transmission.  If you want a 100% renewable energy future, then build one.  Get to the State’s goal of 100% renewables by 2050 directly.  Don’t waste more  of OUR  time and OUR  money on soon to be extinct fossil fuels and nuclear power plants.  To insure energy equity, make sure these buildouts are given priority to communities already economically disadvantaged or damaged from dirty fossil fuels and nuclear power.

WHAT YOU MUST DO:

Contact the Governor FIRST, then your State Senator (tonight) and Representative (before Wednesday), telling them that you want these three demands included in the final energy legislation.

Go here to find out who your elected officials are and get their contact information.  Follow the instructions found there:

Here is the page you can go to to leave a direct message for the Governor:

https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/gov/contactus/Pages/VoiceAnOpinion.aspx

Here are phone numbers for the Governor you can call:

• ·  Chicago Phone: 312-814-2121 or 312-814-2122
• ·  Springfield Phone:  217-782-6830 or 217-782-6831

How to find your elected official

Thanks in advance.  We’ve done all we could.  Your energy future is now in YOUR  hands.

Be well, do great things,

--Dave Kraft, Director, NEIS--

David A. Kraft, Director

3411 W. Diversey #13

Chicago, IL  60647

(773)342-7650

neis@neis.org

www.neis.org

SKYPE address:  davekhamburg

NEIS is a member of EarthShare Illinois

No more Chornobyls!  No more Fukushimas!

Invest  in a nuclear-free world -- today!

NEIS STATEMENT ON ILLINOIS LEGISLATIVE INACTION ON ENERGY LEGISLATION

STATEMENT ON ILLINOIS LEGISLATIVE INACTION

 ON ENERGY LEGISLATION

June 1, 2021

Tick…tick…tick…

Everything in its own time.  Or so the old saying goes.  The Illinois Legislature demonstrated that old maxim once again by failing to vote before the end of Spring session on a critical piece of energy legislation designed to create Illinois’ energy future.

The Planet has its own schedule, too.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) frantically warned in October 2018 that we humans have at best 10 years left – until 2028 – to totally revamp our energy and economic systems, or risk an irreversible climate crisis that could threaten the very functioning of civilization as we have come to know it.  In this regard it’s important to recall another old maxim:  Nature bats last.

Like the grasshoppers in Aesop’s Fable, we, the Governor, and the Legislature ignore this imminent peril, and instead, content ourselves to “Count the victories,” as House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, advised yesterday as the clock stroked midnight.  Well, looks like it will now be easier to get to-go cocktails.  Come 2019 and beyond, we will need them, and much more.

In its neglect the Legislature once again failed to act to expand renewable energy and energy efficiency; close down dirty energy plants; protect communities and workers adversely affected by nuclear and coal plant closures; expand job and business equity and just-transitions in communities adversely affected by dirty energy; and most urgently -- address the climate crisis.

Perhaps almost as important, the Governor and the Legislature failed to act to end Exelon’s “Nuclear Hostage Crisis” business model consisting of threatening plant closures and jobs and tax-base loss if they don’t get ratepayer subsidized bailouts to prop up money-losing nuclear plants (and the corporate bottom line).  In other circles making threats to extract financial concessions is less-delicately known as – extortion.

While it appears at least for the moment ratepayers will not be turned into Exelon’s personal ATM through another nuclear bailout, unconfirmed reports tell that Governor Pritzker and his negotiators are still willing to play Exelon’s “Nuclear Hostage Crisis” game, reportedly offering as much as $600 million over 5 years to keep open three (it USED to be only 2) money-losing nuclear plants.  Earlier, the State commissioned an independent audit that determined that Exelon’s two financial dogs only needed ~$70 million per year for 5 years at most, maybe less if energy prices improved.  But – why let facts get in the way?

Such a bailout would ostensibly save the 1,200+ jobs at the Dresden and Byron nuclear plants – at a cost to ratepayers of ~$500,000 per job. (or is it – per vote?) Theoretically, that’s progress.  The 2016 bailout “saved” nuclear plants jobs at the tune of ~$1.5 million per job.

Beyond the immediate failure to launch a desperately needed energy future, it is also important to note that whatever energy legislation would have or still will be passed, many significant nuclear power issues remain unaddressed or totally ignored:  more nuclear waste production; totally absent fiscal oversight of reactor decommissioning funds; maintaining safe operations during future pandemics; the implications of the creation of Exelon’s “SpinCo” corporation consisting of (still money-losing) nuclear reactors. 

At the federal level, regulators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are contemplating allowing plants to operate for up to 100 years – begging the question that, if these reactors are not profitable now and need bailing out, will this Nuclear Hostage Crisis go on for the next 40-50 years of plant operations, as the reactors age and expensive safety-related repairs are needed?  Who will be asked to pay for these? SpinCo with a gaggle of nuclear LLCs?  (guess again!).

And the Biden Administration is also making plans to allocate as much as $200 BILLION over the next ten years for nuclear power, much of it to create a “zero-emissions credit” (ZECs) fund to bailout out money-losing, uncompetitive nuclear power plants nationwide.  Will Exelon refund any current bailouts if this plan is adopted?

There will be energy legislation.  There must be.  When it is finally taken up, we sincerely hope that these significant issues are at the forefront of detailed, transparent, and public-involving discussion. 

We have a nuclear rhino in the living room, and can no longer dance around her. Stop paying off the nuclear hostage takers. No more nuclear bailouts.  If we want a truly clean-energy future, then build one - NOW.  We won’t get one by bailing out the past.  If we fail to do this, we’ll need a lot more than cocktails to-go.

--
David A. Kraft, Director

3411 W. Diversey #13

Chicago, IL  60647

(773)342-7650

neis@neis.org

www.neis.org

Illinois governor says clean energy deal not dead yet

As posted at Midwest Energy News:

POLICY: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he is still hopeful that a deal can be reached over a statewide energy bill that boosts renewable energy investments and keeps Exelon nuclear plants operating. (WBEZ)