Quick update on the status of the energy bill in Springfield. Right before midnight on Monday, May 31st, legislators hit an impasse over the long-awaited clean energy bill. The issue centered around a proposal to exempt Illinois’s largest coal plant, Prairie State, from declining caps on emissions.
Lawmakers are expected to reconvene later this month in a special extended session, but this will require the energy bill to have a supermajority vote rather than simple majority to pass. Right now, the drafted energy legislation includes provisions to phase out coal plants by 2035 and gas-fired plants by 2045. After negotiations between the governor and Exelon, it would also include approximately $600 million over 5 years to fund Illinois’s nuclear plants.
For solar, this all means that we are still waiting for incentive funding for new projects and will continue to add to a growing waitlist of interested solar customers.
