Illinois is once again considering comprehensive energy legislation that utility Exelon claims is necessary to stave off closures of its Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station, despite critics’ claims that the bill is an unnecessary bailout for a profitable company.
The Future Energy Jobs bill (SB 2814) was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly during its fall veto session, which closes Dec. 1. The legislation would establish a zero-emission standard, similar to the energy subsidies recently adopted in New York state. The subsidy for the two plants could amount to $265 million per year, according to Midwest Energy News.
Exelon and subsidiary ComEd applauded introduction of the bill Wednesday, calling it “an important next step” in passing “urgently needed comprehensive energy legislation that will strengthen Illinois’ economy and make Illinois a leader in clean energy.” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who has opposed Exelon’s push for energy legislation, in a tweet this week called the bill “a wide variety of expensive programs that provide little benefit to IL consumers.”
Critics accused Exelon of crying wolf last spring in its push for the Next Generation Energy Plan, a previous energy bill that died in the General Assembly. The company, citing economic hardship, last summer said it would close down Clinton in June 2017 and Quad Cities in June 2018. Exelon estimated then that the plants had lost about $800 million in the past six years.
“The Zero Emissions Standard is an innovative approach that will preserve the state’s largest source of clean energy,” said Joe Dominguez, Exelon’s executive vice president for governmental and regulatory affairs and public policy, in a prepared statement. “These plants are the backbone of our energy supply, preventing significant carbon emissions and serving as economic engines for the state and the communities in which they operate.”
In New York, Exelon successfully lobbied for approval of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard, which is projected to pay upstate nuclear power plant operators nearly $8 billion in energy subsidies over the program’s lifetime. Exelon stands to collect on all those subsidies, as it has reached a deal to buy New York’s third upstate nuclear power plant, the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant, from Entergy for $110 million. Exelon already owns the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant and the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station. The sale is pending approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Justice.
