From The Freedom Caucus:
Senate hearing confirms Illinois’ energy policies failing residents
Springfield, Illinois – The Illinois Freedom Caucus says the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee hearing Monday on the high utility bills affecting millions of ratepayers revealed how inept and ill-equipped our leaders are to deal with the current energy crisis in the state.
“If I could use one word to sum up today’s Senate Energy Committee Hearing? Disappointing,” said State Representative Chris Miller (R-Hindsboro).
“But yet- it was just what we predicted. The Democrats brought in the full gauntlet of green energy lobbyists and special interest groups to defend their policies rather than admit that we must turn things around.”
Energy prices are going up because supply (capacity) is down and demand is up.
Illinois doesn’t have enough generation capacity anymore.
This wasn’t an issue until CEJA/FEJA/ “Green New Deal” policies forced reliable plants offline.
At the same time, Gov. Pritzker rushed in massive new demand with data centers — without making sure the grid could actually support them.
The uncertainty in the Illinois market is making a bad situation even worse. A PJM representative testified that Illinois is already short on capacity.
“It is the perfect storm,” said State Representative Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville).
“Utility bills are climbing 40–50% because JB Pritzker and the Democrats in the House and Senate have destroyed reliable, affordable energy.
“We need to take politics out of the energy policy discussion and focus on workable solutions that prioritize accessibility, reliability, and affordability.”
The Illinois Freedom Caucus is proposing the following policy steps:
- Stop shutting down reliable energy sources (coal, gas, nuclear)
- Reopen or keep online the plants we already have
- Require new data centers to bring their own energy generation — not dump their load on an already strained grid
- Put affordability and reliability first
State Senator Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) said more of the same is a shortsighted approach. For instance, one solution offered was battery storage but four-hour battery storage costs 1.5 times more than the solar installation itself and 24-hour storage costs 9 to 10 times more.
“That’s not an affordable or realistic solution,” Chesney said.
“Illinois has more than 200 datacenters with more expected to be added in the near future.
“Datacenters require 99.999% dispatchable energy, which means solar, and batteries are not a viable option.
“We need to stop the virtue signaling and focus on energy policies that actually work and that actually are capable of accounting for current and future energy use. It is time to put people first.”
