instapaper.com
Illinois' Brilliant New Climate, Jobs, and Justice Bill
Clean energy and good wages, justly distributed: the Illinois energy bill I’m not going to cover the entire 900-page bill. We’ll just hit the highlights. Emission reductions and clean electricity Today, Illinois gets about 40 percent of its electricity from nuclear power and less than 10 percent from renewable energy. The new renewable portfolio standard (RPS) will raise renewables’ share to 40 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040, with the goal of a net-zero electricity sector by 2045 — and beyond that, a net-zero state economy by 2050. This is extremely ambitious and a new benchmark for the Midwest.
Subsidies to renewable energy will roughly double, to around $580 million per year. An additional $317 million the big utilities had previously collected will be spent on clean-energy projects rather than refunded to customers as scheduled. (It’s a long story.) The popular Illinois Solar for All program, which helps get rooftop solar power to low-income renters and homeowners (as well as public buildings and nonprofits serving environmental justice communities), will have its funding increased from $10 million to $50 million a year.