Energy Bill Co-Sponsored By Evanston Democrat Gabel Passes House

EVANSTON, IL — A piece of energy legislation co-sponsored by an Illinois state representative who represents Evanston and the North Shore and that would make the state carbon-free by 2045 passed the House of Representatives late Thursday night and will make its way to the senate.

Senate Bill 2408, co-sponsored by Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston), would reduce pollution by eliminating fossil fuel plants and replace them with renewable energy. The bill passed the House 83-33 just before 9:30 p.m. and has already drawn the approval of Gov. JB Pritzker, who said he will sign the bill if it passes the Senate.

The bill, Gabel said, puts Illinois on the path toward being 100 percent reliant on renewable energy by 2050. It also expands energy efficiency for public schools, expands low-income weatherization and provides for an electric vehicle rebate.

“This action is desperately needed in response to our planet’s serious climate emergency, and I hope other states will soon follow,” Gabel said in a statement issued after Thursday night’s vote.

“A crucial component of this package is the commitment to labor and workforce development. It includes safeguards for current workers, sets aside assistance for displaced workers and impacted communities, creates thousands of brand-new union jobs and expands union apprenticeships in minority communities. The bill also creates the strongest clean energy labor standards in the nation.”

Environmental groups support the measure, which looks to take coal, gas and other carbon-emitting power plants off the grid sometime between 2030 and 2045. Opponents of the bill said that the legislation will lead to the loss of jobs of workers who work at fossil fuel plants.

The bill calls for plants to be carbon-free by 2045 either by going offline or installing sequestration technology, Capitol News Illinois reported on Thursday. Plants located in municipalities across the state would have to cut emissions by 45 percent by 2035 or face retiring a portion of their carbon-emitting units or meet the goal in another way by 2038.

The bill also involves a $700 million subsidy keeping the Illinois fleet of nuclear power plants afloat, according to the Associated Press.

For many years, comprehensive energy legislation that puts consumers and the climate first has been debated while scientists around the world have sounded the alarm about the growing impacts of climate change,” Pritzker said in a statement Thursday. “(Senate Bill) 2408 puts the state on a path toward 100% clean energy and invests in training a diverse workforce for the jobs of the future. Illinois will become the best state in the nation to manufacture and drive an electric vehicle, and equity will be prioritized in every new program created.”