Illinois lawmakers on Thursday passed the Future Energy Jobs Bill, a controversial package of subsidies that power provider Exelon says will allow it to maintain operation of the Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station nuclear plants. The company had previously said it would close the facilities without nuclear subsidies.
Both the Illinois House and Senate approved the bill, which awaits Gov. Bruce Rauner’s signature, which would allow the legislation to take effect June 1.
The bill, which was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly during its fall veto session, establishes a zero-emission standard similar to the energy subsidies recently adopted in New York state. The subsidy for the two plants could amount to $235 million per year, according to the Chicago Tribune, down from the $285 million requested in previous energy bills in Illinois.
“This forward-looking energy policy levels the playing field and values all carbon-free energy equally, positions Illinois as a national leader in advancing clean energy, and will provide a major boost to the Illinois economy,” Exelon President and CEO Chris Crane said in a statement Thursday. “Today marks a significant victory for the state of Illinois, the families and businesses that live and work here, and the health of our environment. We encourage the Governor to swiftly sign the legislation into law.”
Exelon announced an agreement with Rauner on Wednesday that included capping rate increases for businesses at 1.3 percent, compared to 2015 rates. According to the Chicago Tribune, the new bill will cost customers of Exelon subsidiary ComEd anywhere from an extra 25 cents to $4.54 more a month.
Critics including the Illinois Manufacturers Association and state Attorney General Lisa Madigan have blasted the legislation, which Madigan called an unnecessary bailout for a profitable company. Critics accused Exelon of crying wolf last spring when it pushed for the Next Generation Energy Plan, which died in the General Assembly. The company, citing economic hardship, last summer said it would close Clinton in June 2017 and Quad Cities in June 2018, estimating that the plants had lost about $800 million in the previous six years.
The new bill received broad support, however, from more than 200 business, labor, environmental, and faith-based groups. The Brattle Group, an economic consulting firm, said in a report before the bill’s passage that maintaining operation of Quad Cities and Clinton would save Illinois taxpayers $364 million annually in electricity costs.
The study, sponsored by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said the bill will result in $115 million in annual savings for residential customers and $249 million for commercial and industrial customers, based on present electricity rates. The report, which assumes electricity rates would increase with the loss of the two plants, projects that savings over a 10-year period would total just over $3 billion.
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. The sale is pending approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Justice.
