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The
state of Illinois' version of a broad energy strategy to offer
incentives for both traditional and alternative energy sources
is still alive in Springfield, with co-sponsors hoping it will
be enacted before the regular session's end.
The Illinois Energy to Jobs Act - Senate Bill 1823 - is
comprehensive legislation piggybacking the Obama
Administration's own energy policies. The act, according to
co-sponsor Sen. James Clayborne Jr. (D-East St. Louis),
encourages public-sector investment to create a more expedient,
attractive climate for companies willing to make energy-specific
capital investments of their own in Illinois.
At press time, the bill's deadline was extended; it remained
in the Senate Assignments (formerly Rules) Committee.
Clayborne said Illinois' existing permitting requirements,
coupled with its inadequate incentives for companies considering
such investments - from wind farms to more traditional efforts
like refinery expansions - are not competitive or conducive to
attracting these projects.
"We don't want to run companies away," said Clayborne. "If
there's a way to expedite the permitting process on these types
of huge investments, such as ConocoPhillips' CORE project (in
Roxana) in a way that satisfies both industry and the
environmentalists, we need to do it."
Removing the moratorium on nuclear power plant construction
in Illinois is also a provision of SB 1823. Illinois adopted the
prohibition back in the early 1980s, after the near disaster in
1979 at Three-Mile Island in Pennsylvania. But 30 years have
passed since then; and legislators here, including Clayborne,
say the ban should be lifted because nuclear reactors can
provide extensive, inexpensive energy.
"With few new coal plants coming online, the country is
heading toward a power shortage," Clayborne said. "As important
as wind and solar power are, they alone will not provide for all
our future energy needs. This legislation addresses incentives
for both alternative and traditional energy sources. My bill is
designed to try to create a mechanism in different segments of
the energy industry to make Illinois a little more friendly, and
to attract companies to look at it," he added.
It took ConocoPhillips nearly three years to complete the
permitting process to begin its nearly $4 billion processing
expansion, Clayborne says, and that's not a competitive
timetable when compared to other parts of the country.
"We're also looking at ways to give companies incentives, in
the form of tax credits, for the purchase of certain equipment
that is used at the (new) facility," he said. "SB 1823 seeks to
create a template that positions Illinois as energy-friendly, in
terms of drawing these types of major investments here."
Sen. Kyle McCarter (R-Decatur), one of the bill's
co-sponsors, says encouraging carbon capture and sequestration -
a process that will be used at the $3.6 billion Prairie State
Energy Campus in Washington County, which will be the country's
largest coal-fired power plant - is an example of an initiative
that the state needs to be encouraging via incentives.
"ADM (Archer Daniels Midland Co.) just began a joint venture
with another company to engage in this process," said McCarter.
"They're taking carbon dioxide, the byproduct of their
manufacturing operation, and liquefying it and pumping it into a
deep well, storing it in the strata of the earth. It's important
for the state of Illinois to support major investments like
this. We've got to remain competitive to keep it here."
Todd Maisch, vice president of government affairs for the
Illinois Chamber of Commerce, says the chamber wrote SB 1823
because it is committed to making the most of Illinois' energy
investment opportunities.
"The basic premise of this bill is that Illinois has a lot of
unique energy assets, and it should be our public policy to look
for a way to use those assets to maximize job potential," Maisch
said, noting that Illinois' energy base includes one of the
largest coal reserves in the world. "Opening new coal mines,
building new wind farms and investing in smart grid technology -
bringing it to Illinois - is what we need to be doing. SB 1823
embraces all sources of energy, not just alternative sources,
because the demands of energy are growing in such a way that you
can't just rely on one or the other."
Illinois also boasts its uniqueness in having the most
nuclear generating plants of any state, according to Maisch. Its
convergence of natural gas and crude oil pipelines, five area
oil refineries, farmland for biofuels and ample wind for
electrical generation also contributes to its position as rich
in energy investment opportunities.
Maisch says the subject of jobs creation isn't rising to the
surface enough in the Springfield rotunda. "In the legislative
session, there's an awful lot of talk about the budget deficit,
but not nearly enough discussion about jobs creation...and
that's what this bill would do," he said. "At the end of the
day, the state's lack of jobs creation is at the root of our
problems."
SB 1823 also proposes tax credits to companies who improve
their energy production at existing facilities. |
