Huntley’s
66th District Representative Mike Tryon, Chief Co-Sponsor of HB
3293, Low Carbon Energy Portfolio, and Co-Sponsor of the companion legislation
HB 2607, Renewable Resource Procurement, has been blocked by the state’s
ongoing budget stalemate from wrestling either measure out of the House Rules
Committee and onto the House Floor. As a consequence, Commonwealth Edison’s
parent company Exelon must decide by October 1 whether or not to shutter its two
reactor nuclear generating facility along the Mississippi River at Cordova,
Illinois, known as the “Quad Cities” plant. Exelon must either agree to shut
down the reactors after May 2017, or continue operating the facility through at
least 2019.
Passage
of the legislation would result in electric rate increases throughout the
northern Illinois areas served by Commonwealth Edison, increasing costs for
construction businesses using electric power to perform their work. On the
other hand, shuttering the Quad Cities plant would significantly reduce
generating capacity in the state, which could mean future difficulties for
contractors and developers needing more power as their businesses grow and
development in northern Illinois continues to expand. This is just one example
of the barriers to businesses planning for their futures which our embattled
politicians in Springfield seem unable to avoid as they struggle to please
their base constituencies rather than solve our state’s difficult problems.
