The following bills of interest to the energy industry were introduced into the 100th Illinois General Assembly for consideration during its Spring 2018 session:
Senate Bill 2213 (Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Skokie) – would require state agencies to adopt, maintain and enforce environmental rules that are at least as stringent as various regulatory baselines under federal law. Assigned to Senate Labor Committee.
Senate Bill 3005 (Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago) – would allow any “person” to appeal or intervene in lawsuits challenging decisions of state agencies, a legal status which is currently reserved for “parties” to the decision. Approved by Senate Judiciary Committee. On 2nd Reading in the Senate.
Senate Bill 3549 (Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Champaign) – would require certain inspections of underground natural gas storage facilities. Assigned to Senate Environment and Conservation Committee.
House Bill 4081 (Rep. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island) – would impose sanctions and penalties on any company that relocates a call center, or large portion of a call center, out of state. Approved by the House Economic Opportunity Committee. On 2nd Reading in the House.
House Bill 4898 (Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago) – would prohibit a utility in a specific geographic area from using a previously approved rider mechanism to recover costs of its infrastructure modernization program. Assigned to House Public Utilities Committee.
House Bill 5101 (Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago) – would limit electricity customer choice to using municipal aggregation programs to obtain power from alternative retail electric suppliers (ARES). Assigned to House Public Utilities Committee.
House Bill 5564 (Rep. Anna Moeller (D-Elgin) – would require that parties have the option of trial by jury in property condemnation proceedings associated with use of eminent domain authority. Assigned to House Judiciary – Civil Committee.