The House and Senate returned to Springfield this week after a two-week Spring Break. The House was in Session Monday through Friday with the Senate in Session Tuesday through Thursday.
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Both Chambers had April 28th as their deadline for third reading on bills in their Chamber of origin. Many bills were called on 3rd reading this week, but few bills of concern to the energy industry have moved out of committee this year, so there are few bills of concern expected to be voted on.
The Senate did approve SB 71 (Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park) which would remove ICC certification requirements for companies building new utility scale wind projects in Illinois. The ICC certification requirement for renewable electric generation facilities in Illinois was a provision in the Future Energy Jobs Bill that passed during the Veto Session. Many wind developers were concerned that these new certification requirements would jeopardize pending projects in Illinois. SB 71 was eventually negotiated with various stakeholders, and an amendment was added that would remove large wind projects from the ICC certification process. SB 71 was approved by the Senate on a vote of 47 to 3, and now heads to the House for consideration.
Both Chambers continue to work on an AT&T telecommunications modernization effort that is currently opposed by the Energy Association. The electric and gas distribution utilities currently use AT&T phone lines to support critical infrastructure. The industry is deploying new technology that will replace many of the older AT&T facilities, but the industry timeline to replace these facilities does not line up with AT&T’s modernization timeline. The Association met with AT&T this week and AT&T has agreed to try and work out transition agreements to ensure phone facilities are not retired before the utilities are prepared to replace them.
The House Energy Committee was scheduled to meet on Monday to consider HB 1848 (Rep. Reginald Philips, R- Charleston). The bill is a vehicle for proposed amendments that would expand the State’s clean coal portfolio standards to incent the construction of a 90 megawatt coal gasification facility. In the past the Committee has declined to take up similar proposals, and canceled this week’s hearing.
The Senate will return to Springfield next week. They are scheduled to be in Session Tuesday through Friday. The House is not scheduled to be in next week and will return to Springfield the second week of May.
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