Chambana Sun

The Champaign County Farm Bureau has awarded state Rep. Michael Marron (R-Danville) the Illinois Farm Bureau Friend of Agriculture award.

“I was honored to receive the Illinois Farm Bureau Friend of Agriculture award at the Champaign County Farm Bureau last week,” Marron said in a recent Facebook post.

The bureau gave the representative a small model of a red tractor to represent the award.

The Champaign County Farm Bureau runs a variety of programs, including Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) programs like the one highlighted at the membership picnic in its September 2022 newsletter. Julie Adcock is the teacher for the AITC program.

This isn’t the first time that Marron has received the Friend of Agriculture Award. In September 2020, he received it from the Illinois Farm Bureau.

Vote Smart noted that Marron voted against Senate Bill 2408, which plans to transition Illinois energy to rely on renewable energies.

In late August, Marron spoke out about changes needed to help the citizens of Illinois and to decrease energy bills.

“In September 2021, House and Senate Democratic Party leaders called legislators back to Springfield for a special session of the legislature to pass sweeping energy legislation,” he said in a recent news release from his office. “I called the bill at the time, ‘Illinois’ Green New Deal.’ The sponsors of the legislation promised, that despite the massive subsidies in the bill and provisions that take powerful generating ‘peaker’ coal-fired power plants offline, Illinoisans in downstate areas would see at most a $3 per electric bill cost increase. I voted no on the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). I was one of many House and Senate Republican members of the General Assembly who warned against the arbitrary closure of much-needed and very reliable power sources. The aftermath of the passage of CEJA has been devastating for Illinoisans living south of the nuclear power generators operated by troubled energy giant ComEd.”

Ballotpedia reported that Marron ran uncontested during the June primary election and will face Democratic candidate Cynthia Cunningham in the Nov. 8 general election.