Chambana Sun

Illinois State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) calls the CEJA bill from 2021 “environmental colonialism” and points out that he accurately predicted that companies would resort to backfilling with out-of-state energy sources.

"Forget the green, we're back to carbon. We're back to coal," Rose said.

In September of 2021, Illinois Governor Pritzker signed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), according to a press release. The bill was pitched as a step towards 100% green energy sources in the state by 2050. Illinois was the first state to enact such legislation. SB2408 required that the state is at 40% renewable energy by 2030 and 50% by 2040, increased regulations and the limits on emissions for coal and natural gas companies, and created a coal-to-solar program to support the transition from coal to renewable energy.

Republicans opposed this bill when it was passed, citing concerns for the local power grid and the lack of preparation by the state and businesses to be able to handle such a major transition. Critics cited reports from Illinois power companies saying that CEJA would increase costs and that power companies would simply just purchase coal from outside the state when local coal factories shut down.

Sen. Rose recently addressed the CEJA bill in a hearing, citing a recent report that proved Republicans’ fears correct, not even two years out from the bill being passed.

“I said that day, that very day, there wasn't any green because it was all going to be backfilled with carbon and coal from out of the state of Illinois. And lo and behold if that day didn't come. It took less than two years,” Rose said. “MISO, the grid operator the good senator just mentioned, which is the operator for virtually everything south of I-80 and actually most of the Midwest I might add, has said that Illinois's power market is going to become so unstable because we're closing our incumbent Illinois-based energy providers, putting our people out of work, that they are now forced to bring in transmission lines from out of state to do what? To backfill the electrons that are coming off the grid from the plants that were closed by CEJA, signed by the governor [to be] green. Except that guess what they're backfilling with: coal, carbon. And you know what we all get to pay more for it.”

Rose said “Every one of those environmentalists thinks that downstate Illinois is your Dumping Ground,” and that their “out of sight out of mind environmental colonialism” is hurting his neighborhood while they send press releases about how green the state is.