Illinois residents have been dealing with an energy crisis as families in central and southern Illinois see their bills jump by $45 a month. Even in northern Illinois, home to many nuclear power generation facilities, our bills have been spiking. Agency officials in Illinois have testified that we are even at risk of rolling blackouts in the years ahead—which would cause critical safety issues as well as economic damage.
Instead of fixing the problem this Veto Session, Democrats made it worse. They rushed through an energy omnibus in the early morning hours with no transparency or public input. I took part in the Senate Committee hearing, and witnessed first hand how unprepared they were to present this bill. The House was amending the bill even as we spoke—and key questions could not be answered, because experts could not be on hand due to the short notice of the Senate hearing (just an hour of notice!).
So, what happened? Democrats stuck families with the costs of their $8 billion rate hike:
• Limit caps that once protected families from skyrocketing energy bills were eliminated. • Billions redirected to special interests instead of affordable, reliable power. • Customers, not developers, forced to bankroll unproven battery tech that lasts only hours. • Local control stripped—allowing major energy projects as close as 150 feet from homes. • Reliability threatened as proven power plants are pushed aside for experimental tech.
We warned Democrats this wouldn’t solve the crisis. We told them to stop shutting down reliable plants. We told them to cleanly lift the nuclear moratorium without adding more bureaucracy. They ignored every warning.
Illinois could be a national energy leader—and that path is still open to us, with the right leadership and policies. This Veto Session, though, we shockingly continued down exactly the wrong path. Now families are stuck with higher bills and an even bigger
energy problem. Bottom line: higher bills, weaker reliability, and fewer options for Illinois families being forced to subsidize rich developers.