ILLINOIS – Today, U.S. Congressional Republicans passed the most extreme, expensive, and anti-environment budget reconciliation bill in history, wiping out good-paying clean energy jobs and raising energy costs for families by gutting the historic progress made in the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act. The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition released the following statement:
“For months, we’ve joined advocates and legislative leaders across the country in sounding the alarm that President Trump was gearing up to use his majorities in Congress to decimate the historic climate progress we’ve made at the federal level, cutting funding for climate programs, gutting clean energy manufacturing, killing good jobs, and driving up energy bills. Today, that threat is a reality.
“Although Illinois missed a chance to Trump-proof our state’s climate progress and consumers’ utility bills by passing the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act this spring, the legislature still has a critical opportunity to take action this fall and send a clear message that Illinois’ clean energy economy is open for business. Illinois ratepayers are facing soaring energy bills due to regional grid operators’ poor planning, which has delayed the connection of cheaper clean energy to meet growing demand. Grid challenges will only escalate as Illinois rushes to build energy-intensive data centers at the behest of Big Tech. Now, as President Trump’s Big Terrible Bill rolls back critical climate protections and clean energy tax incentives, Illinois consumers, our power grid, and our climate will pay the price. By passing the CRGA Act this fall, lawmakers in the General Assembly can provide the bold response Illinois needs right now to protect families from soaring utility bills, preserve and grow our clean energy workforce, and maintain our national leadership on climate action.”
In Illinois, the budget reconciliation bill will:
- Increase residential energy bills by $168 annually and increase commercial and industrial energy bills 21% due to the repeal of clean energy tax credits.
- Result in the loss of between 30,000 and 56,000 jobs by 2030.
- Increase air pollution by 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2030 and 6 million metric tons by 2035.
- Result in the loss of over $16.8 billion worth of investments from public and private sources, putting 105 facilities at risk of closure across the state.
info@ilcleanjobs.org