By David Wojick
The Climate Alliance coalition of Democrat Governors recently featured a new Illinois “affordability” law which is actually the opposite. This is a good example of the Alliance’s anti-affordability policies.
The reported and claimed name of this new law is the “Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA).” That is what the Governor’s press release and news reports call it. The official name however is hilarious. The bill is here and is clearly labeled the “SWIMMING FACILITY COLD SPA” law.
Apparently, the Democrat controlled Legislature took a rule-avoiding shortcut. They took this little swimming pool bill, which was already well along, stripped it of its text and added a monster 1,200-page energy bill, then quickly passed the critter.
In any case, this is not an affordability law — quite the contrary — and this speaks to the Climate Alliance’s entire policy posture.
Keep in mind that the idea of “affordability” refers to alleviating today’s escalating energy costs, especially electricity bills. In stark contrast, this bill is claimed to save electricity users a lot of money over the next 20 years or so, but it only does so at great expense today. So, it is an anti-affordability law.
Here is how the Governor’s press release puts it:
“CRGA will lower costs by driving the development of new energy resources, enacting new regulatory powers to support consumers, and creating and enhancing consumer cost-saving programs. The Illinois Power Agency (IPA) found that CRGA’s critical measures are expected to save Illinois energy customers $13.4 billion over the next two decades.”
These supposedly lower future costs come at the usual huge present day green costs. The biggest cost drivers are lots of renewables, batteries, and efficiency programs, all paid for by suffering ratepayers.
There is also lots of electrification and EV stuff, plus “environmental justice,” and so on — the whole big green ball of money.
They do lift the ban on nuclear power, which is good news since Illinois used to be a leader on this. But it saves nobody anything in the near future.
Here is the “affordability” fantasy made clear: “We’re making it easier to develop renewable energy,” bill sponsor Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said at the signing ceremony. “We’re going to deploy battery storage; we’re lifting the nuclear moratorium. That’s all going to bring more supply onto the grid, and that will help hold the line on our electrical bills.”
Spending untold billions of dollars on renewables, batteries, and new nukes (if ever) is not going to “hold the line” on electrical bills.
Batteries in particular are incredibly expensive to buy and provide no new supply. They just make money for their owners by buying low off-peak and selling high on-peak. In fact, they consume energy in this expensive arbitrage process.
A law like this that is certain to drive up electricity bills can best be described as anti-affordability. It is just more hugely expensive energy transition nonsense.
The Climate Alliance boasts that they have over 4,000 laws, executive orders, and related policy documents from their member States in their policy database.
These are basically the “blue states,” and if anti-affordability Illinois CRGA is representative of these over 4,000 mandates, then it is no wonder these state’s electricity prices are far greater than in the other states. The so-called energy transition is driving up people’s bills.
People in blue states suffering from exorbitant electric bills need look no further than the U.S. Climate Coalition to see what is hitting them. Anti-affordability is the policy.
