Just last week, we learned that ComEd – the company connected to the federal indictment of Mike Madigan’s criminal enterprise – plans to increase costs for ratepayers to the tune of $199 million starting in 2023. Now we understand that residents in other parts of the state may soon see eye-popping rate hikes, too. Combine those rate hikes with rolling blackouts and the months and years ahead will be painful for Illinois families thanks to Pritzker’s radical energy policy.
As media reported last Friday, ComEd filed a request to increase residential electricity rates by $2.20 a month to offset the costs of new mandates imposed under Pritzker’s energy tax law.
And now, a new bombshell report from Crain’s Chicago details how the Pritzker Administration’s war on coal and natural gas will significantly impact customers in downstate Illinois.
From Crain’s…
The cost of losing coal-fired power plants downstate is proving steep already, with many central and southern Illinoisans expected to pay an extra $150-plus on their annual electric bills beginning in June, due to inadequate power supply.
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Critics of policies phasing out coal and natural gas in favor of renewable power are seeing their doomsday forecasts start to come true far faster than even they thought.
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The statute requires the closure of all fossil fuel power plants in Illinois no later than 2045. Effectively, it’s made the usual method of addressing power-supply shortages—construction of new natural gas-fired plants—uneconomic and significantly reduced the tools available to address the shortage that’s emerged.
And not only will ratepayers be paying more, Pritzker’s misguided energy agenda will likely cause rolling blackouts this summer according to Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, the regional power grid overseer for much of the Midwest, including central and southern Illinois.
Again, from Crain’s…
MISO sounded the alarm last week, saying it was concerned about the rapid closure of coal-fired power plants, which have kept the lights on for decades in much of the Midwest. Replacement sources aren’t being established fast enough to offset the loss.
Pritzker is currently running TV ads right now touting his temporary, election-year “relief” for taxpayers while those same taxpayers will be using all those “savings” to pay for energy rate hikes caused by his ill-advised, Green New Deal inspired war on reliable energy generation.
And downstate Illinoisans will most likely have to dig into their wallets even further to purchase generators and battery powered lights to deal with Pritzker’s rolling blackouts this summer.
Taxpayer savings? What savings?
And this is just April 2022. Experts expect things to get much worse in the years ahead.
We simply cannot afford another four years of J.B. Pritzker.
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