Sen. Plummer Wants Energy Concerns to be a 2023 Priority

Urges immediate relief to families struggling with power bills

Springfield, IL-(Effingham Radio)-State Senator Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) joined several downstate Republican legislators at the Capitol Tuesday calling for action to address the rising cost of energy impacting Illinois families and businesses.

“Families are in a world of hurt right now and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t act now,” said Sen. Plummer. “As they continue to grapple with record-high inflation, they are also now subject to dramatic rate increases on their power bills because of Illinois’ poor public policy decisions.”

Sen. Plummer says he’s backing a package of bills aimed at providing immediate, short-term relief as well as long-term solutions to addressing Illinois’ energy crisis. Citing energy rate increases that have almost doubled some families’ energy bills since May 2022, Sen. Plummer announced his support for the following measures:

• Senate Bill 2200: Provides much-needed relief for Ameren residential and commercial customers, who were subject to increased rates last summer. Allocates $200 million (about $170 per customer) in rebates to affected consumers that would be broken up into monthly bill credits likely occurring from April through October. The Legislature approved an Ameren rate relief package during last month’s lame-duck session, but the money was never appropriated.
• Senate Bill 1548: Cuts burdensome regulatory “red tape” at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which has prevented new power plants from coming online in a timely manner.
• Senate Bill 1547: Creates the Power Grid Task Force requiring the General Assembly to look at the impacts that energy policies are having on Illinois’ ability to produce the required amount of energy to meet Illinois’ needs.

“This latest crisis isn’t something that just came out of nowhere,” said Sen. Plummer. “The Supermajority party in Springfield and the Governor were warned that their ‘all-or-nothing’ renewable energy policies would have an adverse effect on not only people’s utility bills but also on Illinois’ ability to meet our power demands.”

Sen. Plummer is also joining legislators in sending a letter to the Governor requesting the filing of emergency rulemaking procedures to dump more power into the grid markets and asking his Administration to revise permit procedures to fast-track the development of natural gas plants.