NEW ENERGY COUNCIL CHAIR - ROBERT O'HARA
Please join me in welcoming Bob O'Hara with Primera Engineers as the Illinois Chamber Energy Council Chair. As many of you know, our exiting Chair Tom Wolf has moved to the great state of Washington to take a new role with BP. While we are sad to see him go, we are very excited for Bob to take the helm.
Bob is Vice President and Substation Department Manager for Primera Engineers in Lisle, IL. Primera is a 16-year member of the Illinois Chamber. Bob has more than 20 years of power industry experience. His expertise includes substation design, transmission system studies, renewable generation interconnection design, HVDC design, EMF studies, induction coordination, project development, utility economics and project management. He has managed major substation and transmission line projects with large utilities across the United States and Canada. Bob attended the University of Notre Dame and Marquette University. Welcome Bob!
SPRINGFIELD
The General Assembly has adjourned for the 2019 calendar year.
Both the House and Senate have released the 2019 session calendar and both will have two days of lame duck session on January 7
th and 8
th. The General Assembly inauguration is on January 9
th and the Governor will be inaugurated on January 14
th.
House calendar here,
Senate calendar here.
As for this week, the General Assembly had a relatively quiet week for the last week of veto session, but activity boomed on Wednesday as the General Assembly considered and passed Energy Council initiative SB849. More on that below. For the full list of final veto overrides,
click here.
House
Amendment 2 to SB 849 (Zalewski/McGuire) passed the House (91-13-4) and Senate (52-0) today. The bill prohibits home rule units of government from taxing or imposing a fee on the generation of electricity or the emissions from electric generation. The bill extended the sunset to January 1, 2021. Amendment 2 was an initiative of the Illinois Chamber Energy Council. Our position paper is here. The bill was opposed by the Illinois Municipal League, likely out of concerns over home rule limits. The IML, however, did not state what their exact opposition. The bill now heads to the Governor's desk and the Chamber has sent a letter urging the Governor to sign the bill.
Despite many hearings and significant effort to find a compromise to address emissions of ethylene oxide after the Sterigencs incident, the legislation before the General Assembly will not advance. Representative Sente, the sponsor of SB 3101 will not move Amendment 5. This amendment would regulate the use of ethylene oxide in Illinois. Given the time constraints, expect nothing to be done on EtO before 2019. The House Environment Committee had scheduled a hearing for Thursday morning to consider Amendment 6, but the hearing was cancelled. Expect this issue to be picked up in the new General Assembly.
SB3549, Amendment 1 (Costello/Rose) passed both Houses. The bill clarifies that IDNR has jurisdiction over the downhole portion of underground natural gas storage tank facilities and that they must certify their pipeline safety program with the USDOT. This bill aims to solve some juridistictional confusion over downhole portions of storage tanks that stems from Congress passing the PIPES Act in 2016.
Senate
Despite concurring with the House on SB849, no significant legislation was considered by the Senate. SB241, Senator Munoz's legislation that the Chamber provided language for, was not considered by the Senate. The bill would affect distribution of notices for air permits. It's possible the legislation could be considered during lame duck, but unlikely. The Chamber will continue to monitor the legislation.
It is expected to be a busy year with energy legislation next year. What exactly we will see depends on many different factors, but anticipate lots of activity.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
