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Executive Director Energy Council
217-522-5512 ext. 234
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July 8, 2020
Good morning, all! I hope everyone has managed to stay safe during these extraordinarily hectic times. While we've all been focused on Covid19-related issues and the effects on our daily lives, things are starting to move once again, legislatively, and our weekly updates will once again, in fact, be weekly. If you have any questions about today's newsletter or anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at
[email protected]
. On to the newsletter!
Governor's Energy Working Group
The Administration has virtually reconvened it's Energy Working Group, and the first meeting was held via Webex on Tuesday, June 30, 2020. Five additional meetings have also been scheduled, although the second that was set for July 2 was cancelled due to the holiday weekend, and the remaining dates are as follows: July 7, July 9, July 14, and August 18. Other working group meetings on Equity, Transportation, and Commercial/Industrial/Buildings have also been scheduled during this time period.
The first meeting, after reintroducing the goals of the administration and reintroducing the participants from the Governor's Office and the General Assembly, focused on the current status of renewable energy in Illinois, and attempted to identify barriers to renewable development and where the stakeholders might generally agree on policies impacting renewable deployment. By my count, there were at least 90 participants on the virtual meeting, representing many of the same interests we have come accustomed to, but many participants chose not to identify themselves when logging into the meeting. Representatives of CEJA and the Path to 100 each presented a PowerPoint deck on the barriers to development and the highpoints of each piece of legislation. Once I have received those presentations, I will send them out to the Council with the next newsletter. While there was some good discussion, very little new ground was covered.
Some of the key takeaways from the meeting included:
The Administration's key focus, in any piece of legislation it considers, will be cost, and "people and climate first";
CEJA proponents have every intention of pursuing passage of its legislation during the fall Veto Session;
Senator Hastings indicated that the Senate Energy Committee will hold two hearings in the next three months, though he did not share the subject matter of those hearings;
On numerous occasions, Deputy Governor Christian Mitchell asked the group what would drive additional renewable development, beyond just throwing additional money at the issue. He was certainly interested in learning of the various hurdles to development, such as siting, financing, and possible regulatory issues;
There was a robust discussion about how best to meet the State's renewable goals, with a focus on large scale solar versus distributed assets; and
The group heard about how existing financing structures don't provide sufficient certainty for entities considering financing renewable projects.
Agendas have not yet been set for the upcoming meetings, so I am uncertain as of today what those meeting agendas will include in future meetings.
News on the Clean Energy Jobs Act
On June 30, 2020, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition issued a memo to interested parties announcing that it is initiating a
campaign to engage voters across the state and asking them to urge their legislators to pass CEJA in the Fall Veto Session. The campaign includes more than $200,000 in radio, mail and digital communications, and will focus on:
A five week Chicago DMA radio buy on WBBM Newsradio 780 AM/105.9 FM;
3 rounds of mail totaling more than 212,000 pieces to likely voters with high environmental activism scores in the City of Chicago, Suburban Cook, the Collar Counties and parts of Northern, Central and Southern Illinois; and
Paid digital targeting more than 200,000 likely voters with high environmental activism scores urging them to contact their legislators and pass CEJA
As you know, the Illinois Chamber opposes CEJA, and will continue its efforts to educate and inform legislators and the administration on our members' concerns with the significant costs of the legislation.
Other Items of News and Note
D.C. Circuit Reject's FERC's Use of Tolling Orders
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its en banc decision in Allegheny Defense Project v. FERC, rejecting FERC's 50-year-old practice of issuing "tolling orders" to extend the time for reconsideration of challenges to certification of pipeline projects under the Natural Gas Act. Such orders pushed the reconsideration timetable back and delayed a challenger's (often a landowner) appeal rights, sometimes until after construction of the project was complete. In its ruling, the Allegheny court unanimously upheld FERC's approval of the pipeline project in question. However, in a 10-1 split, the Court determined that the Commission lacks the authority under the NGA to issue tolling orders for the purposes of preventing rehearing from being "denied" by its inaction, and thus extend the rehearing period and forestall an appeal of its order.
US EPA to End COVID-19 Enforcement Discretion Policy
In a memorandum issued June 29, 2020, the Agency stated it would terminate the temporary policy of discretionary enforcement put in place in March of this year in response to the pandemic crisis. The policy is set to expire on August, 31, 2020, meaning "the EPA will not base any exercise of enforcement discretion on this temporary policy for any noncompliance" after this date.
Dakota Access Pipeline Owner Invokes Force Majeure as It Sees Opposition in Illinois
Energy Transfer, the owner of the Bakken shale pipeline, is invoking the rare provision to prevent oil firms from abandoning the pipeline expansion to which they agreed. In Illinois, the company has encountered organized opposition to the project's expansion into the state, and the proceeding before the Illinois Commerce Commission (Dkt. No. 19-0673) has become a focal point of that opposition.
The Governor's Energy Working Group resumes this week, so I'll provide an update on those developments, along with whatever else starts moving, later this week! I hope you had a wonderful and safe Fourth of July holiday!
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