Gov. Pritzker must play hardball with Exelon. The power supplier is threatening to near its Byron and Dresden nuclear energy crops, claiming they now not are winning. Prizker desires the corporate to be extra clear with its price range first; Exelon is reluctant to open its books.
To keep away from shutting down the crops, Exelon is looking the state for extra Zero Emission Credits. The inclusion of ZECs within the 2016 Future Energy Jobs Act stored Exelon’s Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear energy crops and avoided Illinois from turning into extra reliant on fossil fuels. Nevertheless, ZECs have their drawbacks.
According to the Future Energy Jobs Act, utilities in Illinois will have to acquire ZECs identical to 16% of the megawatt-hours they offered in 2014. The utilities then distribute the ZECs to licensed energy crops and recoup the prices through elevating charges. In phrases of protecting the state’s blank power infrastructure, ZECs make sense. But now, greater than ever, officers must fear about charge will increase.
First, the industrial have an effect on of COVID-19 has left many Illinois citizens devastated. A 12 months in the past, a modest building up in power prices can be trivial. Now, maintaining power prices low is very important for a powerful financial restoration.
Second, Exelon has confirmed that it can’t be depended on. Recently, Commonwealth Edison, Exelon’s subsidiary, agreed to pay $200 million to unravel federal bribery fees. That $200 million will cross to the government, no longer again to ratepayers.
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For a lot of these causes, Pritzker must be competitive with Exelon. But, on the identical time, he wishes to verify the state does no longer overplay its hand. Nuclear power is the spine of Illinois’s blank power infrastructure. Despite years of beneficiant subsidies, wind and sun have no longer been in a position to scale-up to fulfill the instant. For the sake of unpolluted air, the state can not have enough money to let any of Exelon’s crops shut.
Illinois’ nuclear power crops stay one of the vital state’s biggest property. Residents must be happy with this reality. At the similar time, legislators wish to in finding answers that don’t come to the detriment of ratepayers.
Marco Rosaire Rossi, Logan Square
Eviction moratorium is bigoted to landlords
I’m a landlord in Will and Cook Counties. I’m sure through Gov. Pritzker’s statewide moratorium on evictions, which used to be intended to run out on Aug. 22 however has since been prolonged to Sept. 22.
I’ve had each COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 problems with recognize to the power of tenants to pay hire. But whilst I’ve labored during the problems associated with COVID, I’ve no longer been in a position to paintings to unravel tenant problems that don’t seem to be COVID-related.
I’ve a Will County tenant who has no longer paid any hire since September 2019. After making an attempt to unravel this factor, I used to be left with out a selection however to evict. I used to be running during the eviction procedure in early March when the governor first instituted the moratorium.
The factor right here isn’t associated with COVID-19, however I can’t evict the tenant as a result of the “blanket” moratorium. This scenario is extremely unfair and a hardship to me as a landlord, since my downside existed earlier than the pandemic and the governor lumped in combination all present and pre-existing eviction eventualities.
None of the numerous condominium help plans will paintings for my instances.
Governor, please prevent extending the moratorium or let any evictions ordered previous to April 1, 2020 be processed.
Craig Horvath, Chicago