CLINTON – Illinois two endangered nuclear power plants in Clinton and Quad Cities are safe for now, as Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law Wednesday morning a bill that bails out the nation's biggest power company.
Exelon tweeted out this photo of the signing, with Republican and Democrat lawmakers looking on.
Not everyone is pleased with this development.
Republican State Rep. Jeanne Ives laid out her concerns in an op-ed published on Illinois Review Tuesday, and the Illinois Manufacturers Association said they're very disappointed in the governor's decision to sign SB 2814 into law so quickly.
“Today, Illinois' ability to compete for middle class manufacturing jobs was weakened by Governor Bruce Rauner's signature of SB 2814," IMA said in a statement. "Last week, lawmakers approved a 500-page bill that significantly alters Illinois' energy policy with very little time for stakeholder review. We hoped that the Administration would take time to review this comprehensive legislation and contemplate the impact that electric rates have on Illinois job creators."
Illinois manufacturers have lost nearly 10,000 good, high-paying jobs in the past year while neighboring states are growing.
"Building a guaranteed electric rate hike into state law and reversing twenty years of deregulation is not the answer to get our economy booming again,” they wrote.
