SPRINGFIELD – Thursday, the Illinois General Assembly will be voting on a last-minute deal to save Exelon's nuclear plants in Clinton and the Quad Cities.
Insiders are leaking the details of a bailout agreement between Governor Rauner and Exelon lobbyists, showing the weight of the bailout's cost will fall on the state's small manufacturers – who are already facing crushing costs of Illinois' overbearing workers comp system and skyrocketing property taxes.
A position paper being circulated by the Technology & Manufacturing Association – which represents 800 small to medium sized manufacturers in Illinois – says,
For manufacturers, competitively priced electricity is one of Illinois’ few economic bright spots. Deregulation saved TMA members billions of dollars, encouraged innovation and investment, and provided a key competitive advantage through lower electric rates. Even with all the state’s shortcomings, manufacturers dependent on competitively-priced electricity are surviving.
SB 2814 interferes with the competitive market by:
- picking “winners and losers”;
- creating a subsidy for non-economic generation assets which are no longer needed; and
- significantly shifts the cost of electricity for all customer classes
More jobs will be lost in Illinois because of the impact of SB 2814 than will be saved. Why is one, large company more important than the thousands of jobs provided by the thousands of small and medium -sized manufacturers across our state?
More details coming …
