A new Chicago Tribune editorial highlighted a troubling warning sign for Illinois’ energy future as a major natural gas plant in Will County is being dismantled and moving to Texas.
The editorial reports that about 900 megawatts of capacity at the 1,350-megawatt Elwood Energy facility, one of the largest gas-fired peaker plants in the region, is coming offline as Illinois continues down the path created by Democratic lawmakers under the controversial Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2021.
Under CEJA, Illinois was put on a government-mandated path to phase out reliable fossil-fuel power, but Gov. Pritzker and Democratic lawmakers have failed to put forward a realistic plan to replace that lost capacity. Certain fossil-fuel units, such as Elwood, face emissions deadlines as early as January 1, 2030, while the state is pushing to eliminate carbon emissions from the power sector by 2045. While the Governor and his allies have tried to point to last year’s Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA) as a solution, in reality, those changes fall short of truly addressing the immediate problem.
While CRGA allows regulators to delay plant closures in limited cases, those decisions will not be made until late 2027. By that point, power plant operators will have already
been required to make binding commitments to regional grid operators years in advance.
Because CEJA requires some plants to shut down by January 1, 2030, those facilities cannot even qualify to participate in the upcoming capacity markets needed to stay operational. In short, the timeline created by state law and regional grid rules means CRGA comes too late to keep these plants open.
The result is that reliable energy generation is leaving Illinois, and ratepayers will be left to deal with the consequences through higher costs and greater threats to grid reliability. This growing disconnect between policy timelines and real-world energy needs is already leading to lost capacity, and the risk will increase if changes are not made.
Illinois cannot afford to ignore a warning sign this serious. When a major power plant is being taken apart and shipped to Texas, it should be a wake-up call that Springfield’s energy policies are failing to protect affordability, reliability, and the long-term needs of Illinois families and businesses.
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