March 14, 2011
To the Honorable Members of the
Illinois Senate,
96th General Assembly:
In accordance with Article IV, Section 9(b) of the Illinois Constitution, I hereby veto Senate Bill 1927 from the 96th General Assembly.
I thank the sponsors of this bill for their hard work and appreciate their commitment to expanding our economy and improving our environment. Our economic future and the well-being of our citizens depend upon access to clean, affordable electricity and natural gas, and I look forward to working with the sponsors of this legislation in the future on measures that promote economic development and environmental protection.
Events around the world are clearly dictating why we must work harder to develop clean, affordable and homegrown energy to power our State. We must act now to ensure that Illinois has a comprehensive, holistic approach to how we develop, deliver and consume energy. Our efforts must be bold, strategic, and innovative.
Illinois has become a national leader in renewable energy and energy efficiency by modernizing our regulatory framework and creating innovative financing tools for the private sector, which are helping us recover from the greatest fiscal crisis in our State’s history. By cultivating sustainable energy sector jobs, we are ensuring that a growing industry is met with a highly-skilled workforce. Studies have already shown that our clean energy policies are working. More than 100 companies now support 15,000 employees just in Illinois’ wind energy supply chain.
While these steps have put our State on the right path, more work must be done. We must continue pursuing policies that leverage private sector resources to build a sustainable, cost-efficient and independent tomorrow for all of Illinois. Making major progress in this area will ensure that 25 percent of our energy comes from renewable sources by 2025
Harnessing the power of wind, for example, will allow our State to use energy more efficiently, while providing an opportunity for all types of Illinois businesses to thrive. Utilizing Smart Grid technologies could revolutionize our utility infrastructure. Building it will create thousands of jobs for our highly-skilled, workforce in a statewide effort to rewire the existing grid, resulting in greater energy efficiency and reliability, which will also protect consumers. Expanding and coordinating energy efficiency initiatives throughout Illinois will reduce costs and will provide substantial savings to Illinois businesses and families. We must energetically pursue these opportunities.
Maximizing clean-coal capabilities is essential if Illinois is to remain at the forefront of clean energy development. Clean coal technologies continue to show promising results in Illinois and around the world. Our state, with its abundance of coal and cutting-edge technologies, is positioned to take the lead. However, our investments in clean coal must not come at the expense of consumers. As we lead the way out of this historic recession, we must always be mindful of the effect our policies will have on the people of Illinois. Not only must new projects and policies be designed to improve our environment and expand our economy, they must also distribute burdens more proportionally among residential users and businesses and provide greater protections against cost overruns and higher energy prices. Unfortunately, the bill before me today falls short of these goals.
We cannot continue down an unsustainable environmental and economic path when Illinois has all the ingredients for a sustainable energy future. We have the opportunity to harness the power of wind, solar, and biomass, while we explore cleaner options for using coal. We should vigorously pursue these opportunities so that our energy policies will benefit all of our consumers.
Therefore, pursuant to Article IV, Section 9(b) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return Senate Bill 1927, entitled “AN ACT concerning regulation” vetoed in its entirety with this statement of objections.
Sincerely,
Pat Quinn
Governor