As we suffer through impending “rolling blackouts” and more ozone action days, it is important to remember how we got into this electricity mess. It is even more important, however, to start looking for solutions to make sure this crisis does not happen again.
Environmentalists and consumer advocates have been working for more than a year to increase funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy in Illinois. This legislation would start energy-saving programs throughout the state and help reduce pollution created by our electricity use.
Unfortunately, these bills, Senate Bills 1227 and 1228, never made it to a vote in the spring due to intense lobbying by Commonwealth Edison and other Illinois utilities. The utilities used their political clout to kill the very legislation we so urgently need in Illinois this summer.
Our power crisis sheds new light on our need for cleaner, more efficient electricity. A majority of the Illinois House and Senate supported energy-efficiency legislation, yet ComEd was able to prevent it from reaching the floor.
We call on the senators and representatives in Springfield to do what they promised they would do last spring and pass energy-efficiency legislation next session. After all, ComEd kept us in the dark about how serious its power problems really were. Why do we have to wait until the lights go out to do something about it?
