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John Delurey is managing director of campaigns at Vote Solar.
In October 2024, I wrote about the storm clouds gathering over Illinois ratepayers. Energy prices were spiking across the state, in large part due to long delays from grid operators in connecting renewable projects, misguided policy decisions from regional grid operators and rising load forecasts from the data center boom.
Things have only taken a turn for the worse since then, with headwinds from Washington blowing against renewable energy and an administration seemingly determined to make energy more expensive. I argued in my last piece that, while we couldn't single-handedly fix the broader issues with national policy or regional markets, Illinois had a choice: we could panic, or we could plan.
A year and a half later, it’s safe to say that Illinois has chosen to plan. With the passage of the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act six months ago, Illinois has avoided the knee-jerk reactionism sweeping through statehouses and utility boardrooms across the country and instead embraced a strategy that will deliver a cleaner and more affordable grid.
