Boone County seeks resident feedback as it plans for next decade's land usage

Boone County seeks resident feedback as it plans for next decade's land usage

By:

• Karina Parada

Posted: Nov 29, 2018 10:39 PM CST

Updated: Nov 29, 2018 10:39 PM CST

BOONE COUNTY - Residents packed the Boone County Board room ready to listen and comment about the County's plans for its land for the next decade.

"This needs to be the community's plan," said Boone County Board member Sherry Branson. "[It needs to be] the community's development."

Thursday, Boone County leaders hosted a meeting to hear feedback on their proposed plan. Many residents had concerns or questions about the county flipping too much farmland into industrial or commercial.

"A plan is simply a vision of the future as to maybe what could happen," said Boone County Administrator KenTerrinoni. "This is and has been a very pro-agricultural community and this plan still says that."

Lifelong Boone County resident John Ratcliffe says farmland gives the county tax dollars and changing it would mean loss of revenue

"If they put industry in, lots of times they put that in a TIF area and they take it off tax roll," said Ratcliffe.

Others, like Toria Funderburg, welcomed changes as long as they are smart and beneficial for the county.

"We need to specify what we want our land use to be," said Funderburg. "Where we put our industrial and where we put our housing."

Funderburg believes the southern county land near I-90 shouldn't be industrialized and the areas near Route 173 should be used instead.

"Those are prime places where we could have industrial use at the edge of our county and not go into our farmland," said Funderburg.

Terrinoni says the proposal doesn't mean rural areas won't remain agricultural.

The County Administrator adds community input is important to make sure everyone's best interests are in mind.

"Boone is between Chicago and Madison," said Terrinoni. "It's a great place to live and work and we want to maintain that."

Thursdays's comments will now go back to the planning commission for consideration. A final plan will then again be presented at a public hearing before it goes to the Boone County Board for a vote.

Above is from:  https://www.mystateline.com/news/boone-county-seeks-resident-feedback-as-it-plans-for-next-decade-s-land-usage/1628503046

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Boone County hosts forum on new infrastructure plan

By Ethan Rosuck |

Posted: Thu 10:08 PM, Nov 29, 2018  |

Updated: Thu 10:50 PM, Nov 29, 2018

BOONE COUNTY, Ill (WIFR) -- Boone County is looking to further develop its land across county lines and board members wanted to hear from business-owners and residents about its most recent plan.

The Boone County Regional Planning Commission and The Boone County Planning, Zoning, and Building Committee hosted a forum in Belvidere and presented a draft of their 2028 Comprehensive Plan. A plan like this has not been drafted by the county since 1999.

It comes with many potential opportunities like expanding industrial business parks just south of I-90 and building more commercial spaces and restaurants north and west of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway that runs through the county.

Boone County Administrator Kenneth A. Terrinoni says this is the perfect time to introduce a plan like this, as the population of the county has not had too big of growth in a few years. He says, "As Boone County is between Madison and Chicago, it's only a matter of time before the growth comes back like it did when we were the fourth fastest growing county in the state. So if you think about it a minute, the best time to talk about these issues is now when we aren't being barraged with all of the growth and trying to decide what our plan is and where to put things."

Boone County is not done drafting this plan yet. However, some residents are concerned that this county expansion will take up farm land and become more crowded overall. The county has heard about these concerns and more forums will be held in the near future as the draft is further clarified and drawn up.

Above is from:  https://www.wifr.com/content/news/Boone-County-hosts-forum-on-new-infrastructure-plan-501602671.html

Column: Hopes rise for new passenger trains to Quad Cities, Dubuque

Moline, Ill., there is a new train station in the same building as a new hotel and just-opened stores.

All that’s needed is the train.

The Quad Cities have wanted a passenger train to and from Chicago since the Rock Island Rocket stopped service to the community of Mississippi River towns in the 1970s. Legislators began planning a new line a decade ago, but the project has been frozen a few times since, most recently during the Illinois budget impasse.

Rockford wants a train too — the old Black Hawk train from Chicago through Rockford to Dubuque, Iowa, stopped running in 1981. Plans for a new Black Hawk also were put on hold.

But with the election of Democrat J.B. Pritzker as governor, and with strong local support, hopes are rising for the eventual revival of both routes.

“We’re hoping with the new administration that they’ll put a higher emphasis on passenger rail and keep it moving,” said Ray Forsythe, planning and development director with the city of Moline, which is part of the Quad Cities along the Illinois and Iowa border. “… We’re pretty excited.”

As for the Rockford line, “It’s a popular idea in northern Illinois,” said state Sen. Steve Stadelman, a Democrat from nearby Caledonia. “It’s a matter of getting the political will and the financing. … We have a new governor who talked about the importance of transportation infrastructure. I hope he’s willing to take a look at the idea.”

Funding for both projects came out of the 2009 capital bill — the last one seen in the state. The state appropriated $150 million for Amtrak expansion for both the Quad Cities route and service to Dubuque via Rockford, along with money for rail upgrades for the existing line between Chicago and St. Louis, said Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.

Plans for the Black Hawk line were limited to Rockford first, with the idea of pushing onto Dubuque later.

In 2011, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded a $177.3 million grant to the Illinois Department of Transportation to complete planning, environmental review, design and construction of the Quad Cities line, with the intent of having two passenger rail service round trips daily.

But in 2015, “a few projects were put on pause,” IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said. These included plans for both new rail routes.

Harnish said it was harder to get service started on the Quad Cities line than anticipated.

“The Illinois Department of Transportation worked on it while they were trying to do many things at once” Harnish said. “They weren’t able to get the deal done.”

The Quad Cities route would run along BNSF tracks to the small village of Wyanet in Bureau County, at which point the rail switches to a different owner, the Iowa Interstate Railroad, which carries freight.

Illinois resumed planning and engineering work on the Quad Cities line in late 2016 and resumed talks with the Iowa Interstate late last year, Tridgell said. Negotiations on the Black Hawk route with Union Pacific have not resumed, he said.

About $25 million in improvements to BNSF’s Eola Yard in Aurora were finished within the past year, Tridgell said. These were needed to accommodate extra trains that would be using the yard once the Chicago-Moline service begins.

Amtrak passenger service already runs along the line from Chicago to Quincy. Federal Railroad Administration spokeswoman Desiree French said improvements on the BNSF line are already helping Amtrak’s California Zephyr and Southwest Chief long-distance services.

The state and the railroad administration are negotiating with the Iowa Interstate about upgrades needed for passenger service along the single-track line from Wyanet to Moline. These include installation of positive train control, a federally mandated system designed to automatically stop a train to avoid danger if an engineer fails to do it. There also needs to be a connection between the BNSF and Iowa lines.

A representative from Iowa Interstate Railroad was not available for comment.

There was concern that the federal grant would expire, but IDOT has worked out extensions, Tridgell said. He could not give a timeline for when the Moline line could happen.

Though there has been no recent financial help for the Rockford line, voters in Winnebago and Boone counties overwhelmingly approved an advisory referendum supporting it in the Nov. 6 election.

Amtrak is interested in operating both the Rockford and the Quad Cities routes, when and if they happen, spokesman Marc Magliari said. He noted that studies of both routes have shown them to have high potential for passengers.

Meanwhile, traffic is growing on the route from Chicago to St. Louis, which shows the demand for passenger trains in the state. With ongoing improvements along the route, including track upgrades for higher speeds and new stations and locomotives, passenger volume has grown to 719, 634 in the most recent fiscal year, up 12 percent from 2010, Magliari said.

Getting more state money, and in turn more federal money, for routes to the Quad Cities and Rockford will not be easy. It will first require a new state capital bill. A spokeswoman for Pritzker said the incoming governor is committed to “working across the aisle” to get a capital plan that will leverage as much federal money as possible. Lawmakers say they expect it will happen next year.

But there will be a lot of competition for that money from other infrastructure needs, especially roads, water systems and transit agencies.

Moline’s Forsythe remains optimistic. He said a train would connect the Quad Cities with the Chicago area and will be a great help to students from Western Illinois University’s Quad Cities campus and Augustana and St. Ambrose colleges.

“We’re just being patient,” he said.

mwisniewski@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @marywizchicago

Above is from:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/wisniewski/ct-biz-train-amtrak-quad-cities-dubuque-rockford20181115-story.html?fbclid=IwAR21Gzh0sEGrSpVno6FUcL1lMAcLctIBTKc5WrTWIqk2AGsaN20FCzeE5dg

U.S. impacts of climate change are intensifying, federal report says

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY Published 2:11 p.m. ET Nov. 23, 2018 | Updated 5:57 p.m. ET Nov. 23, 2018

A new climate report, Volume II of the National Climate Assessment, says that the affects of global warming are intensifying and getting costlier. USA TODAY

(Photo: Durk Talsma, Getty Images)

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A massive report issued by the Trump administration on Friday emphasizes the dire threat that human-caused global warming poses to the United States and its citizens.

"Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities," researchers say in the report, officially Volume II of the National Climate Assessment. (Volume I was released last year.)

The 1,600-page report details the climate and economic impacts U.S. residents will see if drastic action is not taken to address climate change.

"The impacts of global climate change are already being felt in the United States and are projected to intensify in the future," the researchers say.

The last few years have smashed records for damaging weather in the United States, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015. In a worst-case scenario, the researchers say, climate change could deliver a 10 percent hit to the nation's GDP by the end of the century.

 

Climate change threatens the health and well-being of the American people by causing increasing extreme weather, changes to air quality, the spread of new diseases by insects and pests and changes to the availability of food and water, the researchers say.

Report co-author Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University said it shows the dangerous weather that scientists said will happen in the United States is already happening.

This is the fourth National Climate Assessment. It was mandated by Congress in the late 1980s and is prepared every four years by the nation's top scientists from 13 agencies. It's meant as a reference for the president, Congress and the public.

What makes the report different from previous versions is that it focuses on the United States, then goes more local and granular.

The report frequently contradicts President Donald Trump, who took to Twitter on Wednesday night to again express his doubts about climate change, using the especially cold Thanksgiving forecast as an example.

"Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?" the president tweeted.

But weather isn't climate, the researchers say. They say cold snaps can occur even as the planet warms overall.

“Over shorter timescales and smaller geographic regions, the influence of natural variability can be larger than the influence of human activity," they write. "Over climate timescales of multiple decades, however, global temperature continues to steadily increase.”

Environmental groups quickly reacted to the report.

“Any remaining debate on the reality of climate change is over," said Lou Leonard of the World Wildlife Fund. "The Bush, Obama and now Trump Administrations have all published reports showing the current and future impacts to the United States from climate change. Each report is increasingly dire."

More: UN report: 'Unprecedented changes' needed to protect Earth from global warming

More: Climate change to trigger widespread hazards to Earth and humanity – many at the same time

Report co-author Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists said it "makes it clear that climate change is not some problem in the distant future. It’s happening right now in every part of the country.

“U.S. residents are now being forced to cope with dangerously high temperatures, rising seas, deadly wildfires, torrential rainfalls and devastating hurricanes," she said. "The report concludes that these climate-related impacts will only get worse and their costs will mount dramatically if carbon emissions continue unabated."

Nathaniel Keohane of the Environmental Defense Fund said “it is worth nothing that the report was released by an administration that has persistently ignored the warnings of scientists, economists, businesses and community leaders that corroborate the report’s findings.

”As long as government leaders sit on their hands, Americans will suffer for generations to come. The evidence is clear: the Trump administration is failing to protect the American people."

The day-after-Thanksgiving release comes more than two weeks earlier than the original planned release at the American Geophysical Union annual conference in December, according to Climate Nexus.

Above is from:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/11/23/climate-change-intensifying-economy-impacted-federal-report-finds/2093291002/

Ivanka Trump used a personal email account to send hundreds of emails about government business last year

Ivanka Trump used a personal email account to send hundreds of emails about government business last year

Carol Leonnig, Josh Dawsey

1 hr ago

 

Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, Cabinet officials and her assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules, according to people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence.

White House ethics officials learned of Trump’s repeated use of personal email when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit. That review revealed that throughout much of 2017, she often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.

The discovery alarmed some advisers to President Trump, who feared that his daughter’s prac­tices bore similarities to the personal email use of Hillary Clinton, an issue he made a focus of his 2016 campaign. He attacked his Democratic challenger as untrustworthy and dubbed her “Crooked Hillary” for using a personal email account as secretary of state.

Some aides were startled by the volume of Ivanka Trump’s personal emails — and taken aback by her response when questioned about the practice. She said she was not familiar with some details of the rules, according to people with knowledge of her reaction.

The White House referred requests for comment to Ivanka Trump’s attorney and ethics counsel, Abbe Lowell.

In a statement, Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Lowell, acknowledged that the president’s daughter occasionally used her private email before she was briefed on the rules, but he said none of her messages contained classified information.

“While transitioning into government, after she was given an official account but until the White House provided her the same guidance they had given others who started before she did, Ms. Trump sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family,” he said in a statement.

Mirijanian said Ivanka Trump turned over all her government-related emails months ago so they could be stored permanently with other White House records.

And he stressed that her email use was different from that of Clinton, who had a private email server in the basement of her Chappaqua, N.Y., home. At one point, an archive of thousands of Clinton’s emails was deleted by a computer specialist amid a congressional investigation.

“Ms. Trump did not create a private server in her house or office, no classified information was ever included, the account was never transferred at Trump Organization, and no emails were ever deleted,” Mirijanian said.

Like Trump, Clinton also said she was unaware of or misunderstood the rules. However, Clinton relied solely on a private email system as secretary of state, bypassing government servers entirely.

Both Trump and Clinton relied on their personal attorneys to review their private emails and determine which messages should be retained as government records.

Clinton originally said none of the messages she sent or received were “marked classified.” The FBI later determined that 110 emails contained classified information at the time they were sent or received.

Austin Evers, executive director of the liberal watchdog group American Oversight, whose record requests sparked the White House discovery, said it strained credulity that Trump’s daughter did not know that government officials should not use private emails for official business.

“There’s the obvious hypocrisy that her father ran on the misuse of personal email as a central tenet of his campaign,” Evers said. “There is no reasonable suggestion that she didn’t know better. Clearly everyone joining the Trump administration should have been on high alert about personal email use.”

Ivanka Trump and her husband set up personal emails with the domain “ijkfamily.com” through a Microsoft system in December 2016, as they were preparing to move to Washington so Kushner could join the White House, according to people familiar with the arrangement.

The couple’s emails are prescreened by the Trump Organization for security problems such as viruses but are stored by Microsoft, the people said.

Trump used her personal account to discuss government policies and official business fewer than 100 times — often replying to other administration officials who contacted her through her private email, according to people familiar with the review.

Another category of less-substantive emails may have also violated the records law: hundreds of messages related to her official work schedule and travel details that she sent herself and personal assistants who cared for her children and house, they said.

People close to Ivanka Trump said she never intended to use her private email to shroud her government work. After she told White House lawyers she was unaware that she was breaking any email rules, they discovered that she had not been receiving White House updates and reminders to all staffers about prohibited use of private email, according to people familiar with the situation.

Using personal emails for government business could violate the Presidential Records Act, which requires that all official White House communications and records be preserved as a permanent archive of each administration. It can also increase the risk that sensitive government information could be mishandled or hacked, revealing government secrets and risking harm to diplomatic relations and secret operations.

Revelations about Clinton’s personal email system led to an FBI investigation of whether she had mishandled classified information. The scandal shadowed Clinton throughout the 2016 White House race, culminating in then-FBI Director James B. Comey’s controversial decision to hold a news conference a few months before the election to announce his conclusion that she had been reckless with government secrets but that there was not sufficient evidence she had intended to skirt the law.

During the campaign, Donald Trump said the Democratic nominee’s “corruption is on a scale we have never seen before” and called her personal email use “bigger than Watergate.”

Trump supporters still chant “Lock her up!” at his rallies, and the president, nearly two years into his administration, continues to tweet about Clinton’s emails.

“Big story out that the FBI ignored tens of thousands of Crooked Hillary Emails, many of which are REALLY BAD,” he tweeted in August, referring to a Fox News story about claims that the bureau did not scrutinize all her emails. “Also gave false election info. I feel sure that we will soon be getting to the bottom of all of this corruption. At some point I may have to get involved!”

Ivanka Trump first used her personal email to contact Cabinet officials in early 2017, before she joined the White House as an unpaid senior adviser, according to emails obtained by American Oversight and first reported by Newsweek.

In late February 2017, she used her personal email to contact Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon and propose they meet to explore “opportunities to collaborate.” The following month, she emailed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, suggesting that their staffers meet to discuss ways to collaborate on “locational/workforce development and k-12 STEM education.”

While her messages were largely about government work, Trump was not then subject to White House records rules.

When she joined the White House on March 30, Trump pledged to comply “with all ethics rules,” responding to complaints that her voluntary role gave her all of the access and perks of the White House — but none of the legal responsibilities or constraints.

“Throughout this process I have been working closely and in good faith with the White House counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role,” she said in a statement at the time.

But Trump continued to occasionally use her personal email in her official capacity, according to people familiar with the review.

Her husband’s use of personal email for government work drew intense scrutiny when it was first reported by Politico last fall. The revelation prompted demands from congressional investigators that Kushner preserve his records, which his attorney said he had. At the time, administration officials acknowledged to news organizations, including the New York Times and Politico, that Ivanka Trump had occasionally used a private account when she joined the White House.

But Trump had used her personal email for official business far more frequently than known, according to people familiar with the administration’s review — a fact that remained a closely held secret inside the White House.

“She was the worst offender in the White House,” said a former senior U.S. government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal dynamics.

After discovering the extent of her email use in September 2017, White House lawyers relied on Lowell, Ivanka Trump’s attorney, to help review her personal emails to determine which were personal and which were official business, according to the people.

The White House Counsel’s Office did not have access to her personal account and could not review it without invading her privacy and possibly violating privileged communications with her attorneys, people familiar with the review said.

After his review, Lowell forwarded emails that he had determined were related to official business to Ivanka Trump’s government account, a move he viewed as rectifying any violations of the records law, they said.

Lowell’s review found fewer than 1,000 personal emails in which Trump shared her official schedule and travel plans with herself and her personal assistants, according to two people familiar with the review.

Separately, there were fewer than 100 emails in which Trump used her personal account to discuss official business with other administration officials.

The scope of her personal email use had not emerged in response to American Oversight’s records request, which sought Trump’s correspondence with Cabinet agencies in early 2017. Most internal White House communications are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

“I’m disappointed — although not entirely surprised — that this administration disregarded clear laws that they more than anyone should have been aware of,” Evers said.

In many cases, government officials contacted Ivanka Trump first at her personal email address. That was the case with a note she received in April 2017 from Treasury Department official Dan Kowalski, who was seeking to set up a meeting between the president and the secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international economic group of which the United States is a member.

“I apologize for reaching out to you on your personal email for this, but it is the only email I have for you,” he wrote, according to an email obtained by American Oversight.

“For future reference my WH email is [redacted],” Ivanka Trump replied. “Thanks for reaching out and making this introduction.”

But other times, Trump used her private email to initiate official business.

In April 2017, she used her personal email to write to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s chief of staff, Eli Miller, suggesting that he connect with her chief of staff, Julie Radford. The email chain, obtained by American Oversight, was copied to Radford’s government account.

“It would be great if you both could connect next week to discuss [redacted],” she wrote. “We would love your feedback and input as we structure.”

carol.leonnig@washpost.com

josh.dawsey@washpost.com

Above is from:  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ivanka-trump-used-a-personal-email-account-to-send-hundreds-of-emails-about-government-business-last-year/ar-BBPTlLm?ocid=spartandhp&fullscreen=true#image=1

Boone County government announces board vacancies

Boone County government announces board vacancies

Posted Nov 13, 2018 at 3:42 PM Updated Nov 13, 2018 at 3:42 PM

BELVIDERE — The Boone County government recently announced vacancies on four volunteer boards.

The Boone County Sanitary District has two vacancies, the Boone County Housing Authority has one vacancy, the Capron Rescue Squad has three vacancies and the Boone County Regional Planning Commission has one vacancy.

Interested parties are asked to send a letter and/or resume expressing their interest and qualifications along with their contact information by Nov. 26 to Boone County Board Chairman Karl Johnson, Administration Campus, 1212 Logan Ave., Suite 102, Belvidere, IL 61008.

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/news/20181113/boone-county-government-announces-board-vacancies

OSHA opens investigation into FPM Heat Treating

OSHA opens investigation in to FPM Heat Treating

• 5:39 pm
• November 12, 2018

CHERRY VALLEY (WREX) — Federal investigators are now looking in to a heat treating facility in Cherry Valley.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation regarding safety concerns at FPM Heat Treating.

The case opened Nov. 1 after OSHA says a referral came in.

Nobody was injured when the facility caught fire in October, but firefighters on scene said it was a high-risk situation. Nearly 30 departments were called in and hundreds of firefighters were on scene.

It is unclear if the investigation is related to the fire.

Calls to OSHA for more details and FPM were not returned to 13 WREX. We will follow this story and keep you updated on any developments.

Audrey Moon

Asst. News Director

Above is from:  https://wrex.com/category/2018/11/12/osha-opens-investigation-in-to-fpm-heat-treating/

How economically viable is Byron Nuclear Plant?

[ Blog ] Union of Concerned Scientists

Photo: Montgomery County Planning Commission

What the New UCS Report on Nuclear Plants Means for Illinois

James Gignac, lead Midwest energy analyst | November 8, 2018, 12:01 am EST

This post is a part of a series on The Nuclear Power Dilemma

Today UCS released a new report entitled The Nuclear Power Dilemma that examines the economic viability and performance of most of the 60 nuclear power plants operating in the United States as of July 2018.

The report also analyzes what electric generating resources are likely to replace these nuclear plants if some of them were to abruptly retire from service.

So what did the report find and what does it mean for a state with so much nuclear power like Illinois?

Illinois’ nuclear fleet is in sound financial shape

The economic viability of power plants is typically defined by how much revenue they earn compared to how much it costs to operate them. Our analysis defines “profitable” as making more than $5 per megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity and “marginally profitable” as making somewhere between $0 (breaking even) and $5 per MWh.

Illinois is host to six nuclear plants (Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities) that total 11.6 gigawatts (GW) of electric generating capacity, the most nuclear capacity of any state. The plants provided 53 percent of Illinois’ electricity generation in 2017.

Our analysis found that Byron and Dresden—accounting for just over 4 GW combined—fell into the marginally profitable category. The rest of Illinois’ nuclear power plants were determined to be profitable. In the case of the Quad Cities and Clinton facilities, financial support they receive from the Illinois Zero Emission Credit program, established as part of Illinois’ Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) of 2016, pushed the plants up to profitable status. Without this support, Quad Cities and Clinton would have been listed as marginal and unprofitable, respectively.

Of the 30 states with nuclear power plants, 17 states have nuclear capacity that is unprofitable or scheduled to close.
Source: UCS.

Even though our analysis found that all Illinois nuclear plants are currently making money, low natural gas prices are one of the primary factors squeezing the economics of nuclear plants and could pose a long-term threat to the profitability of Illinois plants if prices stay at current levels.

Indeed, low natural gas prices are a major factor in the analysis’ finding that 22 percent of total U.S. nuclear capacity is slated to close or is unprofitable and at risk of closing prior to expiration of their operating licenses, including many plants across the Midwest.

Without new policies, and with continued low natural gas prices, our analysis found that early nuclear plant retirements are likely to be replaced primarily with output from natural gas and coal plants—and that means increased carbon emissions and the wrong way to go for addressing climate change.

Our report recommends that federal and state governments should enact a price on carbon or a low-carbon electricity standard, which would help level the financial playing field for carbon-free power generation like nuclear and renewables. Today these resources must compete with fossil fuel plants who are allowed to spew greenhouse gas pollution into our atmosphere for free—a carbon price or low-carbon electricity standard would help fix that.

The next generation of Illinois clean energy policies

The Clinton Nuclear Generating Station

As mentioned above, Illinois is no stranger to the debate over nuclear plant profitability. In late 2016 Illinois passed FEJA, which created a program to compensate the struggling Clinton and Quad Cities plants for the carbon-free attributes of their power generation.

UCS supported FEJA because it also included measures for significantly increasing investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. But the debate over including the nuclear subsidy and providing electric ratepayers’ money to Exelon, the private corporation who owns those plants, was contentious and difficult to say the least.

The Nuclear Power Dilemma report shows that the Byron and Dresden plants are earning a small profit. And Exelon says the facilities are not at risk of early retirement right now. That’s good news.

Even better news is that the policies enacted in FEJA are spurring new clean energy development and expansion of efficiency programs that save consumers money and reduce emissions.

As these additional resources continue to grow, it’s time to develop the next set of policies to continue the momentum and keep Illinois and the Midwest moving toward a clean energy future. In addition to the carbon policies recommended above, Illinois should adopt stronger measures to accelerate investments in clean energy technologies like wind, solar, energy efficiency, and battery storage. These are exactly the kinds of policy conversations that the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition is having right now through its Listen. Lead. Share. initiative.

The severity of the climate crisis demands that we consider all zero carbon energy sources—including nuclear power. But should any of Illinois’ existing nuclear plants be forced into an early retirement, let’s be ready to replace them with clean energy technologies, not dirty coal or gas plants.

Posted in: Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear Power Tags: clean energy, climate-change, nuclear power, The Nuclear Power Dilemma

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James Gignac is lead Midwest energy analyst for the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Above is from:  https://blog.ucsusa.org/james-gignac/what-the-new-ucs-report-on-nuclear-plants-means-for-illinois