March 30th is Environmental Lobby Day in Springfield

March 30th is Environmental Lobby Day in Springfield.  Many environmental groups from across the state will converge on Springfield to lobby for the passing of some important environmental bills. 

 If you want to lobby for these bills, you can write a letter to your Congressional members, make an appointment to speak with them or you can phone their office to voice your support. 

Here are a few House Bills (HB) and Senate Bills (SB) that could use your support. 

Please support Rooftop Renewable Energy Jobs HB 1943 (Williams) and HB 1913 (May) also SB 1365 (Holmes) 

HB 1943 will help Illinois meet its Renewable Portfolio Standard by requiring a percentage (1%) of the renewable power produced in Illinois to come from smaller distributed sources, like rooftops on small businesses or homes. 

HB 1913 will expand net metering by allowing equal credit for energy production given to community owned solar projects, farmers and small businesses.  It will also increase the number of customers allowed to participate in the program from 1% to 5%.  Supporting these bills will create jobs in Illinois.

SB 1365 contains a combination of the two House Bills.

 Please support HB 3055 (Nekritz) and HB 1422 (Nekritz) and also SB 1884 (Koehler).   These bills will expand energy efficiency and save ratepayers money. 

HB 3055 will remove budget caps on efficiency measures that result in net benefits for ratepayers.

HB 1422 will allow energy efficiency projects to be a product that can be purchased by the Illinois Power Agency.

SB 1884 contains a combination of the two House Bills.

Please support HB 3623 (Feigenholt) and SB 1980 (Garrett) Illinois Clean Water Fund.  Currently, the money paid by polluters of Illinois waterways is being swept into the General Revenue Fund.  These bills will stop this sweep and direct the money to the Illinois EPA to be used for clean water projects.  Your support for these bills will help Illinois meet its obligations for the Clean Water Act and keep Illinois waters clean, drinkable, fishable and swimmable. 

Please also express concern to your legislators regarding subsidies for new coal plants in Illinois.  Please let them know you are not in support of subsidies continuing for dirty energy.  Illinois can make jobs in clean, renewable energy and in energy efficiency projects with efforts like those described above.

Thanks for being an active community member fighting for a reduction in our carbon footprint! 

 For legislator contact information and to find out how these bills are doing, go here:  www.ilga.gov