Advanced Energy Perspectives

Illinois has made major progress towards a clean energy future over the last several years, but its journey to clean, affordable heat is just beginning. The state’s landmark energy bill, the 2021 Clean and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), was a major victory for decarbonizing the electric grid, though it did not directly address or create new policies aimed at decarbonizing heating systems. On this front, more work is needed to fully achieve 100% clean across the electric and building sectors. The good news is that key regulators, thought leaders, and decision makers in Illinois have already gotten started on grappling with this complex topic.  

Last month, Illinois became the first state in the Midwest, and one of the few states outside the coasts, to establish a state-run incentive program for medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) electric vehicles (EV) that are part of a fleet, such as commercial trucks, transit, and school buses. The primary purpose of the legislation is to support fleet owners and operators who wish to go all electric; although MHD EVs show strong market growth, their adoption has been slow in part due to their high up-front cost. EVs represent less than 1% of new MHDV sales currently and incentives for vehicle purchases are proven to help increase EV adoption. Rebates and tax incentives for light-duty vehicle (LDV) EVs have captured a larger share of the LDV market overall, accounting for roughly 10% of new LDV sales. It’s no surprise that most MHD EVs are sold in states offering a purchase incentive program.  

Since the start of this year’s legislative sessions, Advanced Energy Economy has been tracking energy legislation across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Congress through its online PowerSuite platform. PowerSuite provides policy tracking by policy professionals. In the process, we have identified several trends in how states are contemplating the future of their energy, transportation, and building sectors. The bills described in this post, which range from simply introduced to fully signed into law, by no means represent every bill in the country filed this year, but are rather indicative of the attention being devoted to each topic by lawmakers. What follows represents the top 10 state energy legislative issues of 2022.

A new trend is emerging as a growing number of governors and state legislatures are taking action to electrify their state-owned motor vehicles. By accelerating their own transition to clean transportation fleets, states are leading by example while saving taxpayer money, lowering maintenance requirements, reducing emissions, and contributing to energy independence.

Like anyone in construction, renewable energy developers are all too familiar with process hurdles and delays. But patience wears thin. In the vast PJM Interconnection region stretching from DC to Illinois, a huge pool of solar, wind, and battery storage projects are stuck in the grid operator’s Interconnection queue, often waiting years for technical and cost studies and final approvals needed to connect to the grid. This usually behind-the-scenes issue moved to center stage this month when PJM proposed a dramatic step: a two-year pause on formally accepting new interconnection applications so that the grid operator can focus on speeding up delayed projects and clearing some of the backlog. That pause will come with much needed improvements to PJM’s processes to speed up future interconnection requests. Those improvements won’t solve all the problems with PJM’s interconnection process, but they are a good start, and they can’t come soon enough.