Southern Illinois deserves energy fairness, not Chicago-style politics

By State Sen. Terri Bryant
In Southern Illinois, we know what it means to keep the lights on the hard way. Every family farm, small business, and manufacturing plant south of I-70 depends on reliable, affordable electricity to survive. Whether it’s running grain dryers in Jefferson County, keeping poultry barns warm in Perry County, or powering the line at a plastics shop in Marion, dependable power isn’t a luxury, it’s our livelihood.
Unfortunately, the energy bill recently pushed through Springfield, Senate Bill 25, tilts the balance of Illinois’ power grid — and its politics — further toward Chicago, leaving Southern Illinois families to pick up the tab.
For years, downstate communities have shouldered the cost of decisions made by politicians and special interests in Chicago who treat our energy supply like a social experiment. Senate Bill 25, sold as the “Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act,” is just the latest example. It gives unelected regulators at the Illinois Commerce Commission sweeping new authority to decide when our coal and natural gas plants will close, how much new “green” energy will be built, and what every ratepayer will pay — all without direct legislative approval. That’s not clean or affordable. That’s a blank check for bureaucrats and urban energy lobbyists.
The legislation’s supporters promise it will “save consumers billions” over time, but for downstate families already paying record-high utility bills, that’s cold comfort. Those savings exist only on paper: in models, not in people’s budgets. The truth is SB 25 starts charging ratepayers almost immediately for new programs like battery storage and virtual power plants that won’t be fully operational for another five to 10 years. In the meantime, electricity demand continues to climb — especially as data centers sprout across the Chicago suburbs — while generation capacity across the state declines.
Southern Illinois is the region most at risk from that imbalance. State consultants have warned that downstate Illinois, served by Ameren and the MISO regional grid, could face a 20-percent capacity shortfall by 2030. Demand is rising faster than new power is being built, and as our dependable coal and natural gas plants are forced offline, the power we rely on will have to be imported from other states — at higher costs. When those shortages hit, it won’t be the skyscrapers in Chicago that go dark. It will be the farms, factories, and families of Southern Illinois.
The Illinois Farm Bureau has already raised the alarm. Farmers are dealing with their lowest crop income in nearly two decades. Every penny added to the power bill makes it harder to stay in business. Grain elevators, livestock operations, and irrigation systems don’t run on promises of renewable energy. They run on real electrical charges that need to be there when the switch is flipped. Yet this bill asks rural communities to bankroll a $7-billion experiment in energy storage and subsidies for urban developers, while offering little in return to the people who feed and power this state.
Manufacturers and small businesses are in the same boat. Rising electric rates drive up the cost of every product made and sold in Illinois. When factories shut down or move out, it’s our working families who pay the price. SB 25 shifts the burden of risk from well-connected corporations in Chicago to the everyday people in Murphysboro, Benton, and Carbondale who just want to keep their lights on and their bills manageable.
This isn’t a fight against clean energy. It’s a fight for common sense.
Southern Illinois has been a proud energy producer for generations. We’ve powered this state with coal, gas, and nuclear energy that built our schools, paved our roads, and supported thousands of union jobs. We believe in innovation and in diversifying our energy future, but we also know that reliability can’t be replaced by ideology. When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, it’s dispatchable power — not press releases — that keeps our homes warm and our businesses running.
The governor and legislative leaders need to stop pretending that one-size-fits-all energy policy works for Illinois. What benefits Chicago’s green lobbyists should not come at the expense of Southern Illinois’ working families. When the Legislature reconvenes this spring, we must revisit this issue with fairness and practicality in mind: protect baseload generation, restore legislative oversight, and ensure that ratepayers in every region are treated equally.
The people I represent aren’t asking for special treatment, just a fair deal. We want an energy system that’s reliable, affordable, and built on balance, not politics. Southern Illinois has powered this state for decades. It’s time for Springfield and Chicago to remember who keeps the lights on — and who’s being left in the dark.
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■ State Sen. Terri Bryant is a Republican from Murphysboro who represents the 58th district in southern Illinois.