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SB 2718

TANF block grant; DHS shall transfer 30% of each year to CCDF for child care vouchers.

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Rod Hickman

SB 2718 delays fossil-fuel plant CO2 and pollutant reductions, pushing deadlines by decades and extending operation while guiding state investments to affected communities.

Died In Committee
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Bill Summary · SB 2718

Bill summary — SB 2718 ("Save Our Power Plants Act")

Status: Died in committee
Introduced: March 13, 2025 (filed 10/28/2025 in later version)
Primary sponsor: Sen. Andrew S. Chesney

Note on source material: The header information provided with the request referenced a TANF/CCDF appropriations change, but the full bill text supplied is an amendatory environmental bill titled the "Save Our Power Plants Act" that revises greenhouse gas regulation deadlines under the Illinois Environmental Protection Act. This summary follows the provided bill text.

Main purpose / intent

SB 2718 seeks to delay and relax certain state-level greenhouse gas and associated air-pollutant regulatory deadlines for large fossil-fuel electric generating units (EGUs) and other large GHG-emitting units. The bill primarily extends deadlines for required emission reductions (described in the text as extending deadlines by about 15 years) and adds or clarifies definitions and targeted terms used to apply those schedules.

Key provisions

  • Renames the amendatory act the "Save Our Power Plants Act."
  • Revises Section 9.15 (Greenhouse gases) of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act:
    • Establishes/clarifies detailed definitions for terms including: CO2 emissions and CO2-equivalent (CO2e), electric generating unit (EGU), public GHG-emitting unit, green hydrogen, cogeneration/combined heat and power, copollutants, and emission-rate metrics (NOx, SO2).
    • Defines "existing emissions" based on 2018–2020 averages (or the first three full years of operation if later).
    • Sets capacity threshold for EGUs/large units at >25 MWe (nameplate).
    • Introduces concepts of "equity investment eligible community" and "eligible person" to guide state investment targeting (lists R3 cannabis act areas and communities identified by the Illinois Power Agency, and includes residents affected by plant/mine closures, foster-care graduates, and formerly incarcerated persons).
    • Alters deadlines for fossil-fuel EGUs that are not publicly owned to "permanently reduce all CO2e and copollutant emissions to zero" by a later date (text indicates extending 2030 → 2045).
    • Alters deadlines for coal-fired public GHG-emitting units to achieve permanent reductions by later dates (text indicates moving dates such as 2045 → 2060 or vice versa in the redacted/truncated text).
    • Includes provisions referencing green hydrogen and zero-carbon fuel pathways as alternative technologies.

Who would be affected

  • Investor‑owned and private fossil-fuel power plants (coal- or oil-fired, and some gas/cogeneration units) with nameplate capacity >25 MWe.
  • Publicly owned generating units (municipal utilities, cooperatives, joint municipal agencies) treated separately under the bill.
  • Environmental justice and eligible communities identified for state investment decisions.
  • Workers, local economies, and communities near coal/oil-fired plants (due to changed closure/retrofit timelines).
  • State environmental regulators (Illinois EPA) and agencies administering energy/environment programs.

Procedural / timeline aspects

  • Multiple readings and committee referrals are recorded (Transportation; Assignments; Public Health and Welfare; Appropriations) in 2025.
  • Final status reported: Died in committee (no enactment).

Potential impacts (concise)

  • Delaying emissions deadlines would allow continued operation of fossil‑fuel plants longer than under prior law, potentially increasing cumulative greenhouse gas and local air pollutant emissions compared with earlier deadlines.
  • Could affect Illinois’ statewide decarbonization trajectory and its planning for energy transition, workforce transition, and environmental justice remedies.
  • Creates statutory definitions and community eligibility language that could guide allocation of future state investments or transition assistance.

If you want, I can: (a) extract and summarize all defined terms in a table; (b) produce a comparison showing the prior statutory deadlines vs. the dates in this bill; or (c) draft a short memo on likely regulatory and economic effects.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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