Tag: Illinois

Meet the Six States Celebrating America 250 by Raising Your Gas Tax

The final countdown for America’s 250th birthday is on. Families will be planning road trips, parades, vacations, reunions, and cookouts to celebrate the greatest nation in history. But in six states, politicians have a different idea for the party: raise taxes.

From Watts Up With That?

By Larry Behrens

The final countdown for America’s 250th birthday is on. Families will be planning road trips, parades, vacations, reunions, and cookouts to celebrate the greatest nation in history. But in six states, politicians have a different idea for the party: raise taxes.

Beginning July 1, drivers in California, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Mississippi are scheduled to see higher state gas taxes. In other words, as the country prepares to celebrate casting aside a tax-heavy king in favor of freedom, these states will use the occasion to fatten government coffers one gallon at a time.

The worst offenders will be no surprise. California, Washington and Illinois  — we’ll call them the Axis of Glut.

Their governors are often the first to fake outrage when gas prices rise. They blame oil companies. They blame “price gouging.” They blame world events. They blame everyone except the politicians who keep piling taxes, mandates, and regulations onto every gallon drivers buy.

Yet these same states already have some of the worst gas prices in the nation, some of the highest gas taxes in America, and now they are getting ready to raise those taxes again.

California’s gas tax is already the highest in the country and is scheduled to climb again on July 1, from 61.2 cents to 63.4 cents per gallon, under the state’s annual inflation adjustment. The same report noted California’s average price for regular gasoline was nearly $6 per gallon in early June.

Illinois is no better. The state says its motor fuel tax will rise on July 1 because the law requires an annual inflation adjustment. Washington joined the club with a gas tax increase last year and then baked in automatic increases going forward. Starting July 1, 2026, the state’s fuel tax rises by 2% every year unless lawmakers change the law.

This is the dirty hustle behind inflation-indexed taxes. Politicians get to raise taxes without holding a press conference to admitting it. They pass the law once, then every year drivers get mugged by a formula.

As of June 8, the national average for regular gas was $4.164, down 38.2 cents in a single month. That is welcome relief for families, workers, small businesses and anyone trying to get through summer. But the national average would look even better if it were not being anchored down by tax-heavy states that treat drivers like a rolling ATM.

The problem is not limited to the six July 1 tax-hike states. Seven of the ten most expensive states for gas are run by Democratic governors. That is not a coincidence. Taxes play a major role in the high-price reputation of many of these states. So do their regulatory regimes, special fuel rules, anti-energy policies and climate mandates that make fuel harder to produce, refine, transport and sell.

The result is predictable. Families, small businesses, truckers, and farmers all pay more. Then the same politicians who helped drive up the cost pretend they are shocked by the bill.

That is not compassion. That is government gluttony.

Supporters claim the money goes to roads and infrastructure. But that excuse only goes so far. Every tax increase is sold as necessary. Yet somehow the burden always lands in the same place: on the people who drive to work, school, church, the grocery store or a summer vacation.

That is what makes the timing so perfect, and so insulting.

America’s 250th birthday should be a celebration of freedom, independence and the rejection of government overreach. The American Revolution was born from the idea that people should not be treated as endless revenue sources for rulers who never seem to have enough.

Nearly 250 years later, millions of drivers will pull into gas stations in California, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Mississippi and get a reminder that some politicians still have not learned the lesson.

The country is moving toward a better energy future: lower prices, more production, more reliability and less punishment for the people who keep America moving. But these six states are choosing a different path.

America 250 should remind us why this country was born: because free people eventually get tired of being treated like revenue.

Larry Behrens is an energy expert and the Communications Director for Power The Future. He is also author of the new book “Power Restored: President Trump’s First Year and the Revival of American Energy Leadership.” You can follow him on X/Twitter @larrybehrens

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.

Wrong, Chicago Sun Times, Climate Change Isn’t Causing High Insurance Cost in Illinois

A recent article at the Chicago Sun Times (CST) claims that “Climate change is fueling a surge in Illinois home insurance premiums,” via increases in severe weather. This is false. Severe weather is not getting worse in Illinois, so it cannot be the driver for insurance costs. Other factors, like increasing home values and inflation, are driving insurance rates higher.

From ClimateRealism

By Linnea Lueken

A recent article at the Chicago Sun Times (CST) claims that “Climate change is fueling a surge in Illinois home insurance premiums,” via increases in severe weather. This is false. Severe weather is not getting worse in Illinois, so it cannot be the driver for insurance costs. Other factors, like increasing home values and inflation, are driving insurance rates higher.

The article is sponsored by the environment focused media group Grist, so there is already an incentive to inflate the climate angle and downplay the more important reasons why insurance costs are rising in already-expensive Illinois. Those other reasons are mentioned briefly in the post, “the value of a home, the cost of the materials needed to rebuild it, and even the credit scores of the homeowner,” all impact insurance costs, but the CST insists that really climate change is the main problem.

The CST post says that “Illinois home insurance premiums are going up, and climate change-powered severe weather is in part to blame.” Later in the article it specifies hail and flooding as specific weather events that are damaging homes in the state.

The flooding issue is addressed within the article itself, with the CST writer saying that neighborhood developers “are also building homes in flood-prone areas, adding to rising premiums.”

Right, if a home is built in an area that FEMA has already designated as a flood zone, insurance costs will be higher. That is not the fault of climate change, it is the fault of developers and the people who are willing to take the risk and buy those homes. Flood zones change naturally over time, it has nothing to do with climate change.

The other major extreme weather the post points towards, hail storms, are most definitely not getting worse according to weather data.

As discussed in a previous Climate Realism post on the issue of hail in Illinois, weather data shows that hail occurrence has actually been declining on average since highs around 2006, but overall show no long term trend at all. (See figure below)

Figure 1: Illinois hail reports, from 1995 to 2025, data from NWS Storm Prediction Center.

Despite the available weather data showing that extreme weather is not getting worse, CST says that State Farm and Allstate “pointed to extreme weather as driving up costs.”

Rising insured losses are not evidence that extreme weather is getting worse, but they are reflective of the fact that home values are getting higher, and that inflation which impacts the cost of the homes themselves as well as all the materials needed to make repairs after damage is done, is also rising.

It is convenient for insurance companies and state governments to blame climate change, a nebulous thing outside their control, for hikes in premiums. Climate Realism has posted dozens of posts showing why climate change is not responsible for rising insurance rates or dropped coverage in various parts of the country, and Illinois is no exception.

The Chicago Sun Times allied with Grist to promote climate alarmism at the expense of truth, and in the process shielded insurance companies from blowback for rising insurance rates and urban planners for allowing building in unsuitable areas. In a roundabout way CST and Grist blame the residents of Illinois for their own suffering. If only people would stop driving cars that use gasoline and diesel, and stop demanding reliable electricity as provided by coal, natural gas, and nuclear, then maybe insurance wouldn’t be so high! It is simple fearmongering in order to coerce people into supporting climate restrictions that Grist and other activists have long pushed for.

AI is driving up your power bill, Illinois can fix it by lifting its nuclear ban

Electricity prices are climbing, supply is tightening and residents are paying the price.

A futuristic representation of an AI figure beside a power facility with nuclear reactors and electrical towers, set against a vibrant purple backdrop.

From CFACT

By Micky Horstman

A nighttime view of a nuclear power plant with cooling towers illuminated in orange and blue lights against a dark sky.

Electricity prices are climbing, supply is tightening and residents are paying the price.

Now, Illinois lawmakers are considering a sprawling 800-page energy bill, SB 25, that aims to lift the nuclear moratorium. However, the bill makes other significant changes such as appropriating $85 million annually to the Electric Vehicle Charger fund.

Instead of pushing massive reforms and trying to do too much with energy in one fell swoop – without public comment or cost evaluation – lawmakers should start by simply lifting Illinois’ nearly 40-year moratorium on new, large-scale reactors.

Illinois: already generates more nuclear energy than any other state but still needs more; and the need has never been greater. Artificial intelligence, data centers and electrified infrastructure are zapping up energy which drives up electricity bills for Illinois residents. Residential rates jumped nearly 10% over the past year, with some families’ seeing their monthly bills double. The average Illinois ComEd bill has already risen $10 a month, and bills will skyrocket further if energy demand can’t increase.

Grid operator PJM blamed the spike on a growing imbalance between supply and demand — driven in large part by the explosion of new data centers powering AI technologies with not enough new energy creation.

Data centers now consume about 1.5% of the world’s electricity, but that could rise to up to 9%  by 2030. These facilities could draw as much as 1,000 megawatts each — enough to power 800,000 homes. Each new AI query uses up to ten times the power of a standard internet search.

Illinois is becoming a hub for AI development and data storage, and that’s good news for jobs and innovation. Building data centers positions the state, and Chicago especially, as an attractive spot for new tech and business investments.

But it also means our grid needs massive, dependable power generation to support the future. Renewable sources such as wind and solar are good starts, but lack long-term storage capacity. We need to expand nuclear power to deliver the 24/7 baseload capacity a digital economy demands and to reach the state mandated  carbon-free grid by 2050.

Bills introduced earlier this year to fully repeal Illinois’ nuclear ban stalled under pressure from environmental groups and hesitation from Gov. JB Pritzker. Now, Illinois has both an urgent need to expand the grid, and a great opportunity to attract new businesses and investments.

Private investment in nuclear energy is booming. Tech giants such as Meta, Google and Microsoft are signing long-term contracts to secure nuclear power for their operations. Meta’s 20-year deal with Constellation to support Illinois’ Clinton Clean Energy Center preserved more than 1,100 high-paying jobs and replaced taxpayer subsidies with private capital. That model could be replicated and expanded across the state.

New nuclear construction could also generate billions in revenue and stabilize power prices for households. Illinois is the nation’s fifth-largest electricity producer and typically sends about one-fifth of the power it generates to other states over the regional grid. More energy could alleviate consumers’ rising costs as well as the state’s financial woes.

Illinois’ not alone in the energy crisis. Other states face increased blackout risks without significant energy increase. That’s why New York, Wisconsin and Kentucky have all recently lifted their moratoriums, attracting new investment that will create thousands of jobs and new energy.

Lawmakers’ unwillingness to expand competition in the energy market leaves Illinoisans stuck with higher bills and fewer choices, year after year. Lifting the moratorium could open the door for new entrants to build reactors and sell power, breaking the ComEd-Exelon monopoly and lowering costs through competition.

Illinois families shouldn’t be forced to pay the price for AI usage or to protect the earnings of scandal-ridden providers. It’s clear AI isn’t going anywhere. Neither is the demand for power. The only question is whether Illinois will meet that demand with or fall behind.

If lawmakers want to protect consumers from runaway costs and potential blackouts, they must lift the ban and allow for the development of the next generation of clean, reliable power.

This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy

Illinois Electricity: Subsidies, Mandates, Inflation

“If Illinois wants an affordable and reliable grid, the answer is to end subsidies and mandates for all forms of generation. And to eliminate regulations that are taking the most affordable and reliable fuels out of the generation mix. Nothing else will work.”

From Master Resource

By Bill Peacock

“If Illinois wants an affordable and reliable grid, the answer is to end subsidies and mandates for all forms of generation. And to eliminate regulations that are taking the most affordable and reliable fuels out of the generation mix. Nothing else will work.”

Electricity prices are climbing in Illinois. As is the public’s concern about them. To address this, Governor JB Pritzker and governors from four other states recently asked the PJM Interconnection to do something about the escalating rates.

While the concern is widespread, there is little consensus over the cause of the higher prices. Some blame fossil fuels. Others the PJM capacity market. And others a lack of investment in battery storage. Most agree, though, that government intervention is needed to fix the problem.

However, a closer look shows that government intervention is the source of the problem.

Background

Illinois’ fuel mix, the type of facilities used to generate electricity, has dramatically changed over the last ten years. In 2013, 91 percent of the electricity used in the state was generated by nuclear (48%) and coal (43%). Renewable generation from wind and solar were less than 5 percent, and natural gas supplied only 3.4 percent.

The mix is very different today. Coal’s output plummeted to only 15 percent, leaving a huge hole in Illinois’ generation capacity. To fill the breach, renewable generation has almost tripled to 13.3 percent and natural gas now provides 16 percent of load.

Why did this happen? First, over the decade, Congress has provided subsidies of more than $81 billion of taxpayer money to force renewable energy onto the national grid. Illinois is partnering with Congress to require its electric utilities to obtain 40 percent of their electric power from renewables by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

The second reason is that in 2021, Illinois enacted a clean energy law mandating zero emissions from all coal-fired power plants by 2045. Federal regulations are also designed to accomplish a similar outcome.

The result of this growing dependence on renewables is a more expensive, less reliable electric grid. Advocates of wind and solar are doing everything they can to mask this.

Misdirection, More Government

For instance, state Sen. Bill Cunningham filed legislation last spring designed to address higher prices and energy shortages. One of the ways the legislation addresses this is to set up a system of energy storage credits. In layman’s terms, Sen. Cunningham is proposing government mandated subsidies for batteries designed to store electricity.

In addition to ignoring how consumers paying for new subsidies will reduce their electricity costs, the senator does not explain that the reason Illinois is facing potential energy shortages is because intermittent, i.e., unreliable, renewable energy has replaced the highly reliable coal-fired generation that had kept the lights on in Illinois for decades.

Another renewable advocate, Sarah Moskowitz, the executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, tries to blame fossil fuels for the grid’s problems. She offers the example of Winter Storm Elliot, when she says PJM “made the unusual request that everyday customers conserve energy.” She claimed that “the fossil-fueled power generators who for years had sold themselves as necessary for grid reliability, failed to deliver.”

However, the data explains that it was renewables that were no shows.

During the storm, PJM asked “consumers to reduce their use of electricity … between the hours of 4 a.m. on December 24, 2022 and 10 a.m. on December 25, 2022.” At 4 a.m. when the call for conservation went into effect, it was 0 degrees outside and demand was rapidly increasing, but renewables were not coming through. Wind provided only 5 percent of the electricity being generated, and solar 0%. Eighty-three percent of the electricity came from natural gas, coal, and nuclear generation. Even at noon that day, solar only provided 1 percent of the load, 692 megawatts, despite having an installed capacity of 2,096 megawatts.

Conclusion

Renewables can still not be counted on, while the options for grid reliability are diminishing. Government mandates, subsidies, and regulations are shutting down investment in reliable, dispatchable thermal generation from fossil and nuclear fuels.

PJM’s capacity market will not solve the problem—it will only make the grid more expensive, not more reliable. My state of Texas—the nation’s leading generator from renewable sources—has already tried this by throwing $40 billion at generators over the last three years in the hope of increasing thermal capacity. It did not work.

If Illinois wants an affordable and reliable grid, the answer is to end subsidies and mandates for all forms of generation. And to eliminate regulations that are taking the most affordable and reliable fuels out of the generation mix. Nothing else will work.

———————————

Bill Peacock is the policy director of the Energy Alliance. He has been researching and writing about electricity markets for 20 years.

Holiday Makers’ Lucky Escape After Wind Turbine Blade Disintegrates

The wind industry calls blade disintegration ‘component liberation’, survivors call it a terrifying dice with death.

Fun STOP THESE THINGS

The wind industry calls blade disintegration ‘component liberation’, survivors call it a terrifying dice with death.

A few weeks back we reported on a wind turbine in a schoolyard near Petersburg, Illinois that decided to ‘go rogue’, unshackled its blades and sent school kids screaming in all directions. These things are also accomplished at throwing massive chunks of ice in all directions, likewise creating a serious threat to life and limb.

The latest dose of daily turbine terror comes from Dear Island, Massachusetts. Where holidaymakers were treated to a little routine component liberation, no doubt content in the knowledge that they were simply part of the inevitable ‘transition’.

Object flies off of ‘out of service’ wind turbine on Deer Island, prompting closure to public accessway
7 News Boston
Lisa Gresci and Michael Yoshida
29 May 2023

Officials believe an object that was seen hanging from then flying off of a wind turbine on Deer Island may have been the result of strong winds and a broken braking mechanism.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority said emergency crews and staff were on-site Monday morning after a passerby noticed that one of the two wind turbines at the Deer Island Treatment Plan had “something hanging from one of the blades.”

A witness told 7NEWS it was around 10:15 a.m. when they were travelling near the turbine and heard a noise that caused them to look up and see the object. A piece later flew off of the turbine, in what a witness described as a scene straight out of “Final Destination,” as they weren’t sure where it would land.

Luckily, no injuries were reported and the public access area near the turbines was soon closed off as the MWRA, police and firefighters responded to the scene.

Transcript

Jadiann Thompson: First up at nine o’clock, gone with the wind. The tip of this wind turbine blade goes flying off on Deer Island and people say it was frightening and they ran for cover.

Caroline Goggin: And tonight investigators are trying to figure out how it happened. Our team’s Michael Yoshida is live in Winthrop with the story you saw first on 7.

Michael Yoshida: And at this point tonight, the turbines have stopped. But frightening moments earlier today when those who are out enjoying a beautiful Memorial Day were sent running when a piece of one of the blades came flying off. Turbine trouble caught on camera.

Troy Fitzgerald: It was just out of control.

Michael Yoshida: Cell phone video shows the moment the tip of a blade goes flying off a wind turbine on Deer Island. Those enjoying a sunny Memorial Day, running to safety.

Troy Fitzgerald: We felt like we were in danger, so we sprinted away from it.

Michael Yoshida: Troy Fitzgerald and Olivia Gaines called 911, fearing the wind turbine was about to come apart.

Troy Fitzgerald: A small piece broke off the tip of one of the blades, and then a much larger piece started breaking off and then it was a projectile. It flew. Pretty far from it, and close to where people were walking. It was scary to see.

Michael Yoshida: Emergency crews on the water and land working to keep people away, while crews worked to stop the turbine from spinning.

Ria Convery: That little piece you see spinning around, it is the tip of the blade which appears to be hanging on by a piece of fibreglass.

Michael Yoshida: Officials from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority say that turbines are part of their renewable energy system at the Treatment Facility, but this turbine has been locked and out of service since April of 2022. What happened is being investigated, but officials say strong winds may be to blame.

Ria Convery: We assume that the wind jostled that lock free.

Michael Yoshida: After hours of trying to get the emergency break to kick in, the spinning finally stopped.

Troy Fitzgerald: As we were walking and we were like, “Final destination, you think. Imagine if that were to happen.” And then it begins happening.
7 News Boston

But Officer, it was only trying to save the planet.