With unprecedented heat waves hitting Chicago and other parts of the state this summer, a lot of people worry about devastating hot weather and soaring energy costs.
A group of concerned Illinois residents like me who support clean energy and bold climate policies are taking action. More than three-dozen of us will travel to Washington, D.C., this week to push for more efficient, renewable energy, which is proven to lower energy costs.
We’re not paid lobbyists. We are regular folks — students, working people, parents, retirees — from Champaign, Evanston, Normal and elsewhere who are passionate about supporting affordable, reliable electricity and a safer climate. We will be on Capitol Hill to meet with our representatives in the House and Senate, and we’ll be joined by hundreds of Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers from around the country. We will be there to ask Congress to restore the tax credits and investments that support the clean energy solutions we want.
“We have 38 people attending from Illinois this year, 17 for the first time,” says Alex Marianyi, a CCL state coordinator in Chicago. “Given everything happening in Washington right now, this sends Congress a strong message that people from Illinois will not give up on climate legislation.”
Joining us is Michael Armstrong, a retired finance executive in Springfield who was moved by his grandson’s concern for the climate a few years ago when the boy’s third-grade science teacher showed the class a map of California flooded from heavy rains caused by climate change. This will be Armstrong’s first lobby meeting with CCL in Washington. He said he hopes to meet with Illinois’ conservative congressional representatives, and he’s looking for strategies “to keep our chapter members hopeful and keep their interest focused on the climate.”
Sixty-three percent of Americans polled in December 2024 by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication stated that developing clean energy sources should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress. In Illinois, that number rises to 65%.
Yet, earlier this month, national legislation that hinders clean energy and raises household energy costs was signed into law, as part of the partisan budget reconciliation process. Unfortunately, provisions in the bill phase out popular clean energy tax credits that have worked well for Illinois. Since passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, Illinois has seen 28 clean energy projects take root, including wind and solar electricity generation and EV battery manufacturing, with investments of $8.7 billion that support more than 8,000 jobs.
But around $15.5 billion in new factories and electricity projects had already been canceled nationwide since January due to the uncertain state of federal policy. The think tank Energy Innovation Policy & Technology predicts Illinois is on course for significant economic damage with the loss of tax credits, including lost jobs, lost GDP, and higher consumer costs.
Despite these setbacks, we are heading to Washington to ask Congress to restore clean energy incentives. We support energy permitting reform that expands clean electricity transmission, accelerates approval of pending clean energy projects, and ensures public input during project reviews. We plan to have hundreds of conversations with lawmakers and their staffs to advocate for policies that support the clean energy transition to affordable, reliable power that supports a safe climate.
For our nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, this is a long game. Advocacy is about developing long-term relationships and moving things forward over an extended period of time through respectful conversations with all members of Congress. We aren’t discouraged by recent political developments. And we will keep showing up.
• Joe Tedino, a Chicago communications consultant, is a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a nonpartisan, nonprofit grass-roots organization that advocates for bold climate policies.