Next for clean energy: permitting reform

Gov. Pritzker’s signature this month on comprehensive energy legislation that promotes renewables is a welcome sign for people like me coping with high electricity bills and a warming planet that has caused torrents of rain in the Chicago suburbs and elsewhere in the country.

Besides funding large batteries to store electricity from renewable sources, the law also provides funds for community geothermal energy programs like the federally funded Sustainable Chicago Geothermal project on the city’s South Side, increases subsidies for energy saving measures in homes and repeals the moratorium on new large, nuclear reactor construction, which has been on the books for more than three decades.

Taken together, the energy-related elements go a long way toward helping to wean us off planet-warming fossil fuels, despite signals from Washington that promote drilling and burning petroleum. This new law will strengthen our electrical grid, which also can be bolstered with clean energy permitting reform at the national level.

Clean energy projects often encounter long, complex permitting steps that slow construction and raise costs. In fact, building a new electrical transmission line, on average, takes over a decade. Practical reforms — such as improving federal review timelines, modernizing oversight processes and enhancing coordination among agencies — can help ensure that good projects move forward faster while upholding environmental and community protections.

We need to urge our congressional delegation to work across the aisle to pass clean energy permitting reform now. Getting clean energy projects up and running faster will also support the state’s goal to end by 2050 the use of coal and natural gas to generate electricity.

Joe Tedino

Chicago