After the first week of veto session in the Illinois House concluded Wednesday afternoon, there are still a number of priorities that House Republicans are looking ahead to solve in the coming weeks. One of those, is addressing Senate Bill 76, which was vetoed by the Governor this summer. The bill would lift the 36-year ban on new nuclear energy construction permits.
Since 1987, Illinois has prohibited new nuclear construction. However, Illinois remains as a nuclear power with 11 current operating reactors, the most of any state. Illinois is in the top three states with 54 percent of its energy generation being nuclear, while also having the most generating capacity (11.6 gigawatts) of any state.
“I think a shared priority for both Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate was a veto of SB-76 and that was the nuclear bill,” said House Republican Leader Tony McCombie. “I have hopes that that bill is able to be presented again and have another vote because it was passed by both the House and the Senate by a strong majority.”
“Even if this bill does pass, there is a lot of guidelines through the state and through the federal government, so we are far off on having anything done in the state concerning nuclear,” she said. “If we don’t lift the moratorium, we can’t even begin that.”
McCombie and House Republicans support a pathway that will provide affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy… and that is through lifting the moratorium on nuclear power.