The Illinois Energy Transition Act, signed into law in September 2021, mandates that almost all commercially-owned coal-fired electricity plants eliminate CO2 emissions by 2030 or shut down. Municipally-owned coal-fired plants, commercially-owned natural-gas plants, and several recently commissioned coal-fired plants named in the Act have until 2045 to comply.
In 2022, Illinois generated 190 million megawatt hours of electricity. Emissions-producing coal and natural gas accounted for 21.5% and 12.8% of total generation, respectively. Since 2014, coal generation has fallen from 43.5% of the total while natural gas has risen from 5.1%. Over the same period, emissions-free nuclear generation ranged between 48% and 52%, while combined solar and wind generation grew from 5.1% to 13.6%.
The chart places Illinois’ emissions in a broader context. Global CO2 emissions from hydrocarbon fuel use total 36.4 billion metric tons per year, of which roughly 45%, or 16.4 billion tons, remains in the atmosphere. U.S. emissions are 5.2 billion metric tons, or 14% of the global total. In 2019, Illinois emissions from fuel combustion were 203.4 million metric tons—3.9% of the U.S. total and 0.55% of the global total. Of this, electricity generation emitted 58.2 million tons, or 1.1% of the U.S. and 0.15% of the global total, primarily from coal.
Against these proportions, the Illinois Energy Transition Act seeks to influence global CO2 emissions through actions confined to a relatively small jurisdiction and emissions profile—an approach costly to Illinois with little prospect of measurable impact on the U.S. or global total.
From the EPRINC Chart of the Week archive.