Exelon Announces Plant Closures
This past week, Exelon announced the closure of two nuclear plants in Illinois. This comes after Governor JB Pritzker pushed a massive Green Energy bill that was laden with bailouts and unrealistic green energy mandates.
The State Senate adjourned in mid-June without voting on the bill. Senate President Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, pointed to an ongoing disagreement between two of his party’s core constituencies: organized labor and the Green Lobby.
The priorities of JB Pritzker and the majority party in this state are completely unacceptable. They serve powerful special interests with no regard for the people who elected them. Rather than negotiating an energy deal, they adjourned and went on vacation. Rather than visit the state’s power generating plants, they memorize Greta Thunberg’s talking points.
Now, hundreds of people will be out of work in these communities. It is a travesty and it was totally preventable. The Democrat leadership turned their back on workers and families.
Worst still, the Democrats don’t seem to understand that nuclear power is a zero-emission clean energy source. If they’re really trying to prevent a climate crisis, as they claim, they should be building new nuclear plants all over Illinois. Instead, they’re letting them close.
Not only does Exelon support jobs and much-needed economic activity, but they are critical to providing reliable and resilient energy to ratepayers.
Seeking Answers Concerning COVID-19 Variants
Today I asked for more transparency from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) concerning their method to determine COVID-19 variants.
Since the first covid case was reported 18 months ago in our state, my constituents are asking me how the state healthcare agency is testing, and identifying new covid variants. The people want to know how the government decides what a new variant is and what is not. We also need to know the facts about who is getting sick, their immunization status and what variant they have. There needs to be more transparency to IDPH’s methods and tracking as this virus affects us all.
In my letter to IDPH, I am seeking answers to the following questions:
- How does IDPH test for COVID-19 variants?
- Does IDPH test for new variants for every covid test conducted in the state?
- What is the methodology for determining a COVID-19 variant?
- Is every person hospitalized with COVID-19 tested to determine what variant they carry?
- Are all “breakthrough” cases recorded and tracked by the vaccine previously taken?
I requested a prompt response from the Department of Public Health as I feel there needs to be more transparency in how the State of Illinois determines, manages and mitigates COVID-19 variants.
Upcoming Events
August 9 – Please join State Senator Chapin Rose and me for a town hall meeting at Clinton High School Auditorium. We are looking forward to an evening of legislative updates and good conversation.
