Pritzker doubles down on clean-energy expansion

The governor talks about more subsidies and more government involvement to promote his energy agenda, which includes supporting nuclear expansion.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants to go all in on his affordable-energy agenda, with a focus on expanding nuclear and renewable energy, modernizing the grid and managing the rising power demand of data centers.

In his recent budget address, Pritzker acknowledged the widely shared concern that rising electricity bills are straining Illinois families. Illinoisans are paying “too much for electricity, too much to live. Everything is just too damned expensive,” he said.

Illinois electricity costs rose about 15% from 2024 to 2025, more than triple the national average of 4.5%. Pritzker cited insufficient supply, inadequate infrastructure and higher usage as causes of high prices.

The governor’s aggressive goal is that by 2050 all Illinois energy will be renewable and the state will rely fully on clean energy.

Expanding nuclear power is key in Pritzker’s plan to boost supply. After passage of the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, which lifted Illinois’ moratorium on new reactors, the governor signaled interest in accelerating nuclear development.

Nuclear provides clean electricity and supplies 54% of Illinois’ power. Expanding nuclear capacity would help supply keep up as demand grows.

But nuclear projects can face permitting, financing and construction difficulties. To increase nuclear power, Illinois must make it easier to build the facilities. More efficient approval processes will help ensure that nuclear power contributes to Illinois’ energy-abundance goals.

Pritzker’s fiscal 2027 budget expands on the foundation laid by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. The governor proposes allocating $14 million for EV rebates and $328 million for low-income weatherization and advancing proposals for solar canopies over state parking lots.

In his address, Pritzker said that in fiscal 2026 “families will receive $803 million in credits on their electricity bills. That’s on top of the $1.3 billion in credits CEJA has already provided.”

These initiatives to accelerate clean-energy adoption and lower energy burdens rely on public subsidies and government incentives. If they were financially viable without subsidies and incentives, the private sector would take them on. State support shifts costs and risk onto consumers.

To mandate affordability, Pritzker also celebrated price caps implemented by PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator, intended to moderate capacity market costs. The caps ensure that energy costs do not exceed a rate ceiling. Price caps are projected to “save consumers across the [13-state] region $45 billion through the year 2030,” Pritzker said.

However, price controls do not fix supply-demand imbalances and can discourage investment in the long term if the grid operator’s energy costs exceed what consumers pay.

Pritzker also flagged data center energy usage as a problematic driver of higher costs. He directed that data centers be required to “pay for capacity resources to power their operations” and try to keep rates lower for consumers. The proposal to temporarily pause tax credits for new data centers reflects growing attention to the impact of large industrial electricity users on grid demand.

Data centers account for just 5.4% of Illinois electricity use despite the state having the fourth-most facilities nationally. Whether Illinois should welcome more data centers is separate from whether the state should pick winners and losers through targeted business tax incentives.

Data centers can create significant benefits. They generate investment, property tax revenue and employment, including short-term construction jobs and about 4,900 permanent jobs as of 2024.

Pritzker’s fiscal 2027 energy plan responds to rising power costs while continuing the clean energy transition and expanding supply, consumer protections and state involvement in energy markets. Its impact will depend on execution: how quickly new resources come online, how costs are allocated, and whether reliability keeps pace with demand as Illinois balances affordability, reliability, environmental goals and competitiveness.