I’m always heartened to see anyone taking climate change seriously, as shown by the April 20 Tribune report “Young Chicago activists demand climate action at downtown rally.” It’s been a long, long time since I was a teenager, but I wish I had been as committed to creating a better world then as these young people are.
That said, I hope this energy can be channeled so as to maximize impact. Twenty years of climate policy advocacy have shown me that effective action requires us to keep two things in mind: demand and Congress.
When I say “demand,” I’m not talking about the demands we make on our leaders, but the consumer demand for fossil fuel energy. If we act to reduce demand, the supply side will take care of itself. No business is going to drill for oil or mine coal that they can’t sell. On the other hand, restricting fossil energy supply will just drive the price up and put more money in the pockets of global market investors. If the U.S. cuts production while demand is still high, the gap will be filled by corrupt petrostates like Russia.
This takes us to Congress. Calling on the president to “declare a climate emergency” and curtail production will not help as long as our lawmakers won’t pass laws to cut demand, such as a rising price on carbon. A simple carbon fee would be a powerful tool to reduce demand, and concerns about a regressive consumer impact could be reversed by rebating all the revenue equally to households without regard to their consumption. Bills to achieve this have been introduced in Congress for years but haven’t yet been able to quite make it past the severe allergy politicians have to any policy, no matter how beneficial, that can be labeled a tax.
Instead of demanding that the president willingly jump onto a political land mine, I would encourage these young people to direct their voices toward their representatives in the House and Senate. Tell them that they must enact a carbon fee and dividend bill to put a price on carbon and recycle the revenue back to the people.
Many expert studies have shown that this is by far the most effective, fastest and fairest way to slash fossil carbon emissions. The reason it hasn’t been done yet is quite simple: because it would work.
— Rick Knight, Brookfield
Boosting wind, solar power
Thank you for Nara Schoenberg’s excellent article “Wind and solar in limbo: Long waitlists to go online” (April 21). More electric transmission capacity is necessary to support the clean energy revolution. This article highlights the tragic combination of federal red tape, subpar competency of some private regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and the unmet need for states to streamline responsible permitting reform to build transmission lines faster. With the world in a climate crisis, it’s unforgivable that 1,400 gigawatts of wind and solar power, enough to allow the United States to achieve 90% clean electricity, are on hold.
Legislation called the BIG WIRES Act (S.2827/H.R.5551) could be part of a comprehensive permitting reform solution. It requires regions to be able to build enough capacity to transfer 30% of their peak demand between neighboring RTOs when extreme weather creates blackout conditions. The regions themselves would be responsible for deciding who builds and pays for the new transmission lines that would be necessary to meet the mandate. If they can’t decide among themselves within two years, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would decide it for them. Capacity and forward thinking are encouraged by the bill, while allowing regions to use a full suite of technological tools available to them to arrive at a solution.
Importantly, this national legislation would force each RTO to clean up the red tape that is currently holding back the approval of clean energy, as detailed in the article.
This bill has some bipartisan appeal, but it needs citizen support to get lawmakers officially on board. Readers can ask their federal representative to support the BIG WIRES Act, to give permitting authorities a much-needed shove to cut red tape to enable backlogged clean energy to get on the grid.
— Andrew Panelli, Homer Glen
Electric grid operator’s role
I am writing in response to the Tribune’s April 21 article about wind and solar power being in limbo.
PJM, operator of the nation’s largest electricity grid, has seen interest in our interconnection process recently, which we welcome. The Tribune’s article describes a national problem whose solution is currently playing out throughout PJM’s 13-state territory.
The Tribune’s story suggests that PJM is delaying the transition to renewable energy generation. In reality, PJM’s process for integrating new generation resources was reformed in 2022, approved by our federal regulator, and is progressing successfully.
PJM’s legacy process was created to handle requests from a small number of large generators seeking to inject electricity onto the PJM grid; the redesigned process can handle requests from larger volumes of much smaller generation resources, mostly solar, wind and batteries.
Our transition began in July with the promise of processing 230 gigawatts (GW) of projects by 2026 — that’s more capacity than is currently in the entire PJM system — including 72 GW by mid-2025. More than 90% of the projects are renewable or storage. We have met every milestone to date and expect to begin the next phase of the transition in May. That is the energy transition in progress.
But the Tribune glossed over the greatest challenge to making the transition a reality. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, also cited by the Tribune, more than 300 GW of mostly renewable generation projects nationally have successfully made it through regional interconnection processes without getting built. That includes nearly 40 GW of projects in PJM’s territory, 3 GW of which are approved for northern Illinois.
Developers of these important projects have everything they need from PJM to move to completion, yet that isn’t happening. The reasons for this include continued supply chain, project financing and local siting issues. While all those factors are outside of PJM’s control, they are no less concerning for the industry overall because this generation is needed to replace the coal and gas resources that are retiring in large numbers in states like Illinois.
PJM’s interconnection process is reformed, proceeding and playing its role in the energy transition, but the industry must come together to bring these new generation resources to fruition.
— Aftab Khan, executive vice president of operations, planning and security, PJM Interconnection
Great day for Native tribe
I am grateful to the Tribune Editorial Board for its April 23 editorial “A historic wrong finally righted for the Prairie Band Potawatomi.” It was a great day for the tribe, our state and our vibrant Illinois Native American community. As the editorial board correctly states, the indigenous tribes of Illinois were forced into treaties to “cede” their ancestral lands, but we never left Illinois. The Prairie Band Potawatomi and other tribes stayed and were joined by members from numerous other tribes. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Illinois is currently home to approximately 100,000 Native Americans, many of whom also maintain citizenship in hundreds of sovereign tribes.
Native American Illinoisans, including my great-grandfather, proudly served in Illinois regiments during the Civil War. He was just one of many Native American Illinoisans who have contributed to our state and nation over the centuries and continuing today. The American Indian Center of Chicago is the oldest urban Native American cultural and social services center in the nation. Illinois is home to numerous Native American educational, health, business, professional and social services organizations. Native American Illinoisans are an integral part of all facets of Illinois life.
Under Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Native Americans have been appointed to serve on several state boards and commissioners. Under Lori Lightfoot when she was mayor, the first Native American was appointed to serve as a municipal department head. Illinois legislators such as Rep. Maurice West have worked with our community to pass legislation allowing our youths to celebrate their culture at school commencements and also teach Native American historic and contemporary contributions in Illinois schools. Nationally, Native American Illinoisans serve on countless professional and vocational organizations.
Having a federally recognized tribe in Illinois builds on the historic and everyday contemporary contributions of Native Americans in Illinois. We can look forward to great things from the Prairie Band Potawatomi and their stewardship of their land in Illinois.
The action of the U.S. government in taking the 130 acres of land in DuPage County into federal trust for the Prairie Band Potawatomi confirms what we always knew — that Illinois is and has always been Indian Country.
— Matthew W. Beaudet, member, Montaukett Tribe, Chicago
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
