Pritzker blames power grid, Trump admin for expected price increase
[July 28, 2025]
By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Energy price increases are expected for a large
portion of Illinois’ population.
PJM Interconnection announced its capacity auction this week, and the
price came at the cap of nearly $330 per MW-day. That’s up from the
previous auction of $270 per MW-day. The grid operator said to expect a
year-over-year increase of 1.5% to 5% in some customers’ bills.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker blamed PJM.
“It’s the fact that PJM isn’t bringing on the generation that it should
in the territory,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference in
Chicago. “I am deeply concerned about why that is because it seems to me
it should have happened already. They are pleading to do it, but haven't
done it yet.”
Before last week’s capacity auction, PJM had said “Supply is decreasing
due primarily to state and federal decarbonization policies and some
economics.”
“The fact is that PJM has been processing hundreds of these projects
through our study processes and will continue to do so,” PJM said in a
statement to The Center Square. “These resources are welcome additions
to the grid but are currently having their own challenges in
constructing like supply chain, state permitting and financing.”
Pritzker also went on to blame President Donald Trump for stepping away
from subsidizing such energy projects like wind and solar.
“Everybody is wondering again the chaos and confusion that the Trump
administration has brought to so many areas is now been brought home to
your electric bill,” he said.
Asked about expanding nuclear generation in Illinois, Pritzker said he’s
for it.
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“I’ve been its greatest ally trying to get that done,” he said. “We
have to do it in a safe fashion. And we were able to do that for
[small modular reactors], we need to do it for large scale nuclear
as well.”
Last year, Pritzker approved lifting Illinois’ nuclear moratorium to
allow small modular reactors.
State Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, introduced a new measure impacting
SMRs.
“Small modular reactors represent one of the most promising
solutions to Illinois’ growing energy reliability challenges,” said
Rezin. “However, we won’t realize their full potential if critical
projects are stuck in endless permitting delays. My legislation
ensures state agencies act in a timely manner so we can move forward
with safe, clean nuclear energy.”
Rezin said her Senate Bill 2681 would require all applicable state
agencies to take final action on a permit application for an SMR
within 150 days of it being deemed complete. If no action is taken
within that timeframe, and no valid extension is granted, the
application would be considered approved, the senator said.
Some are pushing for the moratorium to be lifted even further. Rezin
has Senate Bill 1527, which would remove "provisions prohibiting the
construction of new nuclear power reactors with a nameplate capacity
of more than 300 megawatts of electricity.” That measure has
bipartisan support.
Legislators are scheduled to return to session for six days in
October.
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