Illinois environmental advocates say that as President Barack Obama goes green,
so will the state’s bank account.
In a report released last week, Environment Illinois, a nonprofit environmental
advocacy organization, announced that new initiatives in Obama’s proposed fiscal year 2010 budget could inject at least $29 billion into the
state over the next 10 years.
“We wanted to provide an Illinois-specific breakdown of the impact of several
environment issues — things we’ve been trying to make progress on for a really long time,” program director Max Muller says.
Obama’s federal budget proposal includes $646 billion in revenues nationwide from
cap-and-trade provisions. Environment Illinois estimates that if revenues were
apportioned on a per capita basis, the state would receive $27.4 billion over
the 10-year period.
The president suggests using $150 billion from potential cap-and-trade revenues
to invest in wind and solar energy. The report points out that 18 companies in
Illinois could benefit, including Midstate Renewable Energy Services in
Champaign.
Obama’s proposed budget invests $2.4 billion in the Clean Water State Revolving Fund,
a program that allocates funds for state sewer improvements. Under the proposed
formula, Illinois could receive $90.2 million. The report cites that 90 state
facilities — including the Spring and Sugar Creek branches of the Springfield Metro Sanitary
District — exceeded pollution limits in 2005.
Environment Illinois includes a section on Superfund sites, the worst toxic
waste sites in the nation as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency.
According to the report, there are 1,258 in the country and six in Illinois. If
Obama reinstates the national “polluter pays” fee, which collects money from polluting power plants, $17.2 billion in
revenues could go toward national cleanup efforts.
The report concludes that if Obama eliminates subsidies to the oil industry,
more than $30 billion could be saved for American taxpayers. That translates
into $1.5 billion in relief for Illinois.
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.
