Prairie State Wire

Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy points out there’s a good reason why the energy bill now being debated seems to be going nowhere fast.

“Negotiations on an energy bill have fallen apart thus far because Democrats are the party of special interests and this bill is a perfect storm of all Democrat special interests not being able to agree --- Exelon, the Green Lobby and unions,” Tracy said in a post to Facebook. You’ll notice who is shut out of the negotiations on this: ratepayers, taxpayers, and energy sector workers.”

Republicans argue former Senate President John Cullerton recently working in Springfield as an energy lobbyist speak to how unfair the process can be.

"Cullerton has no business being there as a lobbyist after just serving as Senate president," state senator and GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) recently charged. "The Democrats are foolishly looking to shut down power plants and get rid of coal altogether. They are pushing extreme, job-killing legislation that will also shut down natural gas and nuclear plants."

Acting as a lobbyist for Ameren, Cullerton was pushing a plan that would see more state tax dollars pumped into a plan that would keep nuclear plants open at the expense of coal plants.

"We need to end this revolving door and pass real ethics reform that puts an end to politicians leaving office and immediately becoming a lobbyist to game the system they created," Bailey said. "I have an ethics bill that states they must be out of office for at least two years before working as a lobbyist, but I would be happy to make it longer or indefinite."

The proposed reforms would take effect on Jan. 1 2022 and Bailey is frantically hoping the state can hold on until then.

"Pritzker and the Democrats are killing thousands of good-paying union jobs with their radical plans and now we have one of them switching jobs to get rich to help a company that he wanted to shut down while in office," he said.