October 02, 2019
STATEMENT BY HOWARD A. LEARNER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & POLICY CENTER
The Illinois Supreme Court denied Commonwealth Edison’s petition for leave to appeal the Appellate Court’s May 2019 decision, thereby ending the utility’s legal challenge to the expansion of solar programs throughout Illinois. ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner said:
“This was the last legal impediment to expanding new solar programs to 570,000 residential and business customers in areas served by municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives,” Learner said. “Now all Illinoisans can gain the environmental and economic benefits of distributed solar generation, and low-income and community solar programs.”
ELPC attorneys represented a clean energy coalition that included the Natural Resources Defense Council and several Illinois solar companies in the litigation to defend the Illinois Power Agency’s and Illinois Commerce Commission’s approval of these new Illinois solar programs.