Clean Jobs Coalition members Jack Darin, left, director of the Illinois Sierra Club, and Andrew Barbeau of the Environmental Defense Fund discuss amendments that coalition members want to see added to the proposed Clean Energy Jobs Act to prevent lobbying abuses like those that Commonwealth Edison recently admitted to.
Clean Jobs Coalition members Jack Darin, left, director of the Illinois Sierra Club, and Andrew Barbeau of the Environmental Defense Fund discuss amendments that coalition members want to see added to the proposed Clean Energy Jobs Act to prevent lobbying abuses like those that Commonwealth Edison recently admitted to.
SPRINGFIELD — A coalition of environmental, business and faith groups is calling for legislation that would make the ethics reform measures recently imposed on utility giant Commonwealth Edison apply to all utilities in Illinois, with enforcement from an independent entity such as the Illinois Commerce Commission.
“Like people all across this state, we are outraged by revelations of a multi-year scheme by ComEd to influence lawmakers through bribery and other illegal activities,” Jack Darin, director of the Illinois Sierra Club, said during a video news conference Wednesday. “Utilities are supposed to serve the people, but for too long it’s been the other way around in Illinois. Utilities and polluters have too often dominated our Illinois energy policies and the rest of us have paid the price.”
