Dive Brief:

• Legislation designed to save Exelon's nuclear fleet and overhaul the state's energy sector now has the support of Ameren Illinois, but only after the utility attached an amendment that would change its energy efficiency targets.
• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports environmentalists have pushed back on the new targets, which they say are just marginally above what the utility now achieves.
• Exelon and its subsidiary Commonwealth Edison earlier this month announced their support for the Next Generation Energy Plan, which would includes supports for nuclear plants and tackles issues like solar power growth, residential rate reform and microgrids.

Dive Insight:

Ameren Illinois' support for the Next Generation Energy Plan might be unwanted help from Exelon's point of view, as an amendment attached by Ameren appears to have drawn the ire of environmentalists.

“The targets and goals that they would have to achieve are just a hair above what they’re doing now,” Nick Magrisso, Midwest states legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

Ameren says its amendment will “bolster downstate energy efficiency programs by 60 percent and provide significant resources for low-income customers," the newspaper reports. But Magrisso fired back that the group supports "good investments that lead to consumer savings, not spending money for the sake of spending it.”

The Next Generation Energy Plan is a compilation of many of the major elements of three bills backed by Exelon that previously failed to pass. Among the provisions are credits for the Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants in the state, which Exelon has said it will close in 2017 and 2017 without help.

But the bill goes far beyond Exelon's nuclear fleet and would have broad impacts on Illinois' power sector. The measure includes creation of a Zero Emission Standard that would provide make-whole payments to the Clinton and Quad City nuclear plants, $140 million to accelerate the solar industry, revisions to ComEd's rate structure and changes to the state's renewable portfolio standard.

The bill would also amend the Illinois law that bars ComEd from owning generation assets so that the utility could build six microgrids it is considering.

According to Exelon, the bill will save 4,200 jobs in Illinois, prevent large rate increases and preserves over $1.2 billion in economic activity annually.