Raoul has seen some success in the more than a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration.
by Ben Szalinski Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD - Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 19 other Democratic attorneys general filed a pair of lawsuits Tuesday against Trump administration policies designed to block federal funding to states that don’t carry out U.S. immigration enforcement.
According to the lawsuits, recently enacted policies at the U.S. departments of Homeland Security and Transportation illegally tie grant funding for items such as natural disaster recovery and road construction to whether the state participates in federal immigration enforcement. The attorneys general say the goal of the policies is to illegally force states to carry out federal immigration responsibilities.
“This FEMA and transportation funding has nothing to do with immigration,” Raoul said during a news conference. “However, it has everything to do with the safety of our residents after natural disasters and as they travel our roads, railways and in the sky.”
Under the 2017 TRUST Act signed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, Illinois law enforcement is prohibited from arresting and, in most cases, detaining a person based solely on their immigration status or assisting immigration officials. State law does not protect people in Illinois from deportation, and federal officers can still make arrests and deport people in Illinois.
The federal policy is illegal, according to the attorneys general, because Congress controls spending and executive branch agencies cannot withhold appropriations allocated by Congress. Furthermore, they argue the states cannot be coerced into enforcing federal immigration laws.
President Donald Trump has signed executive orders designed to cut off federal funding to “sanctuary” states like Illinois. The U.S. Department of Justice also sued Illinois in February over the TRUST Act.
“The administration seeks to jeopardize readiness for disasters and safe roads to try to force Illinois law enforcement officers to shift their focus away from addressing serious crime in our communities in order to instead do the federal government’s job of civil immigration enforcement,” Raoul said.
Billions of dollars of federal funding could be at risk for Illinois, Raoul said. This includes $122 million Illinois received last year for disaster recovery, $2 billion for highways, $60 million for counterterrorism, and $24 million to protect nonprofits from attacks by extremists.
Raoul has seen some success in the more than a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration
“At a time when the disaster relief and transportation needs of this country are significant, we deserve to know our federal agencies are focused on the welfare of all of us,” Raoul said.
The lawsuits come a week after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem visited Illinois to criticize the state’s “sanctuary” policies.
“This governor has bragged about Illinois being a firewall against President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda, and it is very clear that he is violating the constitution of the United States because it is a federal law that the federal government set and enforce immigration policies,” Noem said.
Raoul also argued the federal government has never before allocated funding based on whether a state agrees with the president’s political agenda.
No states have lost funding so far as a result of these policies, but it’s “imminent,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. He did not say why the lawsuits were filed in Rhode Island federal court, which is where Democratic attorneys general have filed many other lawsuits against the Trump administration.
Raoul has seen some success in the more than a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration his office is involved in. A federal judge in New York last week issued a preliminary injunction blocking a U.S. Department of Education effort to cut off some federal funding to states, giving Illinois access to $77 million.
Illinois has also joined other lawsuits to prevent the Department of Education from being dismantled, ensure the state continues to have access to various types of federal funding, and prevent the federal government from limiting birthright citizenship among others.
The cases appear to be straining his offices’ resources, however, as Raoul is asking state lawmakers to increase funding for his office by $15 million this year to hire more attorneys.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Ameren Illinois, which has about 800,000 downstate customers, requested an increase that translates to between $8 to $10 higher monthly bills for a typical residential customer.
by Andrew Adams Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD - Natural gas customers in the Chicago suburbs and downstate Illinois are likely to see an increase in their monthly bills next year, but it's up to state regulators to decide how big a hike, if any, to approve.
Nicor Gas, which serves 2.3 million customers in northern and western Illinois, requested the largest gas rate plan in state history — roughly equivalent to $7.50 per month for the average residential customer. Ameren Illinois, which has about 800,000 downstate customers, requested an increase that translates to between $8 to $10 higher monthly bills for a typical residential customer.
Regulators at the Illinois Commerce Commission are expected to announce a decision as to whether to approve or alter the hikes in November. The new rates would go into effect at the start of 2026.
In the meantime, consumer watchdogs and environmental advocates are railing against both utilities for their requests, which they argue should be slashed drastically.
Critiques from consumer groups
The Citizens Utility Board, a consumer watchdog group, filed written testimony this month in both cases arguing that the requests should be cut — Nicor's by about 36% and Ameren's by about 42%. Other groups, like the Illinois attorney general’s office, the Environmental Defense Fund and others argued for additional cuts in their own filings.
Abe Scarr, director of the consumer advocacy group Illinois PIRG, said the companies are requesting “long-term commitments” in paying for gas system infrastructure, despite the potential for decreasing demand for fossil fuels.
For Ameren, much of the contention comes from the company’s plan to upgrade its natural gas system.
“The more expensive their infrastructure investments, the more opportunity they have to profit,” Scarr said.
Because utility profits are regulated by agencies like the ICC, there is a financial incentive to invest in infrastructure so that more funds can be “recovered” from customers — a portion of which then go to shareholders.
That rate of return is one of the things being litigated in these rate cases. Both companies requested a bump in their allowed “return on equity,” which translates to the amount paid to shareholders. In recent years, the ICC has consistently rejected utilities’ requests for higher return rates, although they have approved some modest increases.
“You’re asking us to predict what those shares are worth next year? Next month is gonna be hard,” CUB’s general counsel Eric DeBellis said.
DeBellis said the companies overstepped in other areas of their requests as well, including costs associated with rate cases and post-employment benefits as well as an accounting irregularity worth millions of dollars that Ameren has already admitted was erroneous.
He noted that Nicor included tens of millions of dollars of projects that were rejected by the ICC in the company’s rate request two years ago, a move that DeBellis called “galling.”
Environmentalists question future of gas
The companies drew criticism from some environmentalists, who argued in testimony this month that investing in natural gas infrastructure as the state — and country — move away from fossil fuels could leave customers on the hook for the bill for decades.
Curt Stokes, a senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, said he's concerned that gas companies are building out new gas infrastructure in a way that “locks us in and keeps us hooked on fossil fuels for our energy needs.”
For Ameren, much of the contention comes from the company’s plan to upgrade its natural gas system, a plan that company officials say is required by federal safety rules. But critics point out that Ameren frequently chooses to totally replace pipes — the most expensive and most profitable option — instead of cheaper alternatives like testing them for safety.
But Ameren officials defend the choice as being the only option to ensure compliance with federal rules.
They certainly have not demonstrated, and there’s lots of — lots of — reasons to be skeptical, that there’s any environmental benefit.
“The investments we have proposed in our reliability plan will enable us to meet strict federal pipeline safety requirements, reduce leaks, and provide reliable and affordable natural gas service for our residential and business customers,” Brad Kloeppel, Ameren’s senior director of gas operations, said in a statement. “We evaluate all methods available for each segment of pipe subject to compliance based on cost and operational feasibility."
Meanwhile, advocates have criticized Nicor’s efforts at lessening greenhouse gas emissions.
The utility requested to make permanent a pilot program called “TotalGreen,” a voluntary effort that allows customers to pay to offset their carbon footprint through a mix of “renewable natural gas” and investments in methane capture and forest conservation.
“They certainly have not demonstrated, and there’s lots of — lots of — reasons to be skeptical, that there’s any environmental benefit,” Scarr said.
The EDF, Illinois PIRG and the Environmental Law and Policy Center argued in a joint filing that the “TotalGreen” program fails to live up to the state’s clean energy goals.
Among other reasons, the groups’ testimony said it costs more than $2,400 per person and has only offset the equivalent of 0.0031% of the company’s yearly carbon footprint.
Jennifer Golz, a Nicor spokesperson, said the program “supports the state’s broader environmental objectives on the path to a sustainable future.”
“Nicor Gas supports our parent company, Southern Company Gas, in its goal to achieve net zero direct greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 2050,” Golz said in an email. “We also support reducing emissions across the natural gas value chain, from gas production to transmission to end uses.”
TotalGreen is one of several projects outlined in the two rate cases which use “renewable natural gas,” a term for methane that is captured from landfills, wastewater treatment plants and farms that would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere.
Stokes said there were “too many open questions” about renewable natural gas programs for the EDF to support the initiatives, but he was optimistic about some of the companies’ other proposals.
“There are good signs in these cases that Nicor and Ameren are looking to be more innovative,” Stokes said.
He pointed specifically to Nicor’s energy efficiency programs and a proposal for a pilot program at Ameren which would allow communities to transition from natural gas to electric all at once as pipes need to be replaced or retired.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
PONTIAC - People everywhere are conquering their cabin fever and are enjoying the great outdoors after a long, bitter winter. But before you head out for that hike, health care experts remind you to take precautions to avoid tick bites. Read more . . .
CHICAGO - An Illinois law professor is weighing in on what she called a "very public and open test of due process" for immigrants being deported from the United States without court hearings. Read more . . .
CHAMPAIGN - In a show of solidarity against President Donald Trump's trade and immigration policies, which critics say are harming families and retirement savings, more than a thousand protesters gathered Saturday at West Park near downtown Champaign for the Hands-Off! Mobilization rally. Read more . . .
Photo Galleries
A couple of runners found themselves in the wrong race at this year's Illinois Marathon. Over 60 photos from the race that you should see.
by Ben Szalinski
