As we highlighted at the end of the spring legislative session, environmentalists in Illinois registered a big win with the passage of SB 1918, a hefty energy efficiency reform package intended to limit the state's gasoline consumption and save consumers money. They can also claim some credit for influencing the Obama administration's decision to set historic new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and tailpipe standards. (The House passed a resolution expressing support for Obama's decision at the deadline.)

But not every green bill sailed through both chambers, including one that would have established a cap on greenhouse gas emissions from large sources. And following their decision in January to create the first state-backed framework for developing coal gasification projects, lawmakers soundly approved**  another measure favored by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce to offer tax credits that would attract new energy projects and energy industry to the state.

It's not really surprising that the coal industry garnered some legislative victories. According to a recent report (PDF) from the National Institute on State Money in Politics, they were very generous with their campaign contributions here in Illinois over the past year. Analyzing 13 industry groups and associations identified as opponents of carbon caps and other climate-change policy, the study found that contributors gave $4.3 million during the 2008 election cycle.  (The report points out that this represents "60 percent of the $7.2 million [in Illinois contributions] from all parties interested in climate-change policy.")  The bulk of that $4.3 million came from two coal industry front groups, the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth ($2.1 million) and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity ($1.6 million). Illinois' legislative leaders grabbed the most dollars, receiving a combined $573,550 from the special interests. 

Illinois is also moving towards an expansion of its coal operation just as new research calls into question the availability of the natural resource. After completing an extensive analysis of Wyoming's Gillette coal field, the U.S. Geological Survey determined that less than 6 percent of the coal in its biggest beds could be mined profitably. According to the Wall Street Journal, California Institute of Technology electrical-engineering professor David Rutledge concludes the nation's recoverable reserves are about half as large as the government claims. That means policymakers are failing to assess coal's immense internal costs and overestimating the amount of resources available. And as The New Republic's Brad Plumer notes, high coal extraction costs could further inhibit the "clean coal" boom Illinois lawmakers are banking on:

[Coal-fired plants that capture and sequester their carbon emissions] already face steep economic hurdles, not least because it's still quite expensive to store the carbon underground. But the CCS plants also require up to 30 percent more coal than conventional plants to produce the same amount of energy. If cheap coal's not nearly as plentiful as once thought, they'll have a tougher time competing against alternative sources of clean power.

Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user Wigwam Jones.

**CORRECTION (6/10, 12:40 p.m.): Brian Granahan at Environment Illinois passes along some good news that I missed when looking through the legislation initially. An amendment to HB 3854, the Chamber-favored tax credit bill, essentially strips the law of all of its provisions except for the establishment of commission to study the efficiacy of carbon capture and sequestration technology.