Opinion: Illinois should learn from blue states’ energy mistakes

By Tim Ryan, Natural Allies Leadership Council Co-Chair | Crain’s Chicago Business 07/01/2025

During my time in Congress, I always advocated for working people who keep America running, building and growing. As Illinois maps out its energy future under Gov. Pritzker, it’s at a clear fork in the road that will impact so many families for years to come: pursue an affordable, popular and balanced energy policy that includes natural gas, working with renewables and nuclear, as it does today; or follow the risky path of Northeast states that are now seeing spiking power bills and higher potential for blackouts. As Democratic governors there rethink their anti-natural gas posture, Illinois should learn from their mistakes and promote a balanced plan that Democrats nationally can build on.

President Obama once listed natural gas as key to American energy independence. For 19 years straight, natural gas has cut more carbon than renewables and accounts for over 61% of America’s carbon reductions in that time. It’s set a foundation as a reliable, affordable and domestically secure source to help grow renewables, as it’s done across the Midwest.

Yet, strangely, my Democratic friends in the Northeast chose soundbites rather than science. They moved against natural gas — denying new infrastructure, blocking permits and freezing investment interest in needed projects — all while demanding zero-carbon-only policies. Perhaps the first signals that these were the wrong policies should have been in 2018, with their reliance on imported Russian energy to keep the lights on in Boston, or the annual winter burning of higher-emitting fuel oil to avoid blackouts.

In the years since, New England has been left with some of the highest electricity prices in the nation, and it’s no coincidence. Increases in power demand from electric cars, electric heating and power-hungry artificial intelligence data centers are leaving residents vulnerable to price shocks, particularly during high-demand periods.

Across the PJM power grid footprint — including New Jersey and Maryland — blue-state Democrats are rethinking their anti-natural-gas policies now that bills are hitting families. In Maryland this winter, some working class families saw increases of hundreds of dollars per month.

Illinois and Gov. Pritzker should avoid these same traps.

Some pragmatic Democrats like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Connecticut’s Ned Lamont understand that a successful clean-energy transition must be grounded in reality, not just rhetoric. They know natural gas is not a barrier to progress, but a bridge that can support more nuclear and renewables, keeping energy affordable and dependable while we scale clean technologies.

Polling from Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future shows that this isn’t a fringe position; majorities of Democrats, Independents and Republicans support natural gas as part of the clean-energy mix. In Connecticut, 80% of voters support Gov. Lamont’s balanced approach. In Massachusetts, 68% of voters wanted more natural gas working with renewables, with Democrats the most approving.

These voters get it: Wind and solar are critical, but they’re intermittent. Nuclear is stable, but it can take a decade or more to permit and build. Natural gas is here now. It’s reliable, flexible and produces half the emissions of coal.

The left-leaning Progressive Policy Institute recently echoed this sentiment in a report urging Democrats to adopt a “cost-first” energy transition strategy. Their conclusion is simple: Without natural gas, the transition becomes more expensive, more disruptive and far less equitable, particularly for communities of color. That message should resonate in Illinois, where working families and small businesses are already contending with inflation and rising utility bills.

We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of progress or affordability. If Illinois excludes natural gas from its energy future, it’s not just environmental targets that are at risk; it’s union jobs, industrial growth and the ability of families to pay their monthly bills. We know, because it’s already happening in other parts of the country.

This is personal for the building trades and labor unions that have long supported a balanced energy portfolio. Natural gas projects — pipelines, plants and infrastructure — create thousands of good-paying, union-protected construction jobs.

Illinois has the chance to lead, but leadership requires courage and balance. The state can set an example by embracing a practical, forward-looking energy strategy that includes natural gas as a vital partner in the clean-energy mix. By doing so, it can attract new industry, grow construction and energy jobs and ensure that energy remains affordable and reliable for everyone.

Pritzker should take a cue from fellow Democratic governors who are leading with pragmatism, not ideology. Shapiro and Lamont understand that climate goals must be paired with cost-conscious, job-creating, low-carbon policies. Illinois can and should be part of that coalition.

Tim Ryan, a Democrat who represented Ohio in the U.S. House from 2003-2023, was a 2023 Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. He is co-chair of Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future.