HB2902 creates the Municipal and Cooperative Electric Utility Planning and Transparency Act, a new framework requiring Illinois municipal power agencies, municipalities that operate electric utilities, and electric cooperatives with members in the state to file integrated resource plans with the Illinois Power Agency every three years beginning November 1, 2025. Those plans must describe the utility’s generation, storage, transmission, demand-side programs, load forecasts, capital spending, power purchase agreements, planned retirements, and preferred resource portfolio over a 20-year planning horizon. The bill also requires public stakeholder meetings, public posting of plans and responses to comments, and allows utilities to use Agency-maintained lists of qualified experts to prepare plans, with some Agency funding available for those services.
The bill also adds transparency and governance requirements for electric cooperatives and municipal power agencies. It requires cooperatives to open meetings to members, post notices, minutes, rates, audits, election policies, and conflict-of-interest disclosures, and to disclose lobbying expenditures. Municipal power agencies must keep detailed financial records, publish budgets and audits, provide member municipalities access to records, and report lobbying activity. The bill further amends the Open Meetings Act to allow closed sessions for certain utility-related discussions, and it changes the Illinois Municipal Code to let additional municipalities join municipal power agencies and to impose planning-related requirements on those agencies.
HB2902 would also affect net metering and renewable energy policy under the Public Utilities Act. It expands definitions of “electricity provider” and “electric utility” to include municipalities, municipal power agencies, and electric cooperatives, and it revises net metering provisions for those entities. The bill sets out future renewable planning targets in the integrated resource plan process, including a least-cost plan to reach at least 25% renewable load by June 1, 2027, rising to at least 40% by 2031, and a later planning requirement for 100% renewable generation, storage, and demand-side resources by 2045 with coal and gas retirement by January 1, 2046.
The bill’s eminent domain provisions are also significant. For utility-related acquisitions by entities covered by the new planning act, the rebuttable presumption that a taking is for a public purpose would apply only if the most recent integrated resource plan identified the facility or a similar need. The bill also directs the Illinois Commerce Commission, when reviewing municipal power agency eminent domain authority, to consider whether the project fits the preferred portfolio or renewable procurement plans and to consider farmland impacts. Overall, the bill would increase state oversight, disclosure, and planning obligations for local and cooperative electric utilities while tying some property-acquisition authority to prior planning.
Because there are no committee transcripts or recorded votes provided, there is no documented legislative debate or vote history to gauge support or opposition. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears to be framed as a transparency and long-term planning bill with a strong clean-energy and ratepayer-cost rationale. Likely areas of contention include the added administrative burden on municipal and cooperative utilities, the public disclosure requirements for internal operations and lobbying, the renewable energy mandates and retirement timelines, and the new limitation on eminent domain authority for utility projects.
HB2902 would create a new statutory scheme in Illinois law governing municipal power agencies, municipalities operating electric utilities, and electric cooperatives, primarily through the Municipal and Cooperative Electric Utility Planning and Transparency Act. It would require recurring integrated resource plans, public stakeholder participation, expert review options, and extensive reporting and disclosure obligations. The bill also amends the Open Meetings Act, Illinois Municipal Code, Public Utilities Act, and Eminent Domain Act to align those laws with the new planning and transparency framework, including changes to net metering definitions and utility condemnation standards.
No committee transcripts or votes were provided, so there is no direct record of legislative sentiment. From the bill text, the sponsor’s stated rationale is strongly supportive of transparency, public participation, long-term planning, lower costs, and a transition toward renewable energy. The overall tone of the legislation is reform-oriented and pro-consumer/pro-renewable, suggesting support from advocates of utility accountability and clean energy planning, while likely drawing concern from affected utilities and local utility governance bodies.
The most likely points of contention are the bill’s breadth and the level of oversight it imposes on municipal and cooperative utilities. Utilities may object to mandatory integrated resource planning, public meeting and disclosure requirements, expert-selection procedures, and the detailed publication of financial, operational, and lobbying information. Another likely dispute is the renewable energy planning mandate, especially the 2045 100% renewable target and coal/gas retirement timeline, which could be viewed as costly or operationally difficult. The eminent domain restriction tying condemnation presumptions to prior resource plans may also be controversial because it could limit utility infrastructure acquisition authority.