Illinois has positioned itself as a national leader in clean energy policy following the passage of the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). My research focuses on how CEJA may (or may not) facilitate a just energy transition across the state of Illinois, with a focus on spatial inequity. I have found that the state’s unequal governance of different energy technologies (including solar, wind, and nuclear) may produce unequal access to benefits from the energy transition depending on where in the state you live. The wind energy sector has become an especially volatile and contentious topic across rural counties in Illinois and was described by one person I interviewed as “like the Wild West” for its lack of direction from state policy and dependence on local governments to progress. This photo depicts turbine installation in McLean County, which has some of the strictest local zoning ordinances in the state regarding wind energy development. Despite the obstacles facing the wind industry, economics and policy are beginning to align in ways that suggest the inevitability of large-scale wind farms across central Illinois, as seen here, with soybeans growing in the foreground, and turbines springing up in the back.
