South West Illinois News

Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) is sponsoring Senate Bill 3759, which strives to help coal industry workers who are affected by the transition from fossil fuels. 

Senate Bill 3759 is co-sponsored by Sen. Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg).

“For  generations, the coal industry has provided countless hard-working families in Southern Illinois with good-paying jobs and financial security” Bryant said in a press release. “It is the duty of our state to ensure that we provide adequate assistance for the Illinoisans impacted by our transition away from coal.”

The bill would become effective immediately upon passage and would require that the Department  of Commerce and Economic Opportunity create a network of 15 program delivery hub sites around the state. The program expands the Energy Transition Act and aids Illinois residents in switching to other roles as the state plans an end to carbon-based electricity production in the year 2045. The bill aims to increase training programs, the number of  eligible trainees and to improve demographic reporting of the Clean Jobs Workforce Network Program. 

Other measures taken by the bill are to expand the definition of "spouse" to include dislocated homemakers and significant others of coal miners who may have to reenter the workforce  for either income or location reasons and to add Program Delivery Hub Sites to service Franklin  and Washington Counties as they have the most employees impacted by the  Energy Transition Act who don’t have such a location. The bill will also add broadband and fiber optic infrastructure to the outline of  trainable sectors to further develop the state’s efforts to increase statewide broadband access through the Connect Illinois initiative and mandate the reporting of demographic data on potential trainees applying to the Program Delivery Hub Sites.