In mid-April, Ameren-Illinois and the regional grid operator MISO announced that customers in Central and Southern Illinois should expect to see a significant increase in their monthly bills this summer due to an energy capacity shortfall. Clean energy opponents have made egregious claims that these price hikes are the result of the passage of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) last year, and have even gone so far as to claim that the efforts to decarbonize our electric sector should be rolled back. These claims couldn’t be further from the truth. Prices for fossil fuels like coal and gas are spiking, in part from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, resistance and poor planning from utilities like Ameren’s and the regional grid operator MISO to expand energy efficiency programs and grid upgrades to bring hundreds of new clean energy projects online are the central causes. Ameren IL has repeatedly fought to weaken energy efficiency programs in state legislation which are critically important to helping customers reduce bills and lower the overall demand for power on the electricity grid. Better leadership from Ameren IL on energy efficiency and programs to help customers reduce their demand for power during “peak demand” events, like heat waves, could have helped to mitigate the strain currently facing customers and our power grid.