Kane County Reporter

Despite aiming to have a clean energy future, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Consumers and Climate First Act has been met with opposition by several businesses including a Geneva-based envelope manufacturing company.

Jacob Margulies, president of Continental Envelope said the measure would impose added costs that couldn't be managed when added upon the firm's current expenses.

“We have about a hundred workers who rely on us to feed their families for jobs,” he said. “The energy proposal would be detrimental for our company raising our cost by at least $100,000. That is something that we cannot afford coming out of this pandemic.”

He gave a brief background of the company and listed other ways the measure would impact the business.

“Continental Envelope is a family-run business and we’ve been in the business since 1936 and we've grown to become one of the largest independent envelope manufacturers in the Midwest,” Margulies said. “[The proposal] would result in increased costs and decrease our ability to be competitive against other envelope companies in neighboring states.”

Margulies suggested that the bill and other measures similar to this should involve more stakeholders.

“Decisions of this magnitude should not be made behind closed doors,” he said. “We have asked lawmakers to please consider the impact this legislation would have not just on our business but on businesses across Illinois as well as the families they support.”

Pritzker’s proposal aims to phase out coal by 2030 and natural gas by 2045. The effort includes plant-specific declining caps on emissions which would result in plant shutdowns.

It would also impose a carbon tax starting at $8/ton and escalating 3% each year.

Senate Bill 2896 would amend several acts, including the Energy Policy and Planning Act, Illinois Procurement Code, Public Utilities Act, Illinois Enterprise Zone Act, and Illinois Governmental Ethics Act among others.