ROFR or Right of First Refusal is dead for now in Illinois where legislative leaders have decided they won’t attempt to override the governor’s veto of a bill aimed at giving existing utilities the ROFR power for transmission lines.
Democratic Rep. Larry Walsh announced this week he won’t make the attempt to over Gov. JB Pritzker’s partial veto of his omnibus energy bill. The veto struck language giving existing utilities, including Ameren, right of first refusal (ROFR) for transmission lines.
Gov. Pritzker argued that allowing bidding for energy transmission lines would create competition, the very same argument made by some Oklahoma groups as they testified at an Oklahoma legislative study on ROFR. The governor of Illinois maintained that giving existing utilities, such as Ameren the power of ROFR on future projects would result in the creation of a monopoly and in the long run, lead to higher energy costs—the very same argument made at the Oklahoma Senate study.
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