Many people are shocked to hear that old, dirty, coal-burning power plants still generate more than half of our nation’s electric power.

What’s even more outrageous is the fact that developers are working to build 150 new coal plants around the country. When we should be investing in clean technologies to lower energy costs and fight global warming, these proposals would use state funding to prop up the same expensive, polluting methods that our grandfathers used to generate electricity.

Illinois is, unfortunately, at the very top of the list of states where developers are trying to build these plants. If they succeed, the amount of global warming pollution emitted by Illinois sources will increase by 62 percent, putting us at odds with the work of other states and countries to implement global warming solutions.

The world’s leading climate scientists estimate that we need to reduce our global warming emissions nationally by 80 percent over the next 50 years to prevent catastrophic impacts. With that in mind, a 62 percent increase from Illinois—already the nation’s sixth largest source of global warming pollution—is not only a bad idea, it’s suicidal.

And it’s unnecessary. If we took the money necessary to build the proposed coal plants and invested it in energy efficiency, we’d reduce our need for energy 19 percent by 2025—eliminating the need for every, single one of the coal plants on the drawing board.

We are truly at a crossroads on energy policy. As Illinois lawmakers consider how to invest in our energy future, they will have a disproportionate say in which direction we choose. It’s up to us to make sure they choose a clean energy future.