Statewide warehouse pollution reduction bill fails to meet committee deadline

SPRINGFIELD — A proposal that would have created the first statewide regulations aimed at curbing pollution generated by fulfillment centers, parcel hubs and sorting facilities failed to receive a committee vote in either chamber of the General Assembly.

Illinois hosts more than 2,400 warehouses and about 2 million people live within half a mile of one, according to the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund advocacy group. Among the main distribution centers within the state are ones operated by Amazon, Walmart and IKEA, whose trucks use the interstate highway system and the nearby roads to deliver their products.

Senate Bill 3732 and its companion House Bill 5600 — both titled the Warehouse Pollution Reduction Act — would have established annual emissions-reduction targets and a system of points for air pollution mitigation measures for those facilities and the trucks traveling to and from them.

But both the House and Senate declined to even bring the measures for a committee vote, making their passage in this year’s General Assembly unlikely.

“You hope all your bills pass,” said Senate sponsor Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet. “If I didn’t think it had a chance at all to pass, I wouldn’t have filed the bill. I think this is going to be a longer conversation.”

Warehouse pollution

The bill would have held warehouses responsible for the pollution generated by the trucks that use the facility by establishing a system of fees whose value would depend on the cost of enforcing the new rules. The fee would be deposited in a Warehouse Pollution Management Fund, created by the bill to provide for its implementation and proper regulation.

“That truck pollution, especially the diesel particulate matter, has caused a lot of asthma in our area,” Ventura said.

“We give them the option of how they want to mitigate that, so, for some companies, it probably makes a lot more sense for them to upgrade their fleet,” Ventura added. “Maybe they don’t want to do anything with their fleet. Maybe they decide, ‘you know what, financially, we want to pay into the fund and allow somebody else to clean up the air.’”

Read More: Lawmakers move to pause – then further regulate – carbon dioxide pipeline development

Ventura said her bill is modeled after Southern California’s Warehouse Indirect Source Rule, implemented in 2021 to address the South Coast region’s air quality problems. Ventura’s district, according to the Environmental Defense Fund, has the highest number of warehouses in the state.

Sen. Seth Lewis, R-Bartlett, whose district has the 4th-most warehouses, said he is concerned this will take away local control over how each municipality will manage their warehouses.

“She’s trying to destroy the local economy by imposing overburdensome regulations on a successful industry,” Lewis said. “She is welcome to do that in her own community, but when she wants it in my community, she’s going to get a fight — not only from me, but from all the mayors.”

Matthew Hart, executive director of the Illinois Movers’ and Warehousemen’s Association, said he has not yet seen any benefit for consumers in the bill. He said the association, along with the Illinois Trucking Association (where he also serves as the executive director), is keeping a close eye and is in talks with the sponsors of the bill.

“We want to make sure that we protect the businesses that are here, that are serving our customers here,” Hart said. “It becomes more expensive if you force us to deliver stuff from warehouses that are farther away, who don’t have to comply with all these extra stringent regulations.”

Both Hart and Lewis warned that imposing new regulations on the warehouses might drive those businesses to neighboring states.

“For some reason, many of my colleagues believe that we can isolate Illinois and people will want to do business here, and the answer is: They don’t,” Lewis said. “They will figure out a way in which to not invest in Illinois and invest in other states.”

Read More: Political will grows for data center regulations as POWER Act remains in committee

While 92% of the leased warehouses with over 100,000 square feet are concentrated in the Chicago area and surrounding counties, the warehouses in Peoria, Decatur, Bloomington, Champaign and Lincoln would also be subject to the bill. According to the Environmental Defense Fund study, none of the facilities in those cities had air pollution monitors — which would be required under the bill.

Looking Forward

The bill has no bipartisan support at this point.

Republican opponents like Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, said this bill was a “hard no” for him and that he suspects most Republicans would oppose it.

“It’s a job killer bill,” he said. “We need to look at deregulating Illinois and putting it in a position where all types of industries want to flourish and want to come and grow.”

Ventura said the bill fits in line with Illinois’ recent environmental priorities.

“The truth of it is that we do need companies to make sure they are being fair and appropriate partners in our communities,” she said. “And right now, we have a whole industry that’s not.”

Gabriel Castilho is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.