Good afternoon, all. We are all struggling a bit to adjust to "our new normal," answering the myriad questions from those we work with about how to continue to operate during these uncertain times. I'll hit a few of the inquiries I've gotten from members of the Energy Council below, but please feel free to share questions or information you are hearing from other sources, and I'll share them with the rest of the Council.        

 

Legislative Session 

The House and the Senate cancelled next week's session on Wednesday.  The House also extended the committee deadline (the deadline for moving House bills out of the committee to the floor) from March 27 to April 3. I understand the Senate also plans to extend the committee deadline. As of this morning, it is unclear when the General Assembly will return to Springfield.                                     

Governor's Daily Press Conferences

During this time, things are moving quickly, and we've all gotten texts and emails from friends and family with the rumor of the day. It's easy to get caught up in these rumors, but a wonderful source of information has been the Governor's daily press conference at 2:30. They are typically streamed on all of the major news sites, as well as the Governor's Facebook page, and I would definitely make them a part of your daily routine. Be sure to tune in today.

 

Business shut-downs 

There has been some confusion in the business community over the shut-downs that have been ordered over the last week.

 

In Executive Order 2020-04 banning gatherings of 1,000 or more people, there was an explicit exemption for normal workplace activity. However, in the subsequent Executive Order 2020-07  banning gatherings of 50 or more people, that explicit exemption for workplace activity was removed from the order. The governor has given us verbal insurance that the 50 person limit does not apply to our larger businesses, but they are urging businesses to adhere to the guidelines from the IDPH and the CDC, to keep the number of employees they have in close proximity to each other under 50, and apply social distancing practices as best they can. We have asked the Governor's Office to reinsert that explicit exemption for normal workplace activity in future directions.

 

Critical Infrastructure 

With moves in California and New York requiring sheltering in place, I've gotten a lot of calls about whether these prohibitions will make their way to Illinois, and what that might mean for routine operation. And these questions just don't apply to employees at your facility, but to the contractors and vendors you rely upon, and the other businesses that make up the supply chain both upstream and downstream from your business.

 

As you can imagine, there are more questions than answers at this point, but there is some helpful guidance out there which we can use to guide our thinking. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a memo on how to identify critical infrastructure workers during the pandemic, and it's included here with the newsletter. The list is advisory only, but is helpful nevertheless. Please click here for the list.  

 

I've also had concerns expressed about employee travel, both interstate and intrastate, to and from work sites. Many companies have drafted a letter, developed with the aforementioned Homeland Security guidance in mind, identifying the holder of that letter as a critical infrastructure employee. These companies have instructed employees to present the letter along with a company ID if they are stopped headed to or leaving work.

 

Yesterday, I reached out to my counterpart at the Illinois Sheriff's Association to share this development and to ask whether he had heard about possible travel restrictions. While there had not yet been any discussion on these kinds of restrictions, he committed to raising the issue when he is updating his 102 sheriffs on their next call. Further, he suggested that if one of my members had an issue arise, they should inform me so that I could in turn inform him, and he committed to working with us to resolve the issue as effectively as possible.

 

Illinois Chamber Webinar on CoronaVirus Impact on Employers

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the various conferences and webinars the Illinois Chamber hosts, but there is one that seems particularly worthy of noting in this space. On March 25^th, the Chamber will be hosting a webinar on the impact of the virus on employers. It's free to all members of the Chamber, but if you sign up for it on your own through the Chamber's website, you'll pay $79, which is the non-member rate. Members of the Chamber can send an email request to kconstant@ilchamber.org for free registration.