The failure of national energy markets to support clean energy will soon force the premature retirement of two of Illinois’s six nuclear stations, putting thousands of people out of work, raising energy costs, and taking the US decades backward in the fight against climate change, Christopher Crane, president and chief executive officer of Exelon, wrote in a Chicago Sun-Times opinion column.

Mr Crane urged Illinois policymakers to act quickly, as they face critical decisions about the future of energy that will affect the state’s environment, the economy, and the health of every family for years to come.

He said if the Byron and Dresden nuclear power plants close as planned, northern Illinois will lose 30% of its carbon-free energy and it will cost billions of dollars and multiple decades just to build enough new sources of clean energy to get the state back to where it is today.