Senate Bill 2009, the Renewable Energy Center bill, was passed unanimously through the State House of Representatives 105-0 on Tuesday.

This bill will allow the allocations released for Eastern to build the Renewable Energy Center.

The new energy center will replace the energy plant, currently located in the north quad of campus.

The Renewable Energy Center will cost about $75 million, but will be of no cost to the students or taxpayers.

The current steam plant provides heating and cooling to university buildings and is about 90 years old.

State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said in 2008 that Eastern was forced to spend more than $400 thousand on repairs while having to buy low-sulfur coal from Indiana to meet clean air requirements.

“The Renewable Energy Center will provide reliable service, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 85 percent,” Rose said.

Rose said the amount of money saved by replacing the old technology with the state-of-the-art plant should help finance the cost of the plant.

Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, a Senate sponsor of the bill, was confident the bill would receive a lot of support from the House.

“I don’t know if we were expecting (the bill) to be passed unanimously, but we were confident of the success because of the great deal of work Representative Chapin Rose did over in the House,” Righter said.

The bill has 89 cosponsors going to Governor Quinn’s desk, two from the Senate and 87 from the House.

This is in large thanks to the work the Eastern students and staff put into the bill.

“It was a grassroots student effort, there isn’t any question,” Righter said. “There were thousands of letters sent over, and the students who signed those letters deserve majority of the credit.”

Rose also put time towards the cause within the House Chamber.

“I took the student letters around to my colleagues and distributed them around the house floor,” Rose said.

He said the letters were successful because they described the bill and had been signed by people from their districts.

“I don’t think there is any question that the student effort was the central and a critical component to the success of this bill,” Rose said.

There were 88 cosponsors out of 118 representatives.

The student efforts were mainly run by Eric Wilber, President of the Student Action Team.

“We have put an extraordinary amount of work into it, between the Student Action Team going to Springfield and lobbying personally, to the almost 2,000 letters being sent out by our students to their representatives how much this bill meant to them,” Wilber said.

The bill now rests with Governor Quinn.

He can sign the bill, veto the bill, or send the bill back to committee to have amendments made.

Rose said he is hopeful the governor will sign the bill.

He said it is a great bill for everyone; environmental groups, labor groups, and the industry are all in support of the bill.

“This (bill) is a trifecta,” Rose said. “Its win for the tax payers because they are getting $75 million building for free, its a win for the students because they aren’t having to pay one penny in additional fees, and its a win for the environment. Quite frankly, it’s a project state universities should be doing everywhere.”

Kayleigh can be reached at 581-7943 or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu.