Gov. JB Pritzker’s economic development agency fell short in implementing elements of the governor’s landmark climate bill aimed at ensuring social equity in the effort to move the state toward a carbon-free future, Illinois’ auditor general said in a report released this week.

From June 2022 to June 2024, the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity failed to implement programs designed to assist clean energy contractors in underserved areas and to deliver clean energy jobs training to people exiting Illinois prisons, two social equity elements that were part of one of the country’s most ambitious climate bills, the audit found.

The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA, outlines the Pritzker administration’s plan for reaching 40% renewable energy by 2030 while also creating opportunities for workers from underserved groups. Christian Mitchell, the governor’s pick as his running mate for next year’s election, led negotiations on the law when he was a deputy governor in 2021.

“It’s obviously frustrating when you see this legislation not make progress, and it’s taken time to fully staff up the agencies and ensure those programs are on deck,” said Francisco Lopez Zavala, who leads workforce programs at the Illinois Environmental Council. “But I continue to remain very positive.”

The law contains many specific programs designed to bring climate job opportunities to workers from diverse backgrounds, but several fell short in the first years that the law was on the books, the audit said.

For example, the law designates the Clean Energy Contractor Incubator Program as a “central small business support program” to provide services including “low-cost capital, training, mentorship” and networking at certain sites in Illinois communities, according to an October 2023 press release. Pritzker at that time said DCEO would award $21 million for the program.

While the department said it selected some sites for awards, “no grants were executed by the end of the examination period,” the audit said.

DCEO has made progress in implementing CEJA since the time period covered by the audit, Lopez Zavala said, but applications for the incubator program remain under review, according to DCEO’s website.

The audit also found DCEO failed to administer a program to prepare people prior to their release from from Illinois prisons for work in the clean energy arena. Pritzker announced $6 million in funding for that program in February 2024.

As with the contractor program, applications for the “Returning Residents Clean Jobs Training Program” remain under review, according to DCEO’s website.

And a program for community-based organizations to receive funding as energy “navigators” — providing outreach services to ensure vulnerable people know about job opportunities — didn’t specifically prioritize grants to organizations that had experience serving people affected by climate change, as mandated by CEJA. The department said in a response included in the audit that it does look at capacity to serve communities “most vulnerable to environmental injustices.”

DCEO did not dispute the auditor’s findings, according to the response included in the report. In some cases, the department indicated the delays in implementing CEJA initiatives were the result of “necessary lead time” to administer the programs.

Pritzker’s office referred questions about the audit to DCEO. In its response to questions from the Tribune, DCEO spokesperson Jordan Troy said the department had made “substantial progress on key initiatives since the time of the audit.”

“CEJA established a first-of-its-kind statewide clean energy workforce and contractor development framework – one that required building entirely new infrastructure, partnerships, and delivery systems,” Troy said in an email. “As with any new and ambitious effort, implementation has required deliberate planning, stakeholder collaboration, and foundational capacity-building to ensure long-term success and accountability.”

Lopez Zavala attributed some of the issues confronting DCEO to hiring delays — a characterization that aligned with another part of the auditor’s report — though he said the department has made additional progress this year.

Apart from the findings on CEJA specifically, the auditor found the department had an excessive number of open jobs on its organizational chart. During the period the auditor examined, there were no employees filling half of the department’s positions, the audit said.

Department management said DCEO views the vacancies as placeholders and not necessarily jobs that they need to fill, as it can be difficult to establish new positions, the audit said.

Still, the department has continued to make progress on Pritzker’s signature bill, advocates said.

DCEO didn’t implement the part of the law on workforce hubs, a central part of the CEJA job training strategy, until after June 2024 even though the department received funding for the program during the audit period, according to the report.

Several workforce hubs now exist and most of them have graduated at least one to three cohorts of 15 to 30 job seekers each, according to Hannah Flath, a spokesperson for IEC.

In addition, DCEO said in its response to the Tribune that it has made 219 awards overall on CEJA, totaling more than $200 million, according to the department.

Each part of the law takes time and effort to bring to life, as CEJA is a huge piece of legislation, advocates said.

“We’re seeing (that) not only from the state agencies themselves like DCEO, acknowledging some of the initial faults that they had and addressing those by working hard to implement CEJA — and then also from our communities,” Lopez Zavala said. “It takes time to train a lot of these folks who haven’t had these opportunities in the past.”