Almost three-quarters of a million people were employed in what’s considered clean-energy industries at the end of last year across 12 Midwest states, led by more than 125,000 each in Illinois and Michigan. The sector grew 5 percent since 2017, four times faster than the rest of the economy even in the relative boom ahead of the COVID collapse.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.