Gov. Quinn says he’d veto automatic rate hikes
May 10, 2011—Gov. Pat Quinn invoked the name of CUB several times in a news conference as he vowed to veto the current version of House Bill 14, the ComEd and Ameren automatic rate-hike bill, if the General Assembly passed it as is.
At a news conference Monday, Quinn gathered what he called a "consumer all-star team," including CUB Executive Director David Kolata, to speak out against HB 14 and to push for a comprehensive energy plan for Illinois. (See Gov. Quinn's news release.)
HB 14, which is currently being pushed by Ameren and ComEd in Springfield, would allow the two companies—and any other electric or gas utility in Illinois—to get automatic, yearly rate hikes if they agreed to modernize their infrastructure. See CUB’s fact sheet on HB 14, send a message to your state legislators against the proposal, as written, or call them by using AARP's special hotline, 1-800-719-3020.
CUB supports modernizing the power grid, but not the way it is designed in HB 14. The consumer groups argues that the bill would gut consumer protections that have been in place for nearly 100 years, reducing the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to reviewing increases after they are in place—and there's no guarantee the companies would make upgrades that actually benefit consumers.
"We can't simply give utilities a blank check,” Kolata said at Monday’s news conference with Gov. Quinn. “We can't have a formula for automatic rate increases."
Quinn made headlines across the Land of Lincoln on Monday when he promised to veto the current version of HB 14, which he called "bad for our consumers and bad for our economy."
"We hope that bill will change and become acceptable to consumers,” Quinn said. "We cannot allow our energy policy in Illinois run by a company or two ."
Quinn said of ComEd, which is leading the charge for the bill: "They're big, they're the behemoth, but they're not the people of Illinois." He and consumer advocates left the door open to working with ComEd to improve the bill.
On his energy plan, Quinn said it would modernize the electric grid in a way that benefits consumers, create thousands of jobs, and ensure that the state meets its mandated goal of having 25 percent of its energy come from renewable resources by 2025.
When asked if it were possible to create a comprehensive energy plan, Gov. Quinn told the story of a utility executive in a "three-piece suit" who once told him "never in a million years" would there be a CUB in Illinois. "Well we did it in a year," said Quinn, who spearheaded statewide referendums that showed overwhelming support for the creation of CUB in the early 1980s.