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Bradley: Ameren increase will hurt
August 30, 2011, Marion—A Citizens Utility Board official joined with a Jackson County AARP representative and state Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, on Monday to publicly protest Ameren's $90 million rate-hike plan, the utility company's third rate hike filing with the Illinois Commerce Commission over an approximate five-year period.
By Scott Fitzgerald, The Southern "Year after year, it's the same story - Ameren, a public utility company, is asking for more and more," said Linda Clutts, president of Jackson County AARP District 504, in a prepared statement during a news conference at Williamson County Regional Airport.
Read the full story on The Southern's website.
Clutts said the 1.7 million members of the Illinois AARP pay about 14 percent of their monthly income on utilities and are currently bracing for another financial recession in the midst of the country's economic woes. Compounding Ameren's rate hike request is the company's support and lobbying for pending Senate Bill 1652 that would allow automated utility rate hikes over a 10-year period, said Bryan McDaniel, a CUB official. "Instead of a rate case filed with the ICC, there would be a formula written into legislation over a 10-year period," McDaniel said. Ameren spokesman Neil Johnson said the company's current rate hike request, which the ICC will hold a public hearing on today in Springfield, is legitimate and is the only way to recover costs of providing service to its customers. "We have to follow the letter of the law and we feel our request is based on fact. We are working with the ICC," Johnson said. Bradley said recent testimony filed by the CUB and the Attorney General's office with the ICC that will make a final decision in January on the rate hike, requests cuts in Ameren's proposed natural gas increase and a $28 million reduction in electricity rates that equates to a $2.2 million rate cut for Illinois customers. The state representative was part of a similar consumer advocacy effort four years earlier that extracted $1 billion in Ameren rate cuts for customers that allowed for rebates. Bradley said the current Ameren $90 million rate-hike plan is strictly for bottom-line profit and would not be spent on improved grid patterns or employee wages. McDaniel said Ameren Illinois utilities have received more than $200 million in rate hikes since 2008 and that profits increased 60 percent from $130 million in 2009 to $208 million in 2010. Its parent company also recorded $657 million profit in 2010. "These are not companies hurting financially," McDaniel said. Tweet |