Mission
Accomplishments
Since CUB opened its doors, the watchdog has saved Illinois consumers more than $20 billion by fighting proposed electricity, natural gas and telephone rate hikes. For every dollar CUB has raised during that time, it has yielded roughly $300 in savings—a dramatic return on investment that represents one more reason why the St. Louis Post-Dispatch praised CUB as the “gold standard” of consumer advocates. (Watch the Power of CUB, a special celebration of our history, our mission and our supporters.) Below are the free services we provide:
- CUB’s Consumer Advocacy Team staffs a toll-free Consumer Hotline, 1-800-669-5556, for Illinois consumers who have questions, concerns or complaints about utility service or rates and are getting nowhere with their utility companies.
- CUB’s Outreach Team staffs hundreds of free events a year, running statewide campaigns to educate people on how to reduce their utility bills, covering such topics as energy efficiency, solar power, cable bills, water privatization and clean energy legislation.
- CUB’s Legal Team each year challenges multiple utility rate-hike requests before the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), often helping to save consumers millions of dollars.
- CUB’s Policy Team has worked for energy legislation that promotes affordable clean energy and consumer protections. We have helped pass landmark, pro-consumer legislation, including the Future Energy Jobs Act (2016) and the 2021 Climate & Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), making Illinois a national leader in consumer-friendly climate legislation.
- CUB’s Communications Team maintains an online library of free fact sheets and guides on a wide range of utility-related issues—including a Gas and Electric guide, a solar guide, a “Better Heat” guide to help people lower their heating bills, a guide to cutting TV costs and a guide to help people protect their privacy online.
Funding
The Illinois General Assembly created the Citizens Utility Board in 1983 to represent the interests of residential and small-business utility customers throughout the Land of Lincoln. The legislature created CUB as a membership-based organization. An initial $100,000 loan of “seed money” provided by the state was repaid by CUB on time and with interest.
CUB has two arms:
- The Citizens Utility Board (CUB), was established as a 501(c)(4) organization. Because CUB works for legislation that benefits ratepayers, contributions to this arm are not tax deductible.
- CUB’s Consumer Education and Research Fund – or CUB CERF, was established as a 501 (c)(3) organization to help educate consumers on energy efficiency, clean energy and lowering utility bills. Contributions to this arm, including most digital donations, are tax-deductible.
CUB obtains its funding from:
- Grassroots donations: CUB is funded by Illinois consumers through donations of as little as $10 a year.
- Grants: CUB regularly applies for grants to continue its consumer education and clean energy work.
- CUB inserts: CUB is permitted by state law to include membership inserts in mass mailings from state agencies. CUB pays for the printing of the inserts and for any additional costs incurred by the agencies when they mail the flyers. The content of the inserts must be approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Highlights from 40 Years of Fighting for Illinois Consumers
After local referendums across Illinois showed overwhelming support for a utility consumer advocate, state legislators passed the CUB Act in 1983 and CUB opened its doors the next year. The nonprofit, nonpartisan group was given a clear mission: To fight for the rights of Illinois utility customers.
A year after opening, CUB won landmark reforms to Illinois utility laws, requiring state regulators to conduct audits of utility plant construction costs and to cut down on imprudent spending. These reforms enabled the consumer group to set the stage for victories in the coming decades.
CUB and fellow advocates helped block a ComEd rate deal, saving consumers $1.9 billion. It was the first time ever that the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) rejected outright a ComEd rate hike.
CUB and fellow advocates helped save customers an estimated $3 billion in an Illinois Power rate-hike fight.
Multiple ComEd rate cases settled for a $1.3 billion refund and $339 million rate cut, cutting consumer utility bills by 25 to 30 percent.
On its 10th anniversary, CUB helped win a five-year rate cut for SBC (now AT&T) customers, for a total savings of $465 million.
Under a new electric deregulation law, CUB helped negotiate a record rate decrease—including a 20 percent cut for ComEd and Illinois Power customers. The total customer benefit was $6.2 billion.
CUB helped win $224 million in phone credits for Ameritech (now AT&T) customers. This credit averaged $50 per line for all residential and small-business customers and was the largest in Illinois history.
CUB helped defeat anti-consumer legislation and saved ComEd-Illinois Power customers $2.6 billion.
CUB helped uncover an illegal profit-sharing deal between affiliates of Peoples Gas and Enron Corp., resulting in a record $100 million gas refund.
CUB helped lead the “rate-hike” rebellion of 2007, after an Ameren and ComEd power-pricing plan sent bills soaring. In response, state legislators killed the plan, ordered $1 billion in consumer refunds and created the Illinois Power Agency, charged with securing the lowest prices possible for consumers.
As an active member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, CUB helped pass the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), sweeping energy legislation that included a historic boost to money-saving efficiency standards.
CUB worked with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and other consumer advocates to pass the HEAT Act, one of the nation’s strongest laws against alternative gas and electric supplier rip-offs.
CUB helped pass the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). This historic energy legislation set a goal of 100 percent clean energy for Illinois, expanded efficiency standards that had already saved consumers billions of dollars and made low-cost solar power accessible to more Illinois residents.
CUB helped win a $38 million refund for customers in the wake of the ComEd corruption scandal. It also helped secure major tax-related refunds for electric customers ($434 million for ComEd customers, and $50.8 for Ameren Illinois customers) in a much quicker schedule than the utilities wanted.
CUB challenged a state-record $2.9 billion in electric and gas rate-hike requests from major Illinois utilities, helping to reduce them by a total of $1.6 billion. The landmark regulatory rulings also temporarily halted major capital projects planned by Peoples Gas, Ameren Illinois and ComEd, until those companies could answer questions about their affordability for consumers and their project management.
