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Federal stats: IL has lowest average electric bills in Midwest for 8th straight year

Recently released federal statistics show that for the eighth straight year Illinois has the lowest average residential electric bills in the Midwest. And in 2019, we had the fourth lowest bills in the nation. That’s encouraging, but there’s a lot of work left to do in order to secure clean, affordable energy for Illinois consumers. 

The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm of the Department of Energy, in October released new statistics on average electric bills. Since 2011, the EIA has shown Illinois to have the lowest average residential electric bills in the Midwest. Here are the 2019 numbers:

Illinois: $92.37/month   
Wisconsin: $95.52/month
Minnesota: $99.02/month
Michigan: $100.23/month
Iowa: $108.04/month
Ohio: $108.15/month
Missouri: $117.82/month
Indiana: $120.74/month

Here’s where we stand in the nation:
Utah: $75.63/month
New Mexico: $80.04/month
Colorado: $83.07/month
Illinois: $92.37/month   
Idaho: $93.83/month

CUB has two comments:
1) There are a lot of reasons for Illinois’ lower bills, but two of them are strong clean energy policy (energy efficiency) and effective consumer advocacy. We’ve reported before that Illinois in the mid-1990s had the highest bills in the Midwest, so we’re making progress. 

2) Obviously, there are a lot of people unhappy with their electric bills, it’s consistently voted one of the highest bills people pay. So we can do better. That’s why we’re working to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA), the most consumer-friendly energy bill in Springfield.
 
Not only would CEJA expand energy efficiency and replace the unfair ComEd and Ameren formula rate regime (there’s a good Chicago Sun-Times editorial about this), but it also would protect Illinois from an impending fossil fuel bailout that threatens to raise most power bills by up to $1.7 billion over the next decade.
 
It also would bring in billions of dollars in clean energy investment and create clean energy jobs for communities that need it the most–including ones abandoned by the coal industry

Urge Springfield to pass CEJA!