The following is a statement from CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz on Nicor Gas’ $221 million rate-hike campaign, which comes less than two months after the utility received its last rate hike.
The ink is barely dry on a $168 million rate hike Nicor Gas received just seven weeks ago, and now the utility has got its hands in our pockets again, asking for its sixth hike since 2017. If Nicor is granted this $221 million increase, it would push the utility’s total rate increases to more than $1 billion in less than a decade. CUB will challenge Nicor’s money grab and we call on state regulators to crack down on the company. We are deeply concerned that this sixth rate hike will push even more gas customers into hardship.
(Sign CUB’s petition against the Nicor rate hike.)
Background:
- On Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, Nicor Gas filed for a $221 million rate hike. The utility said the rate hike would increase bills for a typical customer by “less than $6 per month,” or 6.7 percent annually. The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) will rule on the request after an 11-month rate case.
- This new rate-hike request comes less than two months after Nicor received its last increase. On Nov. 19, 2025, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) slashed Nicor’s rate-hike request by 47 percent, but the company still received a $167.8 million increase. That means customers are already paying an average of about $4.25 a month in higher bills in 2026. Since 2017, Nicor has increased delivery rates five times, for a total of $898 million, or 137 percent.
- Meanwhile, Nicor has profited. Its parent company, Southern Co., raked in $25 billion in profits from 2017 to 2024, and another $3.9 billion in profits over the first 9 months of 2025.
- Nicor’s proposed increase impacts delivery rates, which take up about two-thirds of gas bills. It’s what Nicor charges customers to cover the costs of delivering gas to homes—plus a profit.
- The delivery rate-hike request comes at a time when customers are already paying elevated prices on another part of the bill: supply. Gas prices in 2025 were higher than the previous year in 10 out of 12 months, by a range of about 3 percent to 71 percent. In January, Nicor is charging a supply price that is about 50 percent higher than it was last January. (Unlike delivery rate hikes, Nicor does not profit off supply price increases. It simply passes the cost of the actual gas onto customers with no markup.)
- Customers having trouble paying their bills should contact their utility to find out about assistance available and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), 1-877-411-9276.
- Warning: Even customers who pay an alternative gas supplier still pay Nicor’s delivery charges. So customers should beware of any sales representative who says they can avoid the rate hike by going with an unregulated supplier. All customers would pay these higher rates.
- Nicor is Illinois’ largest gas utility, serving 2.3 million residential, public sector and business customers.
