By Sarah Moskowitz, CUB Executive Director
After years of hearing from so many Chicago families fed up with their escalating heating bills, we were happy that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul was able to deliver some good news to long-suffering Peoples Gas customers—in the form of bill credits coming their way. (Read the version of this op-ed that appeared in Crain’s Chicago Business.)
Under settlements involving the Attorney General’s Office, the staff of the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), Peoples Gas, and the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), Peoples customers will get more than $130 million in bill credits over the next three years: one-time credits of about $50 in 2026 and about $40 each in 2027 and 2028. The ICC approved the settlements–involving about $124 million in bill credits to Peoples Gas and about $1 million to North Shore Gas customers, in May. The first credits would hit bills around November, the ICC said.
Also, Peoples Gas has agreed to free customers from $130 million in capital costs. That will lead to $350 million in consumer savings, since customers pay for capital investments over time, the Attorney General’s office said.
The settlements allude to a long and troubled history that Peoples Gas has had with its customers. For one, Attorney General Raoul alleged that Peoples (and sister company North Shore Gas) failed to keep arrearages at manageable levels. The growing number of customers who simply can’t afford their gas bills has been an ongoing problem.
But the largest portion of bill credits involves the utility’s mismanaged pipe-replacement project that has plunged so many Peoples Gas customers into a heating-affordability crisis. Launched in 2011, the project has been behind-schedule and over-budget almost from the beginning, with projected costs rising from about $2 billion to as much as $11 billion.
The Attorney General’s Office argued that for years the utility inappropriately charged customers for certain costs–including ”ineligible capital work, expired permits and unsubstantiated change orders”–through a special “QIP” surcharge on bills to cover costs related to work on its gas system. Consumer advocates have long complained that the legislatively approved “Qualified Infrastructure Plant (QIP)” surcharge caused hardship for customers by unnecessarily allowing the utility to rapidly increase bills more quickly than going through an 11-month rate case.
Legislators originally were told the charge would only cost Chicagoans about $1.14 a month, but appallingly, from 2017 to 2023, it got as high as $30 a month, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Under the regulatory system, Peoples Gas is entitled to a return on their investments–and that incentivizes the utility to spend recklessly to increase their profits. Indeed, the company has nearly doubled its rates over the last 15 years, increasing bills by $499 million. That includes the largest gas rate hike in Illinois history–$306 million–a little over two years ago, Now, the utility has their hands in Chicago’s pockets again, pushing for a new, $200 million increase this year that would cost customers more than $120 a year and push its total increases to more than a half-a-billion dollars since 2011.
This aggressive business model has worked out well for the corporation, fueling record Peoples Gas profits in seven out of the last 9 years and helping WEC Energy Group, the out-of-state parent company, rake in $1.6 billion in profits in 2025.
Meanwhile, Chicago families suffer. In March alone, more than 170,000 Peoples Gas customers were more than 30 days behind on their bills–by a whopping $109 million. “Folks are struggling intensely right now to balance costs,” one consumer wrote, urging the ICC to reject Peoples’ latest rate hike. “The average Peoples Gas customer is not in a position to continue absorbing the economic impact of this company’s mismanagement, and especially not to subsidize excessive profits.”
We’ve made progress in recent years. The gas lobby was unable to stop the QIP charge from sunsetting in 2023, and in 2025 the ICC ordered Peoples Gas to efficiently and cost-effectively complete its pipeline work by 2035. And consumer advocates thank Attorney General Raoul for negotiating the bill credits, as well as filing testimony that recommends regulators reject the Peoples Gas hike and instead give customers a rate cut.
But the Attorney General’s Office, CUB and all consumer advocates know this fight is far from over. We owe it to all those folks “struggling intensely” to fight for lower heating bills, hold Peoples Gas accountable and seek justice for its long-suffering customers.
About the Author
Sarah Moskowitz became Executive Director of CUB in 2023. She leads the organization’s efforts to identify equitable and consumer-friendly climate solutions while advocating for consumer protections and lower utility bills in Springfield, at the Illinois Commerce Commission and in the courts. Sarah has served in a variety of roles during her years at CUB, from counseling individual consumers with utility complaints to building CUB’s outreach program into a national leader that staffs hundreds of free events a year showing people how to reduce their costs. She was promoted to Deputy Director in 2019, before, in 2023, becoming CUB’s fourth executive director. Sarah earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Chicago.
