In a year when we’re already paying elevated electricity prices, Illinois’ biggest utilities are piling on by pushing for $930 million in new rate hikes.
The parent companies of these utilities raked in about $15 billion in total profits in 2025, and now they’re pushing for even higher bills and higher profits. Please help our two-person legal team–General Counsel Eric DeBellis and Regulatory Counsel Laura Loyd–by signing our petitions against these proposed rate increases:
North Shore Gas: Proposing $14.4 million rate hike, which would increase bills by an average of $5 to $6 a month.
MidAmerican Energy: Proposing $49 million rate hike ($40.8 million for electric and $8.6 million for gas), which would increase electric bills by an average of $18 a month, and gas bills by an average of $6 a month.
Ameren Illinois: Proposing $65 million electric rate hike. (CUB is trying to determine a per-customer impact of this increase.)
Illinois American Water: Proposing $142 million rate hike, which would increase water bills by an average of $14 a month, and wastewater bills by an average of $28 a month.
Peoples Gas: Proposing $205 million rate hike, which would increase bills by an average of $10 to $11 a month.
Nicor Gas: Proposing $221 million rate hike, which would increase bills by an average of up to $6 a month.
Commonwealth Edison: Proposing $234 million rate hike. (CUB is trying to determine a per-customer impact of this increase.)
CUB will deliver petition signatures to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). It’s important for regulators to hear from real people who would be impacted by these proposed rate hikes. The ICC will rule on most of these cases around November and December. The MidAmerican case will be decided next year.
On top of these rate-hike battles, Illinois consumers are paying about 40 percent to 50 percent higher electricity prices, and a major reason is soaring demand caused by new and proposed data centers. CUB and other advocates are working to pass consumer protections in Springfield. You can send a message in favor of commonsense guardrails to make sure Big Tech is paying its fair share of energy costs connected to data centers.
