Devin B. won’t ever forget the monster ComEd bills he feared would bankrupt his small business before it even started. In March, ComEd told him he had used 293,106 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. That’s about 2,400 times his typical usage. His bill, which usually hovered around $100, ballooned to $44,226.…...
Don’t let Sen. McConnell kill net neutrality
This year, the U.S. House of Representatives listened to the 86% of Americans across the political spectrum who want net neutrality protections back, and passed the Save the Internet Act. The bill would restore internet consumer protections federal regulators killed in 2017, but it’s going nowhere. In fact, it was…...
Biggest bank hack ever
Tell Congress: Protect my private data now If there’s any time to urge Congress to do more to protect our personal information, it’s now. Capital One just announced that a hacker got her hands on the personal information of 106 million customers. That includes credit scores, bank account numbers and…...
Why is Peoples Gas giving $7 million back to customers?
What happened? The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) announced in July that Peoples Gas has agreed to give about $7.2 million back to its customers. Why is Peoples Gas giving money back to consumers? It’s connected to a review of 2015 costs of the utility’s troubled pipeline-replacement program, called the System…...
Update: Two bills that could help stop those annoying robocalls
There’s hope in the fight to stop annoying robocalls plaguing millions of consumers like you. Two bills have been advancing in Congress and are headed for the House floor. The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (or TRACED) Act and Stopping Bad Robocalls Act are both advancing to the…...
What’s going with clean jobs training in Illinois?
by Cate York, CUB sustainable communities liaison The Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) of 2016 was huge. It ramped up energy efficiency programs for ComEd and Ameren customers, exploded the solar economy, and created low-income programs to extend the benefits of clean energy to all Illinoisans. But what about the…...
Tell Gov. Pritzker what Washington did
Why our fight just got more urgent: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this summer officially rolled back power-plant regulations designed to make our electricity cleaner and more affordable. As Washington does everything it can to prop up failing, expensive and dirty coal-fired power plants, it’s vital that Illinois become a…...
