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…...
News release: Consumer advocates file expert testimony urging state regulators to reject Peoples Gas rate-hike proposal
CHICAGO – Windfall bonuses for corporate executives, inflated profit margins, and continued wasteful spending on its failing pipe retirement program are among the litany of unwarranted costs that should be slashed from a proposed $200 million Peoples Gas rate hike, consumer advocates say. (Read the Wednesday, May 6 release from CUB…...
Enough is enough: Consumers rally to protest Peoples Gas’ record-high rates, record profits, and new push for $202 million rate hike
Fed-up Peoples Gas customers and consumer advocates gathered in Chicago’s Daley Plaza Wednesday to decry a push by Peoples Gas to again capture record profits and raise bills by $202 million only a few years after burdening customers with the biggest gas rate hike in Illinois history. (Read a pdf…...
Consumer advocates, Rep. Du Buclet issue warning against alternative electric/gas supplier rip-offs, make urgent call for legislative reforms
As financial losses mount for Illinois consumers with alternative electric and gas suppliers, the watchdog Citizens Utility Board (CUB) has joined with other consumer advocates and state Rep. Kimberly Du Buclet to advocate for the No More Utility Bill Rip-Offs Customer Protection Act (House Bill 4313), a series of reforms…...
CUB News Release: 104% increase in Peoples Gas price in April exposes how utility misled customers on record rate hike
A spike in April’s heating fuel price shows that Peoples Gas drastically understated the fallout customers would experience from a record-breaking rate hike the company imposed last year, the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) warned Thursday. (Read CUB’s news release here, and here’s the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the issue.) Peoples…...
CUB applauds ICC for pumping brakes on controversial Peoples Gas Pipe-Replacement Program
Concluding a year-long investigation into concerns that Peoples Gas’ controversial pipe-replacement program was ushering Chicagoans to the brink of a financial abyss, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) Thursday significantly restricted the amount the utility sought to spend to complete the initiative. In a ruling on the future of Peoples’ System Modernization…...
Joint News Release: Consumer Groups Launch Major TV Ad Campaign Urging Public to Oppose Record-Breaking Peoples Gas Rate Hikes
With Chicago families already ailing from a decade of spiraling heating bills, an alliance of consumer and public-interest groups Wednesday launched a major advertising blitz aimed at thwarting a threat by Peoples Gas that would usher in an onslaught of record-breaking rate hikes over the next 15 years. (View a PDF…...
News Release: Groups deliver more than 5,000 public comments calling for reform of Peoples Gas pipe replacement program
As utility regulators at the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) near a final decision on its year-long investigation into the troubled Peoples Gas pipeline-replacement program, consumer and environmental organizations delivered more than 5,000 public comments calling for reform. “On behalf of AARP’s 250,000 members in Chicago and all older adults in…...
