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…...
Update on Ameren and ComEd summer power prices
While Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison have not officially announced what their summer electricity prices will be, the Chicago Tribune has reported some estimates. The bad news is power prices will continue to be elevated, and the major reason is soaring energy demand caused by new and proposed data centers. Here’s…...
ICJC News Release: New Poll shows Illinois voters back POWER Act by overwhelming margins
A new statewide poll of likely 2026 voters shows the POWER Act (SB4016/HB5513) enjoys broad, bipartisan support across Illinois, according to a news release from the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition. Nearly 70 percent of voters support legislation to hold data centers accountable after hearing just a brief description of the…...
CUB General Counsel’s Report on 2026 legal cases
The following is a report from CUB General Counsel Eric DeBellis to Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz on major cases CUB’s Legal Team is tackling in 2026, including $571 million in rate cases before the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). If you are concerned about these rate hikes, please take action by signing…...
Consumer alert: Illinois utility bills cover millions in hidden expenses that advance the utilities’ agendas, but have zero consumer benefit
Many Illinois consumers have no idea that their electric, gas and water bills cover tens of millions of dollars in self-serving utility expenses that have zero consumer benefit, but advance the agendas of Illinois utilities and increase their political power, consumer advocates warned Wednesday, while delivering thousands of petitions to…...
CUB Q&A: community solar billing
CUB regularly receives questions about community solar billing, so we put together this Q&A. What is Community Solar? Community solar is a program for people who can’t put solar on their own homes. It allows consumers to save money on their electric bills from energy produced by large, offsite community…...
‘Utility Customer Refund’? Analyzing an alternative supplier deal
The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) has recently seen an influx of offers from SmartEnergy, an alternative energy supplier that advertises a $100 “utility customer refund.” At a time when far too many Illinois residents are struggling to afford their utility bills, this could be an attractive offer. But is it…...
CRGA Act signed into law: Big step forward, but there’s more work to do to lower power bills
The Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability (CRGA) Act was signed into law on Thursday–as tens of millions of electric customers in Illinois and across the nation grapple with spiking power prices. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, legislative leaders, government staffers and environmental and consumer advocates gathered at Joliet Junior College for the…...
CUB statement on ComEd’s $243 million reconciliation rate hike
The following is a statement from CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz: We are pleased that state regulators knocked $25 million off of ComEd’s rate hike by weeding out wasteful and inappropriate spending–especially costs connected to fixing the utility’s error-prone billing system. ComEd customers shouldn’t have to pay for the utility’s…...
