The White House is on a campaign to bail out struggling fossil-fuel plants—and raise our electricity costs. There’s been a new development, and we’re asking you to send a message to Washington. What’s the update? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled its proposal to replace the “Clean Power Plan.” (The Clean…...
CUB reviews EPA’s new Affordable Clean Energy rule
You’ve probably read the headlines about the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) rule. EPA moves to replace Clean Power Plan with modest carbon regulations Trump’s “Affordable Clean Energy” plan won’t save coal Cost of new E.P.A. coal rules: Up to 1,400 more deaths a year Here’s a…...
The bad water bill is now law. So now what?
Earlier this month Gov. Bruce Rauner signed House Bill 4508 — which means any publicly owned water system in Illinois could now be targeted by profit-driven private water utilities. The bill doubles down on previous legislation that allowed Aqua Illinois and Illinois American Water to impose automatic rate hikes to…...
Why Chicago (and my brother) may face a heating-affordability crisis
By Jennifer Jones, CUB communications assistant When CUB Executive Director David Kolata recently described the Peoples Gas pipeline-replacement program as “a looming disaster” for Chicago gas bills it hit close to home, because my brother Milton has been a Chicagoan for the past decade. Last winter, he and other customers…...
Breaking: Illinois’ solar boom
Have you seen the latest the headlines solar power has been generating this summer? Southern Illinois is becoming a hot place for energy companies to build solar farms–Belleville News-Democrat More Solar Farms Planned–The Times, Ottawa Six solar farms considered in Whiteside County–The Dispatch of Moline/Rock Island Argus Coal was king…...
Chicago’s looming disaster?
Did you know that last winter, you paid 80 percent more for natural gas service, on average, than your friends and relatives in the suburbs? And a big reason appears to be the mismanaged Peoples Gas pipe-replacement program. That’s what Crain’s Chicago Business reported in a recent story with this ominous…...
CUB reacts to Gov. Rauner signing HB 4508, bad water bill
Statement by Bryan McDaniel, CUB’s Director of Governmental Affairs: We are disappointed that the General Assembly passed and, now, Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed House Bill 4508. CUB fought vigorously to improve this bill, arguing that customers of Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois should not be forced to finance…...
No joke, hourly electricity prices can actually drop below zero
Most ComEd customers are stuck on the utility’s standard electricity price that only changes twice a year, so it may be hard to believe that the actual market price of electricity can get really low, even, for short periods drop below zero. That’s right, the market price occasionally drops below…...
