Central and Southern Illinois residents witnessed a huge jump in electricity prices this summer following an electric auction that gave power generators like Dynegy a windfall. We are calling on FERC to investigate the price spike to weed out any problems connected to how electricity prices are set in Illinois. The agency…...
Why Northern Illinois should care about the rate hikes in Central and Southern Illinois
Lately we’ve been discussing an Illinois electricity auction that sparked a 12-35% price spike for many Central and Southern Illinois customers. The spike was due to an increase in capacity prices—what consumers pay to ensure power plants can deliver electricity on the highest-demand days of the year. Every spring, MISO (the…...
IL Attorney General: Stop rate hikes in Southern and Central IL!
Let’s pump the brakes on these Ameren rate hikes. That’s the message coming loud and clear from the Illinois Attorney General’s office. And it’s a message CUB wholeheartedly echoes. AG Lisa Madigan and consumer advocate group Public Citizen petitioned federal regulators yesterday to overturn a recent electricity auction that will lead to huge…...
1,781CUB members say “Hands off my water bill!”
Think you should have to pay for a service you don’t receive? We don’t either— and 1,781 CUB Action Network members agree! But that’s exactly what big water companies want. Senate Bill 1421 would give a big profit boost to the state’s two largest water companies: Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois.…...
Another Ameren rate hike?
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, Ameren drops this bombshell: a $110 million rate-hike request to ostensibly pay for upgrades to the power grid. CUB Executive Director David Kolata had this to say: If done right, Ameren’s power grid improvements have the potential to benefit all its…...
Hey FERC: Investigate the rate hike!
Ameren customers recently received terrible news: Power prices will skyrocket June 1. It’s all because of an exponential increase in capacity costs—what consumers pay to ensure power plants are able to deliver electricity on the highest-demand days of the year. The average household could see electric bills rise by as much as $150 annually…...
Electricity updates: The good, the bad, and the ugly
The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind of electricity-related developments. We’ve got some good news and bad news for Illinois consumers. First, the good. We’ve been saying for years that efficiency pays— and now we have the proof. A CUB analysis released this morning shows that the Illinois Clean Jobs…...
Peoples disaster = Higher gas rates?
The Peoples Gas pipe replacement program is shaping up to be the biggest train wreck of 2015. Projected costs have reportedly doubled—to $4.6 billion—in five years. That could cause our gas rates to double over the next decade! Peoples had previously accelerated its schedule to replace 1,700 miles of aging pipes under the…...
