Peoples Gas Archives | Citizens Utility Board

Renting your first apartment in Chicago? Here’s how to read your utility bills

Elizabeth — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 21:13:54 +0000

By: Citlali Dominguez So you just moved into your new apartment, and you’re having trouble reading your utility bills. Don’t panic, CUB is here to help! We’ll start with electricity! A simple way to understand your bill is, supply + delivery + taxes & fees = amount due. Supply, what you pay for the actual electricity, takes up about a half to two-thirds of your bill. Delivery, about a third to a half of your bill, is what you pay ComEd to get the electricity to your home. Electricity usage is billed by the kilowatt-hour (kWh)— roughly enough power to run a typical window air conditioning unit for an hour. Check out the sample bill provided by ComEd: Let’s break it down: In section 1 you will see your personal information: name, address, and phone number. Make sure your information is correct. In section 2 you will see the issued date, which means the date that your bill was created. This section also will include a personalized account number, due date (when the payment is due), and amount due (the amount owed to ComEd). Section 3 shows your total usage over that past 13 months. Each month displays how many kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity were used. You will also see a bolded word that reads Actual. This means the utility read your meter that month. ComEd sometimes estimates your usage for the month, but that shouldn’t happen with modern meters that can be read remotely. So if it ever does say “estimated,” contact ComEd. Section 4 is not as scary as it looks! The first long section demonstrates your average energy usage and temperature for that current month. It also shows how much your usage has increased, percentage-wise, since the year before. The box on the bottom left shows last month’s average energy usage and temperature. The box on the right shows the average energy usage and temperature of last year. Section 5 shows the supply section, which is the cost of your electricity usage for that month. Here you will see the company that supplies your electricity–either ComEd or an alternative electricity supplier. In this case the bill says “ComEd provides your energy.” (Beware of bad supplier deals. If a company other than ComEd is listed here, make sure to check what per-kWh electricity supply price you’re paying and how it compares with ComEd’s price, which should be listed on your bills as the “Price to Compare” in the “Updates” section on the back page. It’s likely that ComEd will have the lower supply rate. ) Section 6 shows the delivery cost, which is the cost of delivering energy to your apartment for that month. This section will always list ComEd as the company that delivers your electricity–even if a different company is listed as your supplier in the Supply section of your bill. Beneath the big circle that is in the middle of your ComEd bill you will find the cost of taxes and fees. See that wasn’t so bad! Now let’s tackle the back of your electricity bill! It should look similar to the example below. Don’t […]

The post Renting your first apartment in Chicago? Here’s how to read your utility bills appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

CUB News Release: 104% increase in Peoples Gas price in April exposes how utility misled customers on record rate hike

Jim Chilsen — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:59:50 +0000

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 Gas instituted a $300 million rate hike in December 2023, claiming that the cost increase – the largest for a gas utility in Illinois history – would be neutralized by declining gas prices. As a result, the company said the massive rate hike was “not expected to increase the typical customer’s bill.” That forecast proved deceptive in the wake of disclosures this week that the utility’s gas supply price in April has more than doubled over what it was a year ago. Peoples Gas’ price of 52.79 cents per therm in April is about 30 percent higher than March’s price, and about 104 percent higher than April 2024. It’s the second-highest price Peoples Gas has charged during the month of April in the last decade. The gloomy news comes as Chicagoans are already suffering what consumer advocates have decried as a heating-affordability crisis, as the mounting cost of Peoples Gas service has left its customers reeling in debt. In February, nearly 150,000 Chicago households were more than 30-days delinquent on their Peoples Gas accounts, and customers were shackled to more than $74.5 million in cumulative debt to the company, according to data the utility has submitted to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). “Peoples Gas misled its customers,” CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz said. “It was absurd for the utility to claim that its rate hike wouldn’t lead to higher bills. The supply price spike took effect on April Fools’ Day, but this is no joke for so many Chicago families who are struggling to afford their heating bills. We hope it’s a warm spring.” In a January 2023 news release announcing that it had filed for an increase in gas delivery charges, Peoples assured customers: “The filing is not expected to increase the typical customer’s bill.” The utility explained that gas supply prices were forecast to decline over the next two years, and that decline would balance out the increase they sought on the delivery side of bills. At the time, consumer advocates scoffed at Peoples Gas’ claim. CUB and others argued that while gas prices do drop temporarily at times, they also regularly spike in the volatile commodity market. It was only a matter of time before an increase in the supply price would combine with the delivery rate hike to increase overall bills, advocates said. In November of 2023, Peoples Gas won a $303 million rate hike and imposed it on customers the following month. That increase–the largest gas hike in Illinois history–helped capture record profits for the utility in 2024, marking seven out of eight years Peoples has set an earnings record. And now supply prices are moving up also. After a two-year stint of relative price stability, Peoples Gas’ supply rate has been steadily increasing, from 31.73 cents per therm in December 2024 to 52.79 cents per […]

The post CUB News Release: 104% increase in Peoples Gas price in April exposes how utility misled customers on record rate hike appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

CUB applauds ICC for pumping brakes on controversial Peoples Gas Pipe-Replacement Program

Elizabeth — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 21:35:41 +0000

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 Program (SMP), the Commission excluded large parts of Peoples’ preferred pipe-replacement blueprint from the scope of expenditures it authorized and required the utility to take a more cost-conscious and incremental approach to the project. Peoples’ full proposal was estimated to cost $12.8 billion, and a recent report by the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and industry analysts Groundwork Data found that it would leave consumers battered by serial record-breaking rate hikes over the next 15 years. In response to the ruling, CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz made the following statement: We thank the Commission for protecting consumers against the spiraling costs and intractable waste that have plagued Peoples Gas’ pipe-replacement program from its inception. For years, Peoples has sought to pad the costs of its SMP with unwarranted expenditures that inflate heating bills for consumers. Today, state regulators made clear that the company must justify its spending going forward. By approving only a portion of the pipe-replacement program, the Commission adopted a more cost-conscious, incremental approach to modernizing Peoples’ system that spares Chicago families, who are already engulfed in a heating affordability crisis, from more unnecessary financial grief. Peoples was threatening to compound their plight by proposing another pipe-replacement spending binge that would have subjected consumers to recurring record-breaking rate increases over the next 15 years, according to a study CUB released late last year. But with today’s ruling, which limits Peoples discretion to replacing only the oldest, most vulnerable parts of its system, regulators stifled spending on work the utility couldn’t justify as a demonstrable safety need. In doing that, they refused to succumb to bullying and pressure tactics that Peoples and its allies unleashed on them repeatedly over the past year. Background: In November 2023, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) slashed Peoples Gas’ proposed rate hike by $100 million and paused its over-budget, behind-schedule pipeline-replacement program out of concern for how expensive the program has been for Peoples Gas customers. The ICC launched an investigation of the program’s management and they ruled on that probe on Thursday, Feb. 20. Launched in 2011, the Peoples Gas System Modernization Program, or SMP, is the company’s plan to replace pipes underneath Chicago. Customers pay for this work through their gas bills. The mismanaged SMP has become so expensive to customers that it has sparked a heating affordability crisis in Chicago. Consistently about 1 in 5 customers are more than 30 days behind on their gas bills. In October 2024, CUB came out with a report that found that unless the ICC reins in reckless spending by Peoples Gas it will be a financial disaster for Chicago gas customers. Read more at PeoplesGasBoondoggle.org. CUB’s 2024 study found that if Peoples Gas would be allowed to spend at the pace it wants the utility would need a series of rate hikes averaging nearly 7 […]

The post CUB applauds ICC for pumping brakes on controversial Peoples Gas Pipe-Replacement Program appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

Joint News Release: Consumer Groups Launch Major TV Ad Campaign Urging Public to Oppose Record-Breaking Peoples Gas Rate Hikes

Jim Chilsen — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 13:01:03 +0000

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 of the news release, and read the story in the Chicago Sun-Times.) The nearly $1 million campaign, combining broadcast television spots and digital ads, is sponsored by the Utility Information Alliance (UIA) and backed by the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), Faith in Place Action Fund, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC), People for Community Recovery, and Sierra Club Illinois Chapter. (Note: CUB and the other groups did not contribute to the ad purchase–we helped create the content and reviewed it.) The campaign comes as Peoples Gas seeks Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approval of a plan to complete the utility’s controversial pipe-replacement program – a bid that would cost consumers nearly $13 billion and subject them to recurring waves of rate hikes that would each surpass the record-setting increase the company instituted just last year, according to a recently released study by CUB and energy industry research firm Groundwork Data. That report also found that Peoples customers would be forced to pay off the costs of the utility’s proposed spending spree on pipe-replacement for the next 75 years. The 30-second TV commercial, which denounces Peoples’ proposal as a “boondoggle,” and urges Peoples customers to voice their opposition to the ICC, will air in the Chicago and Springfield markets on all major broadcast networks starting January 22nd. The ad begins: “Peoples Gas. They keep pushing to raise your utility bills to pay for their $13 billion boondoggle. And if they win, it’ll be like giving them a blank check. Your heating bills could double.” The ad continues to lay out how consumers will face rate increase after rate increase, stating: “Customers could face yearly price hikes through the year 2040. All while they keep making record profits.” The 30-second spot closes with a call to action “The ICC has already stopped them once, so speak up and tell the ICC to shut down these unfair rate hikes again.” “For the groups sponsoring the ads, the scale of this campaign is unprecedented, but so is the magnitude of the threat looming over Peoples Gas customers,” said CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz. “We thank the ICC for launching an investigation into the pipe-replacement program, and we urgently need regulators to hold Peoples’ spending in check, because otherwise the results would be catastrophic for consumers.” Funding for the ads was provided by UIA, a charitable non-profit organization founded in 2023 to drive innovation and excellence across the utility sector, increase utilities’ accountability to the public they serve, and ensure they affordably meet their community’s current and future needs. The ads debut one week after ratepayer advocates delivered to the ICC 5,000 public comments urging reform of Peoples’ ongoing effort to overhaul its entire network of underground pipes. Known as the System Modernization Program (SMP), the project has been plagued by controversy since its inception, incurring […]

The post Joint News Release: Consumer Groups Launch Major TV Ad Campaign Urging Public to Oppose Record-Breaking Peoples Gas Rate Hikes appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

News Release: Groups deliver more than 5,000 public comments calling for reform of Peoples Gas pipe replacement program

Elizabeth — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:30:11 +0000

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 the city, we continue to oppose Peoples Gas’ relentless requests for ratepayers to foot the bill for its failed pipeline-replacement program,” said Al Hollenbeck, State President of AARP Illinois. “At a time when older adults are already struggling to pay skyrocketing gas bills and are having to make tough choices about whether to heat their homes or skip prescriptions and basic necessities, Peoples Gas is asking them to give more toward a program that is already vastly overbudget, behind- schedule and has yet to show any measurable improvement in the safety of the system.” The pipe replacement program, cost estimates for which have grown from $1 billion to more than $12.8 billion, was the primary driver of the record $305 million Peoples Gas rate hike approved in November 2023, as well as six consecutive years of record Peoples Gas profits. As part of the 2023 rate decision, the ICC paused the pipeline program and launched an investigation (Docket 24-0081) into how it was managed. “The mismanaged Peoples Gas pipe-replacement program has been a financial disaster for Chicago residents, and it’s frightening to think it could get even worse if state regulators don’t rein in the utility’s reckless spending,” CUB Outreach Director Ivonne Rychwa said. “We join the thousands of consumers who have signed petitions to urge the ICC to overhaul the pipe-replacement program so that Peoples Gas efficiently replaces unsafe pipes and doesn’t use the program as simply a tool to pad its profits.” A draft decision in the investigation would allow Peoples Gas to resume its troubled program without implementing meaningful reforms. The proposed order, authored by two Administrative Law Judges, would also require that the program speed up in order to conclude by 2035. To do so, Peoples Gas would likely need to spend an estimated $550 to $650 million per year, more than twice the average level of annual spending that was the primary driver of Peoples Gas’ record-breaking rate hike in 2023. “The Peoples Gas pipe replacement program prioritizes methane gas system expansion over public safety, driving up our bills and unnecessarily expanding fossil fuel infrastructure without cost-effectively making us safer,” said Illinois PIRG Director Abe Scarr. “We join the thousands of Peoples Gas customers calling on the ICC to reform the program to cost less, make us safer, and facilitate the transition to clean energy.” The final ICC decision will likely be different. In recent high profile proceedings, the five members of the commission have significantly amended proposed orders to take tougher positions towards utilities. Oral argument is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29 and a final decision is expected in February.

The post News Release: Groups deliver more than 5,000 public comments calling for reform of Peoples Gas pipe replacement program appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

CUB statement: Regulatory judges’ proposed order would give Peoples Gas ‘license to inflict staggering rate hikes’

Jim Chilsen — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 10:02:40 +0000

On Tuesday, administrative law judges for the Illinois Commerce Commission issued a Proposed Order in the regulatory body’s investigation (Docket No. 24-0081) into Peoples Gas’ System Modernization Program (SMP), a comprehensive overhaul of Chicago’s underground gas pipes that has been engulfed in controversy since its inception. (Read a pdf of the statement here.) The Proposed Order, the equivalent of a recommendation to regulators on how they should rule on the case, would entitle Peoples Gas to spend an additional $7.2 billion on pipe-replacement – a sum that would unleash a series of record-breaking rate hikes on Chicago families over the next 15 years, according to a recent report by the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and Groundwork Data. In response to the Proposed Order, Citizens Utility Board Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz made the following statement: This recommendation would give Peoples Gas a license to inflict staggering rate hikes on more than 800,000 Chicago households, as our recent report demonstrated. We urge the full Illinois Commerce Commission to protect consumers already suffering from spiraling heating bills and flatly reject this Proposed Order. It’s deeply troubling that, despite Peoples failing to show the data behind its secretive system for prioritizing pipe-replacement spending, the Proposed Order nonetheless would permit the utility to practice business as usual on a program with a glaring decade-long record of financial excess and gross inefficiency that has cost consumers a fortune. We’re hopeful that the full Commission will continue to assess Peoples Gas’ cascading rate hike proposals with a critical eye. Business as usual is simply unaffordable.

The post CUB statement: Regulatory judges’ proposed order would give Peoples Gas ‘license to inflict staggering rate hikes’ appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

Peoples Gas Customers Face Onslaught of Record-Breaking Rate Hikes Under Disputed Pipe-Replacement Program, Report Finds

Elizabeth — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:30:59 +0000

A controversial proposal by Peoples Gas to continue overhauling its network of underground pipes would leave Chicagoans inundated by recurring rounds of record-breaking rate hikes over the next 15 years, a landmark report released Tuesday found. Meanwhile Peoples customers would continue to incur charges associated with the pipe-replacement program for another 75 years – or more than six decades after the utility currently estimates it will finish revamping its system of gas mains, according to the report. (The study can be found at PeoplesGasBoondoggle.org.) The study was conducted by the industry research firm Groundwork Data on behalf of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB). The analysis comes as the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) is probing Peoples’ management of its program to install new mains throughout its service territory. “Peoples Gas customers are already suffering, but this report gives grim new details on just how devastating the utility’s reckless spending will be on its customers if state regulators don’t rein in the utility,” CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz said. “We urge state regulators to review these findings and take steps to hold Peoples Gas accountable and put wise safeguards on their spending. The state of Illinois must begin to plan for a thoughtful, managed transition to cleaner, more affordable heat, instead of pouring billions more dollars into a methane gas system that is dirty, expensive and hazardous to the climate.” The report finds that the pipe project – known as the System Modernization Program (SMP) – could inflict unprecedented costs on consumers, beyond the rapid increase in heating bills they have already experienced over the last decade. Those projected impacts include: An unsustainable barrage of rate hikes. Completion of the SMP would cause rates for the utility’s more than 800,000 customers to escalate at an annual rate of nearly 7 percent, or nearly 50 percent higher than the record-setting pace that those fixed monthly heating costs have surged during the past decade. Those seismic increases would show up on customer bills in the form of delivery charges that would double from the current annual average of $1,206 to $2,424 by 2040. A 75-year legacy of costs for consumers. While Peoples currently projects that the SMP could conclude by 2040, the report found that its customers would incur residual costs for financing the project until the year 2100, or another 60 years after the physical work is purportedly finished. Risks of spiraling costs as Peoples Gas sheds customers. As rate increases attributed to the SMP multiply, and cleaner heating sources compete for market share, Peoples is vulnerable to customer attrition. Those defections would leave a shrinking number of Peoples ratepayers to digest the soaring cost of the SMP, an imbalance that could send costs skyrocketing for those who remain captive to the utility’s system. For instance, the researchers estimated that a 2 percent annual decline in the current volume of Peoples customers would cause delivery charges on average bills to soar by 188 percent, to $3,437 a year, by 2050. Higher-than-estimated program price tag. While cost estimates for the entire scope of the SMP have soared exponentially – from $2 billion at its […]

The post Peoples Gas Customers Face Onslaught of Record-Breaking Rate Hikes Under Disputed Pipe-Replacement Program, Report Finds appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

News Release: Groups launch city-wide campaign to engage Chicagoans on Peoples Gas pipe replacement investigation

Jim Chilsen — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 18:12:22 +0000

CHICAGO – A coalition of consumer, environmental and environmental justice organizations gathered outside Peoples Gas headquarters today to announce an intensive grassroots campaign to educate and engage thousands of Chicagoans on the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) investigation into the troubled Peoples Gas pipe replacement program. (Read the full news release here. Since the release, PIRG has put out this helpful summary of the ICC investigation.) Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) is dispatching teams of canvassers into Chicago neighborhoods to have one-on-one, face-to-face conversations with over 3,000 Peoples Gas customers. AARP Illinois, CUB Illinois, and other groups will also be engaging their members and the public. Through this activity the groups plan to collect and submit over 5,000 public comments to the ICC investigation. “Chicagoans have been forced to pay for the failing Peoples Gas pipe replacement program for too long,” said Natale Plevinsky, Citizen Outreach Director for Illinois PIRG. “It’s time to give Peoples Gas customers a voice, and that is what we will be doing through our grassroots campaign for safer, cleaner energy.” The pipe replacement program, cost estimates for which have grown from $1 billion to up to $11 billion, was the primary driver of the record $303 million Peoples Gas rate hike approved in November 2023. The Peoples Gas parent company has also credited the program as a primary reason it made six consecutive years of record profits. “On behalf of AARP’s 250,000 members in Chicago and all older adults in the city, we continue to oppose Peoples Gas’ incessant requests for spending increases that directly benefit their bottom line, while placing an undue financial burden on customers,” said Al Hollenbeck, State President of AARP Illinois. “At a time when the rising cost of living has forced older adults to miss doctor’s appointments, skip prescriptions and struggle to afford basic necessities, Peoples Gas is asking them to give more toward a program that is already vastly over budget and behind schedule.” As part of the November rate decision, utility regulators at the ICC paused the pipe replacement program and launched a formal investigation into the program, expected to conclude in January 2025. “Peoples Gas is bankrupting customers, and we hope to give Chicagoans a voice to urge state regulators to rein in reckless Peoples Gas spending and hold the utility accountable,” said CUB Communications Director Jim Chilsen. “We need to tell Peoples Gas and all utilities in the state: Stop treating customers like a money machine.” Despite already having spent billions of dollars on the program, a 2020 study found pipeline failure rates are not decreasing. Expert witness testimony filed in June detailed multiple fundamental flaws in Peoples Gas’ pipe safety approach. “As a young person, the problems we are inheriting can seem overwhelming. But I have seen the difference I can make by talking to people face-to-face and giving them the opportunity to get involved,” said Damarian Miller, a canvasser in Illinois PIRG’s campaign office. “Chicagoans are fed up with paying ever higher gas bills for a wasteful program designed to keep us hooked on fossil fuels that pollute our homes.” Peoples Gas customers can […]

The post News Release: Groups launch city-wide campaign to engage Chicagoans on Peoples Gas pipe replacement investigation appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

Buried in $493M in overdue bills: ICC database shows urgency of Illinois reining in big utilities

Elizabeth — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:57:43 +0000

In one month alone, major electric, gas and water utilities in Illinois reported that more than 1.3 million of their customers were buried in $493.6 million in debt, according to April numbers the companies were required to file with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). “A lot has changed over the past 40 years, but one thing stays the same: Utility greed,” CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz said. “These numbers show the urgency of fighting reckless utility spending.” Last year, Ameren Illinois, ComEd, Nicor Gas, North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas slammed their customers with a record $2.9 billion in rate-hike requests. Consumer advocates helped push back $1.6 billion in higher rates. But the utilities still secured rate hikes, and in 2024, CUB’s team is battling about $172 million in additional rate hikes proposed by water utilities. In addition to staffing a hotline (1-800-669-5556) to take consumer complaints about utility bills (see story below) and holding hundreds of free events to show people how to cut costs, CUB is fighting utilities on several fronts: CUB is challenging the Aqua Illinois ($19.2 million) and Illinois American Water ($152.4 million) rate-hike requests. The ICC rejected ComEd and Ameren plans to upgrade the power grid—for failing to show how they would be cost-effective. Now, CUB is reviewing the new plans to challenge excessive spending. CUB also is fighting excessive spending by gas utilities, as a new report predicts a possible catastrophe for our future gas bills. CUB is pushing reforms in Springfield: The “Water Affordability and Accountability Act,” for example, would help reduce water bills by eliminating the “QIP” surcharge. Also, the “Utility Affordability Act” would stop utilities from charging customers for certain self-serving expenses, including the costs of outside lawyers utilities hire when they push for rate hikes. What can you do? Sign CUB’s petition against the Aqua hike, and file a public comment with the ICC. Sign CUB’s petition against the Illinois American hike, and file a public comment with the ICC. Sign CUB’s petition against excessive electric-utility spending. Sign CUB’s petition against excessive gas-utility spending.

The post Buried in $493M in overdue bills: ICC database shows urgency of Illinois reining in big utilities appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.

Statement: CUB applauds ICC for holding the line on Peoples Gas, as regulators thwart utility’s renewed bid for inflated spending on pipe-replacement

Jim Chilsen — Thu, 30 May 2024 19:01:38 +0000

CHICAGO—Last November, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) reduced Peoples Gas’ proposed rate hike by about $100 million and ordered the utility to pause its controversial and financially bloated pipe-replacement program – known as the System Modernization Program (SMP) – pending further review to determine whether it could substantiate the need for $265 million in 2024 investments it proposed for the initiative. (Read a pdf version of this statement.) The ruling appeared to stagger Peoples Gas, which had become accustomed to habitually increasing charges on customer bills to pay for a pipe-replacement program with an estimated price tag that had ballooned from about $2 billion to $11 billion and come under widespread criticism for reckless spending. Earlier this year, the utility asked the ICC to restore $145 million of the $265 million in pipe-replacement expenditures that regulators had halted. This would have increased customer rates by about $7.9 million. On Thursday, the ICC rejected all but a small fraction ($1.6 million) of Peoples’ request. In response, Sarah Moskowitz, Executive Director of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), issued the following statement: We commend the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) for rejecting a six-month onslaught of scare-mongering and misinformation that Peoples Gas and its allies hurled at regulators in the hopes of pressuring them to restore much of the controversial pipeline-replacement program’s 2024 spending. With today’s decision, the ICC reaffirmed that utilities should be prohibited from charging customers for expenditures they can’t justify. This is the fundamental principle of public accountability that regulators upheld last year when they instituted a moratorium on investment in Peoples Gas’ System Modernization Program (SMP), an initiative rife with mismanagement and cost overruns. But rather than heed this principle and comply with the ruling, Peoples Gas instead attempted to coerce the ICC into restoring $145 million in spending on the disgraced SMP by exaggerating how much of the pipe-replacement work qualified as an “emergency” safety repair. The ICC saw through the smokescreen. As regulators know, Peoples Gas is already legally required to administer emergency pipeline repairs, and last year’s ruling halting SMP expenditures did not in any way change that mandate. Today, the ICC unanimously approved only an additional $28.5 million dollars “out of an abundance,” while rejecting the bulk of the spending Peoples sought to make under the false pretense of an urgent safety need. With this decision, the ICC again displayed the kind of regulatory scrutiny needed to protect Illinois consumers from excessive costs. And to be sure, Peoples customers still desperately need the ICC to demand even more accountability of Peoples Gas. Even with today’s ruling, Chicagoans remain engulfed in an affordability crisis wrought by the Peoples’ indiscriminate spending on pipe-replacement. As of April 30th, Chicagoans were more than $109 million in debt to Peoples Gas, as the fixed monthly costs of heating bills flirted with the $50 mark before customers used a trace of fuel. We urge the Commission to continue to police Peoples Gas and all utilities with this same scrupulous eye. Additional Notes: Quotes from Thursday’s ICC meeting: ICC Chairman Doug Scott: “The edits (by the Commission to the proposed order) further raise concern that the […]

The post Statement: CUB applauds ICC for holding the line on Peoples Gas, as regulators thwart utility’s renewed bid for inflated spending on pipe-replacement appeared first on Citizens Utility Board.