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Consumer Victories

CUB Reacts To ICC Making Significant Cut To Nicor Gas Rate Hike

CUB issued the following statement responding to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) ruling on Nicor Gas’ rate-hike request: Any heating bill increase is too much for Nicor’s 2.3 million customers, who have been hit with four previous rate hikes in the last eight years – a period when profits for…...

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CUB Reacts To ICC Making Significant Cut To Ameren Gas Rate Hike

CUB issued the following statement Wednesday in response to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC)’s ruling on Ameren Illinois’ gas rate-hike request: Any heating bill increase is too much for Ameren’s more than 800,000 gas customers, who have already been hit by four rate hikes in the last seven years –…...

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Making a Difference: CUB Consumer Advocacy team’s good work saves people money

CUB’s Consumer Advocacy team spends most of their days answering people’s calls and emails about utility bills and service. In 2024, this team (Annie, Danielle, Sandra) handled more than 1,600 consumer inquiries, saving individual utility customers a total of $48,054. Below are examples of people whom we’ve advocated for in…...

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Support CUB on Giving Tuesday

Tuesday, Dec. 3 is Giving Tuesday, the international day for supporting nonprofits. And it’s a good day to support CUB’s work for clean energy, consumer protections and lower utility bills! Plus, today you could win an iPad! There are two ways to enter CUB’s Giving Tuesday iPad Giveaway: 1) Give a donation of…...

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Chicago Sun-Times: Here’s how the Citizens Utility Board has saved Illinois consumers billions (The group turned 40 this year but not everyone knows about the CUB’s role in representing ratepayers.)

By Stephanie Zimmerman Chicago Sun-Times Utility bills can be confusing, but the nonpartisan Citizens Utility Board of Illinois has helped save consumers an estimated $20 billion in blocked rate hikes and refunds over the past 40 years. Yet not everyone knows about the group’s role in representing ratepayers, says CUB’s…...

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CUB helps consumer get $23,288 refund!

CUB’s Consumer Advocacy Department this past spring helped secure a $23,288 refund for a Chicago business owner. Annie Warnock, CUB’s Bilingual Consumer Rights Specialist, took on the case of a small-business owner who was “distraught and confused” over high electric bills. The owner discovered she was with an alternative electricity…...

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CUB helps Sugar Grove couple secure a solar victory

We wish you a Happy Earth Day. It’s the perfect day to share this story about a victory in helping people secure clean and affordable energy in Illinois: Becky and Mike just wanted to install solar panels, but a local ordinance banning panels on front- or street-facing roofs threatened to…...

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Teacher says CUB website invaluable in battling alternative supplier ‘scamsters’

Carolyn helps teach English as a second language–but her lessons have gone far beyond grammar. One day a student mentioned to the Champaign-area teacher that her utility bills had gone through the roof. What Carolyn uncovered was a problem all too common for Illinois consumers. A salesman from an alternative…...

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CEJA set to deliver over $480 million in tax-related refunds

ComEd customers will get $434 million and Ameren Illinois electric customers $50.8 million in refunds over the next three years, under a plan called for by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) and OK’d by state regulators this summer. The case was tied to an ongoing dispute among the…...

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UPDATE: CEJA helps secure big tax-related refunds for ComEd, Ameren customers

Update: On July 7th, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approved a schedule for hundreds of millions of dollars in tax refunds for ComEd and Ameren customers. The refunds will begin to flow back to consumers through their power bills in 2023. This is an update to the blog below, which…...

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