Marking 40 Years of Consumer Advocacy and $20 Billion in Savings, CUB Plans Year of Events To Help Illinois Consumers Protect Themselves Against Biggest Threats to Utility Bills In 2024

Elizabeth — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 15:18:20 +0000

The Citizens Utility Board (CUB), a consumer group that has helped save Illinois utility customers more than $20 billion, is marking its 40th anniversary by traveling the state to give consumers money-saving tips and warn people about the worst threats to their utility bills in 2024. CUB’s 40th Anniversary Utility Bill Education Tour will feature at least 300 free, online or in-person events designed to help people better understand their utility bills and how to reduce them. This will include staffing tables and handing out helpful money-saving tips at community events; holding webinars and in-person speaking engagements on saving energy, reducing robocalls and cutting TV costs; and analyzing electric, gas and phone bills at the consumer group’s popular utility-bill clinics. “We are honored to have served Illinois residents for the last 40 years,” CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz said. “For a consumer advocacy group that has helped save utility customers more than $20 billion, there’s no better way to celebrate an anniversary than to travel this beautiful state and give people helpful tips on how to lower their utility bills.” The Illinois General Assembly created CUB in 1983. The CUB Act gave the nonprofit, nonpartisan group the mission to fight for the rights of utility customers across Illinois—and since opening its doors in 1984, CUB has helped save Illinois consumers more than $20 billion by fighting rate hikes, winning rate cuts and refunds, and advocating for individual consumers. CUB challenges rate increases proposed by the major gas, electric and water utilities; in Springfield it advocates for legislation that promotes consumer protections and affordable clean energy; and across Illinois it staffs hundreds of events to help educate consumers about energy efficiency and other ways they can cut their utility bills. Based on its experience combatting high utility costs over four decades, CUB released a list of the top threats to Illinois utility bills in 2024: Rate-hike-hungry utilities. Major electric and gas utilities—ComEd, Ameren, Nicor, Peoples and North Shore Gas—pushed for a record $2.9 billion in rate-hike requests in 2023. CUB and other consumer advocates helped cut those requests by about $1.6 billion, but rampant spending by the utilities has been a major problem for Illinois consumers over the last decade. Bad alternative supplier deals. Many Illinois consumers are allowed to choose a company other than their utility to supply them with electricity or gas, but the market is littered with rip-offs. Illinois electricity customers have lost $1.6 billion to alternative suppliers since 2015. The utility, or a community solar offer, is likely your best choice. Inefficient homes. The federal Department of Energy says 10-20 percent of annual energy bills could be wasted because of drafts, air leaks and outdated heating and cooling systems. Taking advantage of no- or low-cost energy efficiency programs offered by your utility can help you make efficiency upgrades to your home and save hundreds of dollars a year. Illegal Robocalls (and other scams). Illinois is a top target for scam artists. In December, the state was bombarded with an estimated 147 million robocalls, about 21 percent of which were scams, according to YouMail, a robocall-blocking firm. In […]

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In 2024, CUB celebrates 40 years of fighting for consumers

Jim Chilsen — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 21:59:03 +0000

Remember how bad it was before the Citizens Utility Board (CUB)? It was the spring of 1983, and Gov. “Big Jim” Thompson was in a packed theater in southern Illinois pitching a tax increase—but people were more interested in what he would do about utility bills. What he said sparked applause from 200 Belleville-area residents. “Let’s have a citizens utility board,” said Thompson, virtually assuring that the CUB Act, then before the General Assembly, would become law. He would sign it less than five months later, on Sept. 20, 1983. It was the culmination of more than a year of hard work by consumers fed up with high utility bills, including 34-year-old activist Pat Quinn, who railed against “an unprecedented series of back-breaking” utility increases. He led a statewide referendum movement in favor of creating a consumer watchdog group for utility customers. At the time, the idea was gaining popularity nationwide thanks to consumer advocates like Ralph Nader. In Illinois, the headlines were dark those days. Facing criticism about cost over-runs, ComEd, which boosted profits by 35 percent in 1982, had a “continuing need for higher rates” largely fueled by power plant construction, the Chicago Tribune reported. The next summer, one Sunday front page warned: “Utility rates expected to double in 3 years.” There was talk of “a utility price disaster.” No wonder frustration was palpable. “Send the flunky home!” someone shouted as a utility official tried to speak at one community meeting. The birth of CUB came after advisory referendums were placed on the ballots of communities throughout Illinois, thanks to the petition efforts of citizens. In November 1982, Chicago voted 4-1 in favor of a CUB, and in April 111 Illinois communities followed suit—sometimes by a pro-CUB margin of 14-1. Such “whopping margins give us a lot of momentum to go down to the legislature,” Quinn said at the time. He was right: By late May 1983 the House and Senate, which had observed the results of the advisory referendums, had both passed the CUB Act, setting the stage for Thompson’s signing. CUB opened its doors in 1984. That year, the watchdog received a $100,000 state start-up loan, which the group paid back with, interest within two years. The rest is history. Quinn, of course, went on to serve as governor and CUB went on to help save consumers more than $20 billion.

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40th anniversary Archives | Citizens Utility Board

Marking 40 Years of Consumer Advocacy and $20 Billion in Savings, CUB Plans Year of Events To Help Illinois Consumers Protect Themselves Against Biggest Threats to Utility Bills In 2024

In 2024, CUB celebrates 40 years of fighting for consumers