Senator to go ahead with electric rate bill
Bill would reinstate freeze for ayear
Thursday, April 19, 2007
SPRINGFIELD - State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, repeated Wednesday what he's been saying for weeks: He plans to ask fellow senators to vote on a proposal that would reinstate an electric rate freeze for at least a year."I have not changed. I'm still running my bill," he said.
Forby's plan, Senate Bill 1592, was written in response to the public outcry prompted by unexpectedly high power bills that some consumers have been getting this year.
An electric rate freeze that was part of the state's 1997 electric deregulation law expired at the start of 2007, and rates for customers of Ameren Illinois utilities and Commonwealth Edison have gone up as a result. For some people, power bills doubled or tripled.
Forby said he was not sure exactly when the measure would come up in the Senate, but it could happen this week.
"Sooner or later, they've got to come to my bill," he said.
Negotiations involving the utility companies and some senators so far have failed to produce an acceptable solution to help consumers, Forby said.
"It just went too long, so it's time to do something," he said. "That's the way I feel about it."
Forby said he isn't sure whether negotiations are continuing at the present time, "but I'll bet there'll be negotiation up to the minute the bill passes."
Ameren and ComEd oppose renewing the rate freeze. The Illinois House earlier this year approved a different piece of legislation that would renew the rate freeze for at least three years. That bill awaits Senate action.
Meanwhile, the president of the Ameren Illinois utilities told state regulators Wednesday that residential customers who haven't paid their power bills could be cut off as soon as Monday. But if the utility companies and lawmakers reach an agreement that avoids a rate freeze, the April 23 date would be pushed back, said Scott Cisel.
"We're still waiting to seek a constructive resolution to avoid the rate-rollback freeze bill that's pending in the Senate," he said.
Cisel and other Ameren officials appeared at an Illinois Commerce Commission meeting to update commissioners about the company's efforts to improve service reliability. That issue gained attention after separate wind and ice storms last year knocked out electricity to some consumers for days.
Commissioners criticized the Ameren officials' presentation, which dealt with such topics as improving tree-trimming, for lacking details and deadlines. Cisel said the company would return with the information the ICC wants.
