Protestors oppose double-digit ComEd rate
hike
By Aratee
Martin
Groups including Affordable Power to the People and Citizen Action Illinois recently rallied in front of Chase Bank on Dearborn and Madison Streets to protest Commonweath Edison's (ComEd) planned double-digit spike in utility prices.
“We are here to stop Commonwealth Edison’s outrageous demand for a 22% rate hike," said William E. McNary, co-director of Citizen Action Illinois. "This is the last thing we need right now with sky-high winter heating bills, record gasoline prices over the summer, and now a 22% rate increase for electricity.”
Sheila White attended the rally to raise awareness that low income families, the elderly, and people unable to work lack the means to pay higher energy bills. "How do you think they're going to afford it?” White asked. “It's just too much. Think about the little kids who are going to be cold because their parents can’t afford it.”
ComEd is a unit of Exelon Corp., one of the nation’s largest electric utilities.
“There is no competition for consumers, so we don’t have any choice,” said McNary. “We need a rate freeze that protects consumers against unnecessary rate hikes. We have an unregulated monopoly. The market isn’t working for consumers. When the market doesn’t work for consumers, it is the job of legislators to do something.
“There is
a proposed three-year rate freeze that has been passed out of the Illinois
House," McNary continued. "When they go back in the veto session we want
them to put that three-year rate freeze in effect to make sure consumers
will not suffer in January.”
If the House passes another rate freeze, "it will make it harder for ComEd to provide reliable energy to its customers because, by freezing rates, it will require us to sell the energy to customers at a rate lower than what we purchase it from the open market,” said Jeff Burdick, a spokesperson for ComEd.
“That deficit would require us to make cuts in other areas, including the ongoing investing we make in improving the system, increasing capacity, and general upkeep of our overall info structure,” he added.
ComEd said it needs the increase to compensate for “losses” after a 1997 rate freeze that ends as of 2007 and because its cost for buying energy will jump starting next year.
“Natural gas is going up, and the cost to conduct business has gone up, so that is one of the reasons why you are seeing the 22% increase,” said Arlana Johnson, senior communications specialist for ComEd.
In addition, the company’s current supply contracts expire at the end of this year. As a result, “we have to go purchase that power…at market rate,” explained Tabrina Davis, Exelon's director of communications. So the rate increase “doesn’t benefit the company," Davis said.
Those arguments did not impress another protestor, the Rev. Paul L. Jakes of the Christian Council on Urban Affairs, who asked all to remember “families like the Ramirez family, who had six children who died in a fire because they had to use candles to try to stay warm. There is no way I can support the rates going up 22%.
“This is a crucial time for our City and State, and it is time for us to call for the appointment of commissioners for the commerce commission who are pro the people and not pro big businesses,” added Jakes.
ComEd representatives said they understand the inconvenience of passing higher costs on to customers and have created the Customers’ Affordable Reliable Energy (CARE) program to help consumers adjust to increased electricity costs.
As Davis explained, "The CARE program…would phase in the increase over a period of time. Also under that program are a Low Income Assistance Program and a number of education tools for customers [who] want to better manage their usage.”
Davis also
mentioned ComEd sells fluorescent bulbs at a discount and offers energy
saving tips on its website such as turning off lights and electronic devices
not in use and covering windows.
“Over a two-year period we worked with the Illinois Commerce Commission and other interested parties to determine how we would secure power for our customers to serve them in 2007 and beyond that,” said Johnson. “We came up with an auction process that would bring in bidders that would supply the towers for us at market costs which would be the lowest available cost for customers.”
Curly Cohen, a member of Affordable Power to the People, compared paying utility bills to paying rent with Section 8 and asked, “Why don’t you take one more step and make utilities affordable? Because even without the rate increase, you can’t afford it.”
“What we need is people calling their legislators, especially the Illinois Senators, to make sure if the bill gets passed out of the House there are enough votes in the Senate [to send it to the Governor for his signature],” said McNary.
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