Illinois lawmaker says relief to power customers could be near
By Kevin McDermott
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
Thursday, Mar. 29 2007

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A key state lawmaker predicted Wednesday that an agreement
with Ameren and ComEd to provide some relief to Illinois electricity customers
hardest hit by recent rate hikes could be announced as early as today.

State Sen. James Clayborne, D-Belleville, the Senate's lead negotiator with the
two utilities in the continuing controversy over recent rate hikes, said
Wednesday that he was "hopeful" that an announcement might be made today.

While Clayborne declined to provide details of the potential agreement, he
didn't deny speculation that it might involve more than $100 million in
givebacks from the parent companies of Ameren and ComEd to electric customers
hit with the highest rate hikes in the past three months.

That kind of relief package wouldn't necessarily involve a reduction of future
rates for customers — and in fact would likely be presented as an alternative
to forced rate rollback legislation that some lawmakers are trying pass in the
Legislature.

Clayborne did confirm that the proposal being considered in closed-door
negotiations wouldn't need legislative approval, but instead could be approved
by state power regulators. That would effectively cut out involvement by the
Illinois House, where anger at the utilities has already led to a vote to roll
back and freeze rates for three years, and a proposal for a state-run power
authority.

Electric rates from Ameren and ComEd, the state's two largest utilities, jumped
dramatically on Jan. 2, the result of deregulation after a nine-year rate
freeze. The utilities say the hikes are the natural result of the lifting of
artificially low rates that were kept in place by law for almost a decade. Both
utilities have seen their credit bond ratings reduced to junk status in recent
weeks as a result of legislative threats to refreeze their rates.

Critics say the utilities' rate hikes — generally between 30 percent and 55
percent — are more than can be justified in the current power market.

Ameren, which serves the Metro East area and much of central and Southern
Illinois, has come under especially harsh criticism after it quietly ended a
special lower rate that had been in place for decades for the owners of
all-electric homes, causing some of those homeowners' power bills to increase
more than 100 percent.

kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com | 217-782-4912