ComEd Rate Freeze Passes, then Reconsidered

By Timmy Watson in News on Apr 21, 2007 8:40PM

"After today, I'm going to have to go home and take a shower," said Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria. This in response to Illinois Senate President Emil Jones orchestrated move to keep the Senate from adding ComEd to legislation that would have rolled back electric rates that went up in January.

The Senate voted 33-24 to add ComEd to the bill, which currently includes Ameren Corp. from Southern Illinois. Once the vote was completed another Senator introduced a motion to reconsider the vote. Under the Senate rules the vote is then in limbo until the Senate President is the sole person who can bring it up for a vote again.

Jones believes rolling back the rate hikes would essentially bankrupt the company. Fellow Democratic Senator Sen. Gary Forby, who introduced the amendment, had to make the decision to go forward with the bill without ComEd on it. According to the Crain's article, most in the House and Senate agree that the amendment is not likely to get passed. It will probably pass in the House and get sent back to the Senate where Jones will pocket it. Jones, instead, believes ComEd should provide rate credit and reductions to those where it is increasingly difficult to pay the bill. Our electric bill has been slightly higher the last couple of months, but it has led us to conserve a little more. Some people around the state have reported bills that have doubled or even tripled.