Officials: Proposed gas rate hike ‘unfair’
(The Center Square) – A Chicago-area utility company wants a hike for ratepayers that hinges on approval by the state, but local officials and state lawmakers say it’s a move intended to increase profits at the expense of ratepayers.
Peoples Gas delivers natural gas to residences and other customers exclusively across the city of Chicago and has asked the Illinois Commerce Commission to approve a $144 million rate hike.
Maria Hadden, alderman for the city’s 49th Ward, laid out the group of advocates and elected officials’ opposition to the hike at a news conference Tuesday.
“People’s Gas has continuously asked for rate hikes and the justification that they give for their rate increases when they go to the state governing board to get these permissions is because they say they’re not making enough profit. For the last several years, they have sent record profits,” Hadden said.
Jim Chilsen, communications director with the consumer advocacy group Citizens Utility Board, said the issue isn’t solely with record profits but also how the company is operating state mandated programs.
“This profit-hungry utility has put their customers through financial hell over the years. The statistics tell a grim story of utility greed. People’s gas is reckless and unnecessary spending in its pipeline program has helped raise rates by $499 million or 98% over the last 15 years,” Chilsen said.
Chilsen said the parent company of Peoples Gas, the Milwaukee-based WEC Energy Group, brought in $1.6 billion in profit in 2025.
According to the company, its Chicago customers total 898,000 out of the total 3.3 million served across the Midwest.
The hike request filed by the company in January was initially $202 million but was reduced to the current amount in July..
People’s Gas said the proposed higher rates are a result of an ICC requirement ity retire 1,000 miles of old iron pipes in the city, and the increase is needed to keep up with increased cost of infrastructure work and inflation.
Levi Orgas, an associate with the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, said the program has historically been mismanaged, inefficient, and wasteful of ratepayer funds.
“Peoples Gas’ own data shows that this program produces only one cent, a single penny of benefit for every dollar spent on it. It’s time to end the pipe replacement program as we know it,” Orgas said. “Aggressive pipeline replacement has been shown to undermine system safety. All of this waste is bad enough, but to make it even worse, by spending billions of dollars on pipe replacement now, Peoples Gas is forcing the next generation of Chicagoans to continue paying for gas infrastructure they don’t need.”
State Sen. Graciela Guzmán, D-Chicago, also signed a letter to the ICC alongside 19 other members of the General Assembly and 18 Chicago aldermen in signing a letter urging a denial.
The ICC is expected to decide in December.
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