A group of businesses filed a complaint with state regulators last week alleging that Chicago electric company Commonwealth Edison improperly raised customer bills this summer.
The complaint – centered on a portion of the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act that allows utilities to recoup carbon mitigation investments – alleges the utility failed to follow the proper regulatory channels laid out in Gov. JB Pritzker's marquee climate policy.
The complaint was filed by the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, a trade group that lobbies for chemical businesses, alleging the change in billing will cost its roughly 100 member companies about $100 million combined between June 2023 and May 2024. Eight other groups are also listed as complainants, including Loyola Academy, a suburban Catholic school.
Read the ICC complaint
It's the latest salvo in the industrial sector's opposition to elements of CEJA. Other major business groups have long warned that CEJA could result in increased energy costs, especially to large industrial customers, which are among the biggest users of electricity.
The Illinois Commerce Commission will consider the complaint, which could set a precedent allowing the oversight agency to have tighter control over how fees are calculated. All five of the commission's members were appointed by Pritzker.
The fee at the center of the complaint is the "Carbon-Free Resource Adjustment," or CFRA. The complaint alleges the fee was calculated without proper oversight and asks the ICC to order ComEd to stop using CFRA to recover costs and reimburse the complainants for any fees already collected this year. ComEd began collecting money from customers using CFRA in June.
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