As temperatures drop in Chicago, the fight over fossil fuels is heating up.
Since Gov. J.B. Pritzker overhauled the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) in March, its five members have increasingly shown utilities that they have the power. The ICC is normally known to approve utility rate hike and project requests, but the newest members of the commission have turned their attention toward Illinois energy companies.
The latest battle is over a multi-billion dollar, decades-long project to upgrade Chicago’s aging natural gas pipelines. Those pipelines are some of the oldest in the nation, with some dating all the way back to President Abraham Lincoln’s time. Last month, the ICC suspended that pipe replacement program.
“The ICC defied federal safety regulators, their own engineering study, and all common sense when they put a sudden, complete halt to construction work that everyone agrees is needed for the sake of safety and reliability in Chicago’s heating system,” says Marc Poulos, executive director of the nonprofit Indiana-Illinois-Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting.
“Chicago has one of the oldest energy delivery systems in the country. It has pipes in the ground from the 1800s,” said Poulos. “They are rapidly corroding. Many are at the very end of their useful lives. They need to be replaced as quickly as possible.”
The ICC’s decision comes as environmentalists and consumer advocates are calling for the government to invest in the transition to cleaner, renewable energy, instead of fueling money into aging energy infrastructure projects.
“There seems to be no limits to Peoples Gas’ greed,” said Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Utility Board, said in a statement. “Peoples Gas has tallied six straight years of record profits, and it just received a record rate hike last month, even as regulators set strict new limits on how much money the company can recover from consumers for its discredited pipe-replacement program. The notion that the company deserves more money is untenable on its face, and we will fight any new proposal for a Peoples Gas rate hike.”
Poulos argues the ICC ruling has created a regulatory mess that may put Chicagoans out of work.
“Peoples Gas and union construction crews work in every neighborhood in Chicago. The ICC decision will unravel the construction work already underway in at least 15 neighborhoods across the city,” he said. “With no time given to finish the work or even permanently close up large holes, several neighborhoods will experience torn up streets and sidewalks for the foreseeable future.”
