Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin calls for a reduction to a requested utility rate increase by Peoples Gas at a June 1, 2023, news conference. Rosazlia Grillier, a resident of West Englewood and advocate for low-income families, is also pictured. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)
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‘Unprecedented’ number of rate cases pending before Illinois Commerce Commission

Millions of Illinoisans could see higher energy bills next year, but the size of those increases will be determined by a state agency that has recently had its oversight powers expanded.

(WTTW News)

Utilities companies like ComEd and Peoples Gas make money by delivering energy. The rates they’re seeking to hike are for distribution, including infrastructure like pipes and transmission lines, and the profit they can tack on to those costs.

(WTTW News)
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Politicians have blasted the notion of banning gas stoves after a federal regulator seemed open to it. It turns out, there are no plans to shut off the stoves for now — but there are significant concerns about their health risks.

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, joined at right by Arati Prabhakar, the president’s science adviser, announces a major scientific breakthrough in fusion research that was made at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, during a news conference at the Department of Energy in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced a “major scientific breakthrough” Tuesday in the decadeslong quest to harness fusion, the energy that powers the sun and stars.

(Pixabay)
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the agreement would strike a blow against climate change that scientists say has already begun to cause disasters such as floods and strong storms.

(Creative Commons /  © 2013, Jeremy Atherton)

Illinois environmental groups were quick to condemn the Supreme Court’s limits on the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and placed the state in opposition to the justices’ stance. 

Energy experts tell CNN that some power grid operators are not considering in their plans how the climate crisis is causing more extreme weather. (David J. Phillip / AP)

Power operators in the Central US, in their summer readiness report, have already predicted “insufficient firm resources to cover summer peak forecasts.” That assessment accounted for historical weather and the latest NOAA outlook that projects for more extreme weather this summer.

(Engin_Akyurt / Pixabay)

According to AAA, the current price of a gallon of regular gas in the Chicago Metro area is now $5.56, up from $3.37 one year ago. The price of premium is well over $6.00.

Emissions rise from the smokestacks at the Jeffrey Energy Center coal power plant as the suns sets, near Emmett, Kan., Sept. 18, 2021.  (AP Photo / Charlie Riedel, File)
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States that contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog, are required to submit plans ensuring that coal-fired power plants and other industrial sites don’t add significantly to air pollution in other states. 

A flare burns natural gas at an oil well Aug. 26, 2021, in Watford City, N.D. (AP Photo / Matthew Brown, File)

The administration said in a legal filing that a Feb. 11 ruling by a Louisiana federal judge will affect dozens of rules by at least four federal agencies. Among the immediate effects is an indefinite delay in planned oil and gas lease sales on public lands in a half-dozen states in the West.

(Pixabay)

Cook County is aiming to reach 100% renewable electricity by 2030, but can’t get there on its own. So it’s looking for a renewable energy developer, who would front the costs of building a solar or wind farm to generate green electricity for county buildings. 

FILE - An oil well works at sunrise Aug. 25, 2021, in Watford City, N.D., part of McKenzie County. (AP Photo / Matthew Brown, File)
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The long-awaited report by the Interior Department stops short of recommending an end to oil and gas leasing on public lands, as many environmental groups have urged. But officials said the report would lead to a more responsible leasing process that provides a better return to U.S. taxpayers.

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at the conclusion of the G20 leaders summit, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021, in Rome. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)

The $555 billion plan for climate spending is the centerpiece of a sweeping domestic policy package Biden and congressional Democrats presented Thursday, hours before the president traveled to Europe for another summit ahead of the climate meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Dr. Hoesung Lee, chair of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Alok Sharma, President of the COP26 summit, outgoing COP president Carolina Schmidt, Patricia Espinosa, UNFCCC Executive-Secretary and UNGA President Abdulla Shahid, from right, attend the Procedural Opening of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. (AP Photo / Alberto Pezzali, Pool)

As U.N. officials gaveled the climate summit to its formal opening in Glasgow, the heads of the world’s leading economies at the close of their own separate talks in Italy made pledges including stopping international financing of dirty-burning coal-fired power plants by next year. 

Activists from Extinction Rebellion use bike locks to chain themselves to a fence while holding signs during a demonstration outside the G20 summit in Rome, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021.  (AP Photo / Luca Bruno)

Leaders of the world’s biggest economies agreed Sunday to stop funding coal-fired power plants in poor countries and made a vague commitment to seek carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century” as they wrapped up a Rome summit before the much larger United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

(WTTW via CNN)

Thousands of Puerto Ricans are taking to the streets to protest massive blackouts. The island’s antiquated power grid has long been unreliable, and it was decimated by Hurricane Maria in 2017. This summer, officials hoped the privatization of the power grid by LUMA Energy would help.