Ameren-Illinois says that false claims have been made about the Carbon Mitigation Program through the Clean Energy Jobs Act. Commonwealth Edison filed new rates with the Illinois Commerce Commission for utilities on April 27th that included an average of $18/month credit to their customers.
Director of Communications and Public Relations for Ameren-Illinois Tucker Kennedy says that the claims that Ameren opted out of the program is false: “The claims by some of the consumer parties and third parties are blatantly false. Ameren-Illinois was never involved in the negotiations on the Carbon Credit Program. We were never given an opportunity to opt in or opt out. These very same groups that were negotiating the legislation publicly stated that the utilities would not be involved in crafting the new law, and we were not at the table. This provision was written specifically to subsidize the Exelon facilities in Chicago, which are in a completely separate energy market from those of us in downstate. So, the legislation was specifically applied to electric utilities serving 3 million retail customers in the state i.e. ComEd, Ameren-Illinois has 1.2 million customers. This was not a law that was written for downstate and we were not able to opt in or opt out of that program.”
Kennedy says part of the problem is a one-size-fits-all approach to energy legislation for the state: “Downstate Illinois has seen a steady transition out of its base load power generation as we have started...
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