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'It's greed': Groups want to stop Ameren rate hikes
Belleville News Democrat
March 09, 2010 • Article • BY MIKE FITZGERALD News-Democrat
Utilities (94)

State regulators should not only reject Ameren Illinois' plans for a $130 million increase in electricity and gas rates, it should force the utility to give back $6 million to ratepayers, representatives of the Citizens Utility Board and AARP Illinois said during a news conference Monday.

"We want to stop Ameren from getting another rate hike," said state Rep. Eddie Lee Jackson, D-East St. Louis.

Ameren Illinois -- which handles the distribution of power and gas for most people living in the metro-east area -- does not deserve a rate increase because it saw its profits more than double from last year -- from $51 million to $127 million, said Bryan McDaniel, a CUB spokesman.

"So this is not a company that is hurting," McDaniel said. "It's greed. I mean, everyone wants to live better today than they did yesterday."

"The shareholders' profit margin is increasing," Jackson added. "Based upon that, there is an increase?"

Leigh Morris, an Ameren Illinois spokesman, defended the proposed $130 million rate increase as an attempt to recover the actual costs of operations and providing reliable service.

Morris noted that Ameren Illinois -- which is legally separate from its corporate parent, St. Louis-based AmerenUE -- has tried to avoid the rate increase through a series of austerity measures, including an employee salary freeze, layoffs, deferred heavy equipment purchases and other cost cuts adding up to $55 million.

The rate increase is "to provide the revenue needed to build, maintain, improve and operate the electrical system that we have," Morris said.

The Illinois Commerce Commission is set to make its decision on Ameren's rate request in April. Ameren's rate hike proposal would affect more than 1.1 million ratepayers in central and Southern Illinois, and would include customers of AmerenCIPS-Metro East, Ameren IP and Ameren CILCO.

Ameren last fall had originally sought a $226 million increase, but reduced that to $130 million. An administrative law judge on Feb. 25 recommended that Ameren receive an overall increase of $56 million.