South West Illinois News

State Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) is one of several Republican lawmakers seeking rate relief for downstate Ameren customers who’ve seen their power bills more than double in the past year.

Bryant said the pressure on household budgets has Illinois residents making hard decisions.

“They've got to heat, they've got to eat or they've got to buy their medicine, and that's really what it boils down to,” Bryant said in a press conference. “The rate increases are because of many factors. But to put it simply, prices are going up because of some global market pressures and capacity shortage in the region.“ 

Bryant said the drive to embrace renewable energy is behind the rate hikes. 

“Basically downstate right, is now facing a capacity shortage as it moves away from traditional fossil fuels and towards renewables. So the unfortunate thing is the move to shut down their traditional energy suppliers has far outpaced renewables' ability to replace it. So the reality is simple, renewables do not have the infrastructure capacity to replace our current energy production and probably won't for two or three decades.”

The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) noted the rate hike earlier this year. The current rate is 116% higher than last year. “Ameren Illinois, the electric utility in Central and Southern Illinois, is only responsible for delivery and not supply. Thus, it does not profit off the supply portion of bills–Ameren simply passes along what they pay for supply, with no markup,” the CUB said.

The CUB cited several reasons for the price hike. "Natural gas prices have been at extremely high levels for more than a year because of multiple factors, including, most recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The high gas prices have now led to high electricity prices–because natural gas is often used to generate power."

The rate increase led the CUB to note this winter could be the costliest in history for Ameren customers. The typical Ameren Illinois residential customer has seen a $626 annual increase in their power bill. 

“Higher energy prices (electricity and natural gas) will continue to impact monthly utility bills into the winter heating season. The causes are varied but include a tight supply/demand balance, record-low coal inventories and high coal prices driving increased natural gas power generation, and a rise in U.S. natural gas consumption compared to 2021,” Ameren said in June 2022 when prices started rising. “We know this is frustrating for our customers; it's frustrating for us at Ameren Illinois, too.  Many people are facing challenging times, and no one wants to see higher energy bills.”

Ameren has filed paperwork to push power bills even higher, which saw immediate pushback from the CUB. “In one month, Ameren Illinois has filed for a $160.4 million gas rate hike and a four-year $435.6 million electric increase, and they couldn’t have come at a worse time,” CUB Executive Director David Kolata said in a press release. "This is awful news for Ameren customers who already were suffering under some of the highest electric and gas supply prices in Illinois history as well as earlier Ameren rate hikes. CUB will do a thorough review of these rate cases, and we will challenge every penny Ameren can't justify."

Radio host Corey Hall, a Saint Elmo resident, took to Facebook to decry the situation. “Apparently having working lights and heat in Illinois is unacceptable and we should all be sitting in the dark and cold,” Hall said, according to South Central Reporter. “Rates are the highest they’ve ever been, with a massive recent increase, and now they want me to pay more??!!”