ComEd's bribery and corruption cost its customers millions. We're calling for restitution, restored oversight, and reforms to ensure they can't do it again.
ComEd's bribery and corruption cost its customers millions. We're calling for restitution, restored oversight, and reforms to ensure they can't do it again.
Consumer Protection
Illinois PIRG and others go to work for utility reform
Illinois PIRG has joined AARP Illinois and the Environmental Law & Policy Center to form the Take Our Power Back coalition, which aims to win restitution, regulation and reform in the wake of the Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) corruption scandal. Since 2012, automatic utility rate hikes have produced record profits for ComEd while raising Illinoisans' electricity delivery rates by 37 percent.
Consumer Protection
Illinois enacts landmark bill to prevent predatory lending
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed the Predatory Loan Prevention Act into law — endorsed by Illinois PIRG and more than 50 consumer, labor, community and civil rights organizations — which will institute a 36 percent interest rate cap on consumer loans. Too often, payday loans trap borrowers in cycles of debt through excessive and predatory interest rates.
Consumer Protection
Exelon split is a good first step toward checking utility power in Illinois
Energy company Exelon's plans to separate its regulated utility business from its customer-facing power supply business will help curb the conflicts of interest that helped its subsidiary ComEd accumulate unchecked political influence in Springfield. But our state must do more to fully reform utility political power and its costly consequences for consumers.
Tell Whole Foods: Move Beyond Plastic
Whole Foods has led on plastics in the past, but the company recently got an "F" in a report by As You Sow for failing to tackle plastic pollution. Tell Whole Foods' CEO to get rid single-use plastics in its stores.
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Illinois PIRG is your advocate for the public interest, speaking out for healthier, safer, more secure lives for all of us.
News & Research
Report | Illinois PIRG
In the wake of the Commonwealth Edison corruption scandal, seemingly everyone has professed a commitment to end formula rates, a key policy won during the bribery scheme. As details of a compromise energy bill emerged in the final days of the legislative session, legislators and other parties to the negotiations have said that the energy bill ends formula rates. According to drafts of the legislation circulated in late May and early June, this is inaccurate on two levels.
News Release | Illinois PIRG
Omnibus energy legislation under consideration by the Illinois General Assembly this week maintains key formula rate policies, the value of which could be higher than the legislation’s reported Exelon subsidy, according to new analysis published today by Illinois PIRG.
News Release | US PIRG
Beech-Nut will stop selling all single grain rice cereal after Alaska state officials discovered high arsenic levels during routing sampling, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement released Tuesday.
Blog Post
We’re backing legislation to prevent the billionaire Sackler family from using the corporate bankruptcy of its company Purdue Pharma (makers of Oxycontin and other opioids) to avoid personal liability in ongoing lawsuits by some 24 state Attorneys General attempting to bring some justice to the families of the victims of the opioid crisis. Congress will hold a hearing Tuesday, June 8 at noon ET.
RESOURCE
Coronavirus update
In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, we’ve taken steps for all of our staff to work remotely for safety reasons. But rest assured, we’ll keep advocating for you as we work for a healthier, safer world.
Learn more about how we can work together to address the COVID-19 pandemic.