New Illinois law would protect consumers from utility price gouging by private companies

A proposed Illinois law hopes to create more oversight on private companies to protect consumers from skyrocketing utility prices.

Residents of one condo building in Rogers Park have experienced this firsthand; they got into a contract with a private utility company and had to fight to get out of it. Their bills were exponentially higher.

Pat Friedlander, who has lived in the building since 1987, said she noticed that after entering that contract their gas bills more than doubled.

"It's a problem, this sort of unregulated selling of alternative energy," she said.

The Citizens Utility Board, an Illinois watchdog group, said they've heard this story many times before and increasingly often, especially at a time when they are tracking rising utility costs across the board.

"We are in an affordability crisis right now," said Anusha Thotakura, executive director at Citizen Action Illinois.

The new legislation being proposed is HB 4313, also called the No More Utility Bill Rip-Offs Customer Protection Act.

"Many constituents sign up with resellers thinking they are going to get a lower rate. Unbeknownst to them, contract renews and rates go up and they don't know," said State Rep. Kimberly Du Buclet, the bill's main sponsor.

She said her legislation will allow customers to be notified if rates increase.

"And it caps the percentage the reseller can sell the electrical price," she said.

According to the Citizens Utility Board, many customers like Friedlander are paying double, triple or more for their utilities. CUB said these consumer protections are needed to prevent unfair costs.

"It's absolutely necessary," Friedlander said. "I would hate to anybody else have to deal with this. It's a lot of money month over month to have over twice your utility bill."