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Sun-Times Editorial (excerpts)
September 25, 2006
Rate hike may be jolt, but don’t pull plug on process

In 1997, the Legislature sent us down a path to deregulation of the electricity market. ComEd’s rates were cut 20 percent and frozen for what turned out to be 10 years, with the understanding that at the end of the freeze, rates would be set by competition rather than regulation. The result? A 22 percent rate hike next year — and some wrongheaded calls for a return to regulation.

As it turns out, bills will go up 22 percent next year, about what ComEd expected, but far less than the dire predictions of the Citizens Utility Board and other critics of the auction.

And what option is there? CUB demanded an extension of the rate freeze, arguing that we should wait for competition to develop. But that is something like trying to put the genie back in the bottle. You can no longer simply freeze the rates we pay ComEd because that could force it to buy power for more than it could charge to sell it. You can’t force electric companies to sell power to ComEd at a cheaper rate. Finally, freezing the rate would probably just further delay the entrance of competition.