* Gov. Pat Quinn signed four consumer protection bills into law yesterday, including this one…

Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Wednesday to outlaw “cramming,” a practice in which third-party companies place unwanted an unauthorized charges on a customer’s phone bill.

The charges usually go unnoticed by consumers, who are typically billed anywhere from $5 to $45 for services ranging from calling cards to voice mail and extended warranties they never signed up for.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan estimates cramming impacts as many as 20 million households across America each year, raising $2 billion for companies she calls “scammers.”

* The governor made the announcement at the Citizens Utility Board office in Chicago. Here are the other bills he signed, from a Quinn press release…

House Bill 5025, sponsored by Rep. Joe Lyons (D-Chicago) and Sen. John Mulroe (D-Chicago) will help consumers resolve negative action on their credit scores by requiring public utilities to notify credit reporting agencies when a customer has paid off their outstanding balances in full. This measure will allow utility customers to be more quickly relieved of pressure from collection agencies and help them improve their credit scores. The law goes into effect Jan. 1.

Senate Bill 3170 sponsored by Rep. JoAnn Osmond (R-Antioch) and Sen. Suzi Schmidt (R-Lake Villa), allows townships to participate in electrical aggregation the same way counties and municipalities can under current law. Aggregation allows for greater group energy purchasing, which increases competition and lowers costs for consumers. According to the Illinois Commerce Commission, more than 90 municipalities have become power aggregators since 2010, which has allowed for greater consumer savings. The law goes into effect immediately.

Senate Bill 3811, sponsored by Rep. Karen May (D-Highland Park) and Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) protects the ability of certain groups to continue to benefit from “net metering,” which allows customers who generate their own renewable energy to sell excess power back to an electricity provider. The new law takes into account the increased aggregation and alternative energy sources more Illinois communities are now using. The measure provides that net metering customers will be treated equally regardless of the competitiveness of their local energy market. The law goes into effect immediately.

* Interesesingly enough though, CUB hotly opposes another bill that’s sitting on Quinn’s desk right now. Editorial boards throughout the state have been bashing the legislation for weeks. Here’s a representative sample from the Northwest Herald…

Gov. Pat Quinn should veto legislation passed by both the Illinois Senate and House that essentially will drive up costs for natural gas customers in McHenry County and across the state.

Senate Bill 3766 was approved in the waning moments of the legislative session that ended in May after significant lobbying by the Leucadia National Corp., which wants to build a $3 billion synthetic gas plant on Chicago’s southeast side.

Although the measure would create about 1,000 jobs in the short term, it forces Nicor Gas, which serves the suburbs, and Ameren Illinois, which serves downstate, to pay much of the costs to build and operate the plant. Nicor and Ameren also would be required to buy the much more expensive natural gas that this new plant produces.

This, in turn, would significantly drive up rates for all Nicor and Ameren residential and commercial customers.

A diverse coalition of Illinois businesses and environmental, consumer and agricultural groups oppose the legislation, including the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, the Sierra Club, the Citizens Utility Board, and the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois.

“No matter how you look at it, a bad deal is a bad deal. Leucadia would result in one of the largest rate hikes for consumers and businesses in Illinois history,” said Mark Denzler, vice president/COO, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.

* From CUB…

This is the second time Gov. Quinn could veto a pro-Leucadia bill. Last year, the governor got out his veto pen and forced the company to make concessions, applying a cap on rate increases and creating a $150 million fund to help soften the blow to consumers. But then Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, two Chicago-area utilities, dropped out of the proposal, saying the gas increases would be too punishing for customers. The exit of those two utilities led Nicor and Ameren to complain that its customers would now be forced to shoulder too much of the costs. State regulators agreed with Nicor and Ameren, but legislators responded with the current bill, which would force Ameren and Nicor to cover more of the construction costs.

* And considering all this public heat, it’s even more interesting that the Leucadia bill wasn’t mentioned by reporters during yesterday’s press conference. Raw audio…

Click to download

The questions were almost all about pensions.

* The other side…

But is has its advantages beyond jobs and $3 billion in industrial development in Chicago, says State Senator Donne Trotter.

“This project not only benefits the city of Chicago, it benefits downstate,” says Trotter. “It creates jobs downstate, utilizing one of our natural resources- coal.”

State Senator Marcus Evans adds it’s technology on which Illinois should get in on the ground floor.

“Currently, almost 100 percent of the gas for Illinois homes and business is produced outside of the state of Illinois; in some instances, outside of the country,” Evans says. “That’s billions of dollars each year that leaves our economy. Let’s build a clean energy project that keeps money in Illinois, where it belongs.”

The legislation commits the plant to using at least 35 percent Illinois coal. Labor groups and sponsoring lawmakers want Quinn to sign the bill before all plants like the Leucadia one are built in other states.