Consumer advocates at the Citizens Utility Board are urging state regulators to slash $63 million from a record-high rate hike request filed by Peoples Gas, arguing customers shouldn’t have to keep “bailing out” the natural gas utility for its over-budget pipeline replacement program.
Peoples Gas maintains that most customers’ bills would remain “largely flat” despite the $402 million rate increase it’s asking the Illinois Commerce Commission to approve, which it says is the cost of keeping Chicago’s natural gas system safe and reliable.
