Regulators cut Peoples Gas rate hike, pause funding for over-budget pipe replacement program

Peoples Gas workers replace a pipeline in Albany Park in 2019. Regulators have called for an investigation into the over-budget program. (Victor Hilitski/For the Sun-Times)

Peoples Gas will soon crank up the financial heat on Chicago customers, but not by as much as expected — and without sinking more money into the utility’s controversial pipeline replacement program next year.

State regulators on Thursday slashed a request from Peoples Gas to increase rates starting next year while slamming the brakes on a program that has seen costs balloon to almost six times the original estimate to replace the pipes that send natural gas to Chicago households.