Electricity

The Ecology Action Center in Normal urges Bloomington-Normal residents to stay in the municipal electric aggregation program even with hefty rate increases coming this summer.

There’s a lot of questioning and online pushback happening in Bloomington-Normal right now concerning the arcane subject of municipal electricity aggregation.

The veto of a law to end a moratorium on new nuclear power plant construction in Illinois sets up a battle in the fall veto session. In his veto message, Gov. JB Pritzker appears to be saying the bill isn't ready for prime time.

There's already a lot of consumer angst about rising electricity rates in central Illinois. Ameren Illinois said the average bill for households in this part of the state could rise by $500-600 this year. And when there's that much pain and that much stress, lawmakers get calls.

The Ecology Action Center is urging Bloomington-Normal residents to look carefully at the data before making a choice on whether to opt out of the city and town negotiated electricity rate for the next three years.

The City of Bloomington and Town of Normal have picked a new electricity supplier to serve residents for the next three years (July 2022-June 2025). So-called "aggregator" Constellation NewEnergy replaces Homefield Energy as the new low bidder for bundled power rates.

Ameren Illinois has won approval from state regulators to begin construction next year on a $21 million transmission line project that will stretch across…