Michael Giberson
As the fine folks at the Energy Legal Blog report: Illinois Considers Continuation of Retail Rate Freeze. Back in 1997, Illinois politicians cooked up the Illinois Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law, no doubt with ample input from industry and consumers in the state. The law mandated retail rate reductions of up to 20 percent and a multi-year freeze on rates that has already been extended once. Now legislators, continuing to lament the lack of competition, would like to vote themselves and other retail consumers another three years of frozen rates.
Legislators still love the customer choice thing, they just aren’t ready to commit. Or, as LL Cool J put it:
i know i said i would roll with you,
put my lifestyle on hold for you,
all them sweet things that i told you…
this conversation is overdue…
freeze!getting too wild to respect the vow,
i just ain’t ready to settle down,
my name too big in the ghetto now…
freeze!feels like i’m ready when i’m holding you,
but it’s so many honey’s what i’m sposed to do?
keep sending them apology notes to you?
freeze!
Amazing what you can find with Google, a moment or two of time, and a willingness to quote LL Cool J in a serious discussion about boneheaded legislative action.
i kno it’s rough but i need your support,
you said it all last time that we faught,
so don’t talk baby hold that thought and…
freeze!don’t change…
don’t go…
don’t leave…
just freeze!
Of course Illinois state legislators still want customer choice — didn’t they make it clear back in 1997? — it’s just, you know, now is not the right time to settle down, is all they’re saying.
Additional background from the Energy Legal Blog here and here. Some of Lynne’s comments about Illinois retail rate policies are here, here, and here. Lyrics to LL Cool J’s song, “Freeze,” available widely on the internet. Just Google it.