Mayor Emanuel called for Chicago to follow in the footsteps of suburbs that have dramatically reduced electric utility bills on Tuesday, and he wants a proposal put on the ballot.
Experts tell us it could cut in half the energy portion of the typical electric bill. In West Suburban Oak Park, a similar plan took effect last January. Electric bills dropped an average 10 to 15 percent, with some saving even more.
"Recently, it's been like $22 a month, instead of $40 or $50," said David Romano of Oak Park.
The Village of Oak Park told us residents have saved more than $1.4 million since January, when the village stopped buying electricity from Com Ed's corporate parent and switched to another supplier. The owner of one laundry told us he's saving about $500 this year, about the same as the coffee and donut shop on the other side of Madison.
"It's been excellent for Oak Park and residents and businesses," said KC Poulos, Oak Park Sustainability Manager. "We have projected that we're gonna save $4.5 million over the two year contract."
On a hot, humid day when air conditioners across Chicago were consuming huge amounts of electricity, Mayor Emanuel said he hoped voters in the city will soon approve a similar plan.
"I will ask for it to be put on the ballot. And then I will advocate for it, because I believe it will lead to lower utility rates for our residents. It has worked in other places," Emanuel said.
Several experts said that, if Chicago negotiated wisely this fall, the city could save consumers huge amounts of money. Com Ed's rates after Oct. 1st will be 8.3 cents a kilowatt/hour; residents of Oak Park now pay 5.79 cents; Chicagoans might end up paying just 4 cents in the current buyer's market.
"Our projection right now -- if they locked in right now -- would be about two to three hundred dollars over the course of a year for the average consumer," said David Kolata of the Citizens Utility Board.
Get a sense now why the mayor and key aldermen want to do this? Com Ed's rates are likely to come down next June 1, when its current long term deal for energy expires. Just to clarify, what's at stake here is the energy portion of your electric bill...typically about two-thirds of it, excluding taxes. The rest of the bill is what Com Ed gets for the use of its wires to transmit the energy and that's not affected by this debate.
