With Central and Southern Illinois already besieged by high energy bills, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) announced Thursday the placement of full-page newspaper ads to alert Ameren Illinois customers about the company’s record rate-hike requests and excessive profit grab.
“We are rallying Ameren customers to speak out against this excessive profit grab that will drive our energy bills even higher,” said Christina Krost, Illinois Policy Senior Coordinator for Faith in Place, a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.
The ads are running in the State Journal-Register, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Belleville News-Democrat. They read in part, “Ameren just announced an all-time record profit. And our energy bills have never been higher. Now Ameren wants more guaranteed profits than ever.”
On January 20, Ameren Illinois filed the largest rate-hike request in company history ($436.5 million) before the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) and made spurious claims that clean energy legislation was to blame. Just nine days later, Ameren’s parent company announced a net profit of more than $1 billion in 2022. According to Macrotrends, Ameren’s 2022 Gross Profit of more than $5 billion is an all-time record.
The Ameren rate hike seeks to lock in huge profits by guaranteeing a return on equity (profit rate for shareholders) of 10.5%, well above what it gets now and higher than the 9% national average in the Integrated Utilities industry classification. The company is also asking for a $160.4 million gas rate hike, filed January 6, including a 10.7% profit rate for shareholders.
The ICJC ad continues: “THE TRUTH: Ameren’s profit grab will raise our gas and electricity bills through the roof…Corporate profit-padding and dirty, expensive fossil fuels are driving up our Ameren bills, not the transition to cheaper, cleaner energy.”
The newspaper ads close: “STOP THE EXCESSIVE AMEREN PROFIT GRAB. Tell Ameren to invest in clean energy, not excessive profits.”
You can access the full text of the advertisements here.
Please contact ICJC at news@ilcleanjobs.org to arrange interviews for more on this topic. Thank you.
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