Illinois Attorney General appeal could lead to greater refunds for ComEd customers

Thank you @ILAttyGeneral @chicago @cubillinois for appealing the ICC decision that would allow ComEd to use creative accounting to **profit off of paying its federal criminal penalty** https://t.co/51cMoTB73e

— Abe Scarr (@abescarr) September 20, 2022

The Illinois Attorney General’s office, along with the City of Chicago and CUB Illinois, are appealing the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) decision regarding to ComEd’s consumer refunds relating to its bribery scheme.

Currently ComEd is set to return $38 million to consumers, an amount I’ve been quoted as calling “chump change” in comparison to the billions of dollars of increased revenues ComEd has raked in as a direct result of state laws passed while its bribery scheme was ongoing.

The Attorney General argued consumers should be returned an additional $7 million. Its not a lot more money, but the underlying principle is important: that $7 million represents additional profits ComEd has earned through accounting maneuvers when paying its $200 million federal criminal penalty.

The details of the accounting maneuver are a little complicated, and I’ll explain in a future post. Today, we’re appreciative that the Attorney General, City of Chicago, and CUB remain on the case.