State Director, Illinois PIRG
Started on staff: 2002
B.A., Haverford College
Abe Scarr is the director of Illinois PIRG. He is a lead advocate in the Capitol and in the media for stronger consumer protections, utility accountability, and good government. In 2017, Abe led a coalition to pass legislation to implement automatic voter registration in Illinois, winning unanimous support in the Illinois General Assembly for the bill. In 2019, he co-authored “Tragedy of Errors,” a report documenting decades of mismanagement in the Peoples Gas pipe replacement program, and has built a large coalition to end wasteful gas utility spending. Before moving to Illinois in 2014, Abe worked as the state director for ConnPIRG, where he helped pass a landmark solid waste and recycling law. He also serves as a board member for the Consumer Federation of America. Abe lives in Chicago, where he enjoys biking, cooking and tending his garden.
Bloomington-based State Farm finalized a $182 million Illinois car insurance rate hike on Friday, adding $58 to the average customers’ annual bill. Combined with $388 million in State Farm rate hikes in 2022, car insurance rates for Illinois State Farm customers have gone up by more than half a billion dollars in less than one year.
Legislation to phase out the use of single-use plastic polystyrene foam foodware starting in 2024 passed out of the House Energy and Environment Committee Tuesday afternoon on an 18-8 vote.
Allstate is aggressively raising rates in Illinois and across the country, pointing to a need to return to profitability. But it sent more than a half a billion to shareholders in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone.
This week, WEC, the parent company of Chicago gas utility Peoples Gas, filed its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All Illinoisans want a healthier, safer, more secure future. Illinois PIRG works to find common ground around common sense solutions that will help make that future a reality.
