The commercial, in a foreboding tone, suggests that the lights may go out in Illinois if an electricity rate freeze is extended.
“We don’t need a California-style energy crisis in Illinois,” cautions a voice representing Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity.
It may sound like the campaign of a grass-roots consumer group, but it is not.
Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity gets most of its money from ComEd. CORE, as it is known, is a group of organizations and executives, many with ties to ComEd or the utility industry.
But ComEd’s name is nowhere to be seen as the voice-over raises the specter of the disaster to come if the Illinois legislature extends the freeze on electricity rates next week. The commercial has been running on TV stations around the state in recent weeks, and full-page ads have been placed in newspapers.
ComEd executives said they haven’t kept secret their connections to CORE, and that the group’s members have a 1st Amendment right to express their opinion.
But some legislators and consumer advocates say the group’s name gives viewers and readers a false impression about who is behind the ads.
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has filed complaints about the commercials, arguing the company should be forced to put its name on the ads. An administrative law judge with the Illinois Commerce Commission has ordered an investigation of the financial ties between ComEd and CORE.
“It’s corporate money trying to hoodwink the public,” Quinn said.
ComEd President Barry Mitchell said in an interview that the company has given almost $10 million to CORE since its inception in 2005.
CORE spokeswoman Avis LaVelle said ComEd is CORE’s primary source of funds, but she could not provide numbers.
Last fall, with the approval of the Illinois Commerce Commission, ComEd signed contracts to purchase power from suppliers. ComEd says it is bound by those contracts and the prices they set. For ComEd residential customers, the contracts mean an increase in their electricity bills of almost 25 percent.
The issue is expected to be raised next week in Springfield by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who wants to extend a rate freeze. Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) opposes Madigan’s plan, instead proposing a limit on annual rate increases.
The stakes are high. Consumers will see the steep increases in their bills next month unless the legislature takes action. But ComEd says if lawmakers extend the rate freeze, the company will be forced to pay more for power than it can charge consumers, causing a shortfall of $1.4 billion this year and spelling doom for the company.
LaVelle said CORE is primarily led by the utility companies but includes other entities that have a “real understanding about what was about to take place in Illinois as we reached the end of deregulation.”
“It doesn’t matter what you sell. If you have to buy it for more than you’re allowed to charge for it, you will soon go out of business,” LaVelle said.
Mitchell, the president of ComEd, said the utility supports many community organizations financially. Because ComEd serves all of Northern Illinois, “every single one of these entities is a customer of ours, so you can’t find anyone who is not a customer,” Mitchell said. “Just because that link may exist doesn’t mean they aren’t acting independently.”
Mitchell also took issue with arguments that the ads should disclose ComEd’s financial ties to CORE.
“Every organization that runs ads and performs activities doesn’t put a disclaimer on there with respect to all their funding sources,” he said. “That’s a violation of the 1st Amendment.”
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CORE’s origins
The organization was formed amid discussions about what would happen in Illinois once a decade-long electricity rate freeze expired this month.
