SPRINGFIELD, IL – State Rep. Dave Severin (R-Benton) says green energy policies supported by Illinois Democrats have shorted our energy generation capacity and led to summer electricity rate hikes. Rep. Severin is fighting back and demanding answers regarding the liberal energy policies that have harmed grid reliability and led to higher costs for consumers across the state. Illinois’ Citizens Utility Board, which advocates on behalf of utility consumers throughout the state, issued a press released on Thursday confirming that Ameren customers electricity bills will spike an average of about $37.62 to $45.98 per month from June through September.
In a Capitol news conference in early May, Rep. Severin joined House Republican colleagues, highlighting a letter that he and all House GOP members of the House’s Energy & Environment Committee sent to the chair and vice chair of that committee, requesting joint public hearings of the House Energy & Environment Committee and the Senate’s Energy & Public Utilities Committee.
“The citizens that I represent are about to experience shockingly higher electricity bills, and a straight line can be drawn from failed Democratic Green New Scam policies to the higher rates,” Severin said. “I have demanded public hearings of the relevant House and Senate Committees so we can get to the bottom of which policies are working and which specific provisions in our energy laws are failing the people of Illinois. Our citizens are already taxed to death, and have dealt with the disastrous inflation caused by out-of-control government spending for years now.”
Severin has been told by the chair and vice chair of the House Energy & Environment Committee that there simply isn’t time left in the Session, which adjourns May 31, to have public hearings on the energy cost crisis, and that any hearings will have to wait until June. Severin calls that deflection unacceptable, and says June hearings will be too late.
“Between the insane price spikes, grid reliability issues, and now a new administration, it is time for Illinois Democrats to abandon their irresponsible and costly energy policies. Get back to burning coal, give up on your climate alarmist cult, and help real people afford to turn on their air conditioner during these coming hot months of summer,” Severin said. “Working families, people on fixed incomes, and our job creators simply cannot afford to take on further financial burden due to the irresponsible, pie-in-the-sky, climate change alarmists who control our state government.”
###