You might have heard about or received anonymous mailers attacking your Chicago City Council member for “giving greedy utilities a monopoly on heating our homes.”
But those claims — which come from allies of Peoples Gas — are false. And false attack ads won’t help kids and seniors with asthma breathe easier in fossil fuel-burning homes, and they won’t create well-paying jobs. Make no mistake: Peoples Gas and its labor force today provide an essential service for more than 800,000 Chicago households. So instead of finger-pointing, we need to work together on clean energy solutions. The stakes are too high — our communities are counting on us.
With that in mind, a broad coalition of aldermen and community and business leaders are working together on a first step in a responsible, managed process to move away from dirty, expensive gas and embrace a cheaper, cleaner energy future for all Chicagoans.
The Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance, or CABO, is a necessary step toward a healthier, less expensive future through the building of new offices, large-scale residential multiflats, and high-rises with zero- to low-pollution emissions. Many other cities are taking similar action as the reality of the climate crisis becomes apparent. This is an opportunity for everyone in our city to work together to make our air cleaner and generate new job opportunities.
But Peoples Gas doesn’t want to be part of this coalition. Its resistance to solutions such as CABO isn’t really about the transition to clean energy — it’s about profits. Behind the scenes, the utility’s frustration stems from regulators scrutinizing its excessive rate hike requests.
Last November, the Illinois Commerce Commission made the unprecedented move to reduce a record rate hike requested by Peoples Gas by $101 million, pausing its pipeline replacement program. The program, which by its own internal documents and admission was not doing the job of replacing unsafe pipes, had ballooned from a $1 billion budget in 2007 to between $10 billion and $19 billion.
The city is facing an impending heating and utility affordability crisis as billions of dollars in spending overages in the Peoples Gas pipeline replacement costs have been passed on to its customers. This already has cost the typical Chicago household an average of $172 annually over the past few years.
This increased financial hardship means that approximately 50% of Englewood households are behind on their gas bills, with an average debt of $878 per family, according to the Tribune Editorial Board in November 2023. That debt forces families to choose between paying for heat, rent or groceries.
In that editorial, the board said, “The program has been over budget and underdelivered in terms of planned pipe retirement every year since its inception.”
Much of the billions of dollars in pipe replacement cost overruns found its way to Peoples Gas’ profit line. Between regulators pausing their pipe-for-profits program and city leaders looking to transition Chicago to a cleaner, cheaper energy future, Peoples Gas had enough, and its allies came after nearly half of the Chicago City Council.
Rather than argue over more false mailers landing in your home, let’s focus on building a clean energy future that works for everyone.
The federal Inflation Reduction Act created a first-of-its-kind, national-scale program, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, or GGRF, a $27 billion investment to address the climate crisis, create well-paying jobs and promote energy independence while delivering lower energy costs and economic revitalization to communities that have historically been left behind.
On top of the GGRF, additional initiatives are poised to add to those benefits for Illinois residents; the state of Illinois was awarded more than $430 million through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, which will be used to reduce climate pollution in industrial sectors, help buildings adopt clean energy and advance other climate projects. The Inflation Reduction Act’s Home Energy Rebates program will help low- and moderate-income households make energy-efficient home improvements that enable them to save on energy costs.
Chicago can tap into the Inflation Reduction Act and other investments to create jobs and make our buildings healthier for residents and less harmful to our climate.
The successes of fossil fuel-free buildings such as Salesforce Tower and the new Google building, which are designed to operate with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions, are proof Chicago can put union labor to work building a Chicago skyline that’s cleaner and cheaper to heat and cool, while making it a bit easier to breathe.
False attack ads won’t solve any of these challenges. What will help is collaboration and a focus on solutions. Together, we can ensure a healthier and more affordable and sustainable future for all of Chicago.
Angela Tovar is the commissioner of the Department of Environment and chief sustainability officer for the City of Chicago. Pastor Scott Onque is policy director at Faith in Place.
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