by:  Diane Benjamin

As I predicted, Homefield Energy won the bid for aggregating Bloomington’s electricity.  Of course Ameren (parent company of Homefield) was going to bid low, that cuts out the competition faster than actually working for peoples business.

Worse is Bloomington’s claim they signed up for 100% renewable energy.  Unless the local bikers are going to hook themselves up to the grid to increase the amount of electricity and keep the flow level, Bloomington will NOT have anywhere near 100% renewable.

What is renewable energy?  Wind turbines and solar.  Does the wind always blow?  Does the sun always shine?  Is the technology even available to produce enough energy for Bloomington, and at a cheap cost?  The only way these technologies exist at all is with government subsidies, so even if you don’t see it, you are already paying more for power than you would without renewable.

The FACTS are:  renewable energy can not produce a level stream of electricity, they ALWAYS rely on either coal, nuclear, or natural gas as a backup.  Yes – Fossil fuels! (gasp)  Hope all the citizens who think they are saving the planet will still like what happens to their rates when Ameren’s competition is out of business in 22 months – that’s when the contract expires.

The citizens of Illinois were set up for high electricity rates and they fell for it when they voted for aggregation.  The best option you have now is to sign with a different supplier and opt out when your letter is received.  If enough citizens do opt out, Ameren won’t have their monopoly back.

See other suppliers available here:  http://pluginillinois.org/offers.aspx?said=2

See your current bill to determine what Rate Zone you are in.

One more note:

The City sent an email to the council so they would know who was chosen and the price:

From: Barb Adkins [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 12:33 PM
> To: City Council and Mayor
> Cc: David A. Hales; Todd Greenburg
> Subject: Electrical Aggregation Supplier
>
> At @ 12:15 pm, three bids came in: First Energy, Constellation and
> Homefield.
>
> Mayor Renner and I accepted the following terms: 22 months, 100 percent
> renewable and 0.04539 per Kwh!
>
> I wanted to make sure you had this information before I release to the
> media!

See anything wrong here?  Other than they think they will get 100% renewable, they forgot to mention Homefield won!  Wonder why?

Funny how they also didn’t release what the 2 other bids were.  So much for transparency!