By: Diane Benjamin
WGLT published this story concerning the new electric aggregation contract both Bloomington and Normal agreed to: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-04-16/some-electric-bills-in-bloomington-normal-are-about-to-go-up
A friend sent me the letter Constellation Energy sent to all customers. It has no information about the new contract, but it does have the price customers paid through 12/31/24: .0785
The WGLT story rounds that number down to .07 and the new rate rounded up to .11.
The Town of Normal has the new rate at .10899: https://www.normalil.gov/1103/Electric-Aggregation
If you use 700KWh of electricity a month: (family of 4 probably uses much more)
Current bill: $54.95
New bill: $76.29
That is an increase of 38.84%.
The same friend also sent a the letter from the City of Bloomington. It claims the rate as of January 1, 2025 increased to .08277. That same 700 KWh will cost $57.94.
All of these prices are before taxes and fees that will add even more to bills.
The Bloomington letter states you can pay more for renewable energy!
See this summary on Bloomington’s website from the Ecology Action Center: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/24338/637870996870800000
Written three years ago, it notes that coal-fired plants were going offline after “scrubbers” were required to filter smokestack emissions. Coal was cheap; shifting to renewables increased costs. Nuclear energy is clean and cheaper than renewables. Remember when Illinois considered closing nuclear plants? Clearly, the goal was to make electricity more expensive and blame climate change.
Rent too high? If your landlord pays the electric bill rent will be increased. That is on top of the water rate increase in Bloomington May 1st.
The below is on NextDoor. I don’t know the writer so I’m no going to use the name. The writer did a lot of investigating and decided to opt out. The Bloomington letter also states you have to opt out by May 7th. Both municipalities automatically opt you in. Read the below and the decide for yourself. If you do opt out, future bills will likely come from Ameren.
Got my letter, logged in to their site to opt out, said page not available, tried it twice and yes I typed in the correct information. So have copied and am sending in the opt out form which is unfortunate as I was going to send in that postage paid envelope with a brick attached to it. Dang.
You do not need to opt out. It’s an opt in. If you do not opt in, nothing changes for you.
It’s opt out! Everyone is automatically in
The real question is Did the City do an RFP to take competitive bids? My city did not! I never opt in because if you have ever sat in a government seat and truly do your homework you know this process is riddled with corruption. Why didn’t the city take take competitive bids? It’s because they get “Administrative fees” from Constellations, I also want you think about the history of how this all got started. Think about how Mike Madigan cozied up to the energy companies. This whole ponzie scheme was created during his tenure. Opt out! Your bills will be cheaper. Trust me!
Got a similar letter from the Village of Heyworth. Old rate 8.279 and the new rate 10.899. I checked some alternatives and most were higher. Probably will stay with the municipal rate. Remember about 10 tears ago when Obama talked about climate change and stated the electricity rates will “necessarily have to skyrocket” to save the planet. We should have gone with more nuclear and / or natural gas fired power plants. However, that would have required common sense…
Given all this information and the lack of full disclosure by municipalities and power companies, it is easier to understand how some politicians become wealthy (Madigan comes to mind).