Saturday, July 14, 2007

Illinois Legislature Sells Out to Utilities - No Price Roll-Back Planned As Utilities Rape Illinois

OK, if you have been following the saga of Faces you know that the Illinois State Legislature allowed Ameren and ComEd to more then double their utility rates since Janaury 2007. Both utitities have been pouring money in the legislator's pockets to insure that they (the utilities)will collect over $8 billion in additional profits over the next 3 years. Small businesses like Faces have been crippled by these utitity increases. One of the primary reasons that we were forced to close was because our electric bills would have exceeded $8000 to $10,000 a month this summer. Illinois legislators have failed the people and it looks like there will be no relief in sight. According to Stltoday, both utilities will be allowed to continue to charge the increased prices with no roll back or freeze. Their concession to the people of Illinois will be some sort of credit or rebate over 3 years of less then one billion dollars. So to be clear...the utitilites have bought the legislature like cheap whores and will be allowed to continue raping the people of Illinois to the tune of over $7 billion. Without some sort of fair and equitible roll-back of these prices, it becomes that much harder for us to develope a business plan that would insure that Faces could survive or prosper. We do not see how any Illinois small business will be able to survive without doubling or tripling the prices that they charge their customers.