Customers pay for utilities’ lawyers and corporate donations. Advocates want to change that. – Capitol News IL

Consumer advocates are pushing for a change to state law that would bar utilities from collecting money from customers for those expenditures, liability insurance covering executives and for the cost associated with filing rate cases. The bill also explicitly bans charging customers for political contributions, a practice already disallowed in Illinois. The proposal, contained in Senate Bill 2885 and House Bill 5061, would also require public hearings whenever a gas, electric, water or sewer utility requests a rate increase.