The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Chicago:
Electric Rates Up 24%

Mar 19, 2007

In January, ComEd, the Chicago area electric company, raised its rates by 24%, after they were frozen for ten years. Recent changes in the laws regulating utilities allow electric power companies to buy electricity from themselves. And ComEd rushed to take advantage.

Half of its electricity is generated by nuclear power plants owned by Exelon, which also owns ComEd! Exelon tells its stockholders that the cost of producing electricity from nuclear power has gone down in recent years, not up. Nonetheless, ComEd used the charade of purchasing power from itself to demand a rate increase.

ComEd told the people of Illinois it would have to go bankrupt if it didn’t get its 24% rate increase. Bankrupt? What bull! Its parent Exelon’s profits were up 29% from the year before, and the company gets a very high 17% rate of profit on its stockholders’ investment.

The only people who may be bankrupted are us–by these thieves!